[XP] Home network headache

[zeke009]

No matter what I try I just can not get this WinXP SP3 laptop to see the other computers in my father in laws home.

PC's involved

• WinXP SP3 - Dell Laptop <-- Problem child
  
• WinXP SP3 - HP desktop
  
• Win7 64bit - Toshiba Laptop
  

The desktop and Toshiba devices work just fine together, they can see the home workgroup and they can access one another without any incident. Now this Dell laptop, it's been a royal pain ever since he connected to the school wifi at his college. Since then, there is no working at home anymore without placing a manual entry in the HOSTS file.

It can access machines by ip address, but not by machine name. This is OK for awhile, but there are some apps that are slower as a results and they bring the laptop to a near stop.

I have tried the following without success:

• Removed network adapters and reinstalled
  
• Made sure Netbios was enabled on TCP/IP traffic
  
• Removed Norton Security Suite via the Norton Removal Tool
  
• Reset the Windows Firewall
  
• I even tried a MS FixIt thing! Microsoft Fixit 50393
  
• I've binged my google so much that I need a new keyboard :blink: :wacko:
  

The only thing that works is the HOSTS file. Anyone else run in to this and resolved it? I'm pretty frustrated with it right now.

[redvamp128]

Common Mistakes with XP in a network- (now just covering some basis)

Make sure you name the Computer-- (or it don't show up) http://www.home-netw...puter-name.html

Don't forget to create a folder-- turn on sharing- then place a simple 1 text file that says share.txt with text that says share (or something simple)-- I had a problem computer that I did 1,000,000 things including what you did until a friend suggested that one thing then poof-- It showed up-- don't know why it just did. Before with nothing in the share folder it just didn't show up on the network until then. (I am guessing it just needed something to share)

Also whatever you want to share-- make sure to add users and groups-- (on my home network I had to add myself and set a password on the folders)

also check the name of the network (workgroup)

make sure it is the same- believe it or not--

mshome and MShome are not seen as the same network. (and if pro by default it is set to workgroup)

[kaffra]

all great points by redvamp128, another thing is what did you modify in the HOSTS files?

[+BudMan MVC]

"also check the name of the network (workgroup)"

"make sure it is the same- believe it or not--"

NOT, NOT NOT!!!

DIE FUD DIE DIE DIE DIE!!!

The workgroup names have NOTHING to do with file sharing - NOTHING.. And does not matter if they are the same or not -- you can have 10 machines in 10 different workgroups all seeing each other just fine, etc.

Just went over this recently in another thread

But here 1 of the many threads where this is gone over and here is image showing - notice all the different workgroups being seen just fine!

https://www.neowin.net/forum/topic/575002-help-with-home-network-please/

As to his browsing now working?? You say you can access by IP -- what about name.

Ping the troublesome machine by IP, then try it by name

example

C:\Windows\System32>ping 192.168.1.4

Pinging 192.168.1.4 with 32 bytes of data:

Reply from 192.168.1.4: bytes=32 time<1ms TTL=128

Reply from 192.168.1.4: bytes=32 time<1ms TTL=128

C:\Windows\System32>ping p4-28g

Pinging p4-28g.local.lan [192.168.1.4] with 32 bytes of data:

Reply from 192.168.1.4: bytes=32 time<1ms TTL=128

Reply from 192.168.1.4: bytes=32 time<1ms TTL=128

You notice mine comes back fully qualified, thats because I run a local dns -- but you should just broadcast for name and find it.. post the output of IPconfig /all -- what does it show for the node type?

C:\Windows\System32>ipconfig /all

Windows IP Configuration

Host Name . . . . . . . . . . . . : quad-w7

Primary Dns Suffix . . . . . . . : local.lan

Node Type . . . . . . . . . . . . : Hybrid

IP Routing Enabled. . . . . . . . : No

WINS Proxy Enabled. . . . . . . . : No

DNS Suffix Search List. . . . . . : local.lan

Will fix it up for you -- but finding a computer by name has nothing to do with what workgroup their in either.. Thats just browsing, and means nothing to file sharing.

Lets first see if you can resolve netbios name by broadcast first.. Then move on to network browsing issues.

But here are 2 good reads on issues with network browsing

http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?familyid=BB89501A-3609-45DE-8E35-38251E1349F6&displaylang=en

Computer Browsing for SOHO Networks with Microsoft Windows

http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?familyid=b5a2baba-cc80-4bcf-b1e4-d629028554e4&displaylang=en

Troubleshooting Computer Browsing on SOHO Networks with Microsoft Windows

[zeke009]

Machine is named and they are all in the same group - Sorry BudMan, I made sure that was the case. ;)

This worked fine prior to connecting to his college network, since then he can not access other machines by computer name at home. Only by ip address.

With his shares and printers all being mapped, accessed, or installed from his pc named "HP" this doesn't work when he can't resolve the name. So in the HOSTS file I added the following:

192.168.xxx.xxx HP

Now those shares work as does printing, but there is a noticeable lag and as mentioned earlier, some apps just sit a think before coming back and being usable. None of that happened prior to this little mixup.

I will be reading up on your links there BudMan, I'll try to get back to his place soon to get some ipconfig results. I knew I should have grabbed those last night!

XP is still a usable system, but Windows 7 is a million times easier to use and configure. Too bad this laptop and the old HP machine can't handle it.

[+BudMan MVC]

Yeah curious what the node type is, since if school set it to say p-mode then it would only be sending netbios queries to some wins server and would not do broadcast for the names.

Your getting a bit confused with the error with browsing and netbios name resolution. You don't need network browsing to resolve a netbios network name.

Here is another good writeup on how netbios name resolution works.

http://articles.techrepublic.com.com/5100-10878_11-5034239.html

How NetBIOS name resolution really works

Its a bit dated, but still good info.. For example -- so your machine can not resolve HP.. what does nbtstat -a HP return?

Also let me point out the bottom the article ;)

Browsing problems

Name resolution and browsing the network would seem to be closely related. If you can resolve all of the names on a network, then you should be able to browse the network. While this appears on the surface to be true, it is not. The mechanism for browsing is unrelated to the name resolution process.

Another great read for understanding netbios name resolution

http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/bb727013.aspx

Chapter 11 - NetBIOS over TCP/IP

Which again is different than that error your seeing with trying to browse the workgroup - the other articles I linked to go into that issue.

[zeke009]

Here is the contents of ipconfig /all

C:\>ipconfig /all

Windows IP Configuration

        Host Name . . . . . . . . . . . . : D
        Primary Dns Suffix  . . . . . . . :
        Node Type . . . . . . . . . . . . : Peer-Peer
        IP Routing Enabled. . . . . . . . : No
        WINS Proxy Enabled. . . . . . . . : No
        DNS Suffix Search List. . . . . . : hsd1.mn.comcast.net.
                                            hsd1.mn.comcast.net.

Ethernet adapter Local Area Connection 3:

        Connection-specific DNS Suffix  . : hsd1.mn.comcast.net.
        Description . . . . . . . . . . . : Broadcom 440x 10/100 Integrated Controller
        Physical Address. . . . . . . . . : 
        Dhcp Enabled. . . . . . . . . . . : Yes
        Autoconfiguration Enabled . . . . : Yes
        IP Address. . . . . . . . . . . . : 192.168.0.100
        Subnet Mask . . . . . . . . . . . : 255.255.255.0
        Default Gateway . . . . . . . . . : 192.168.0.1
        DHCP Server . . . . . . . . . . . : 192.168.0.1
        DNS Servers . . . . . . . . . . . : 
        Lease Obtained. . . . . . . . . . : Wednesday, September 08, 2010 5:05:01 AM
        Lease Expires . . . . . . . . . . : Wednesday, September 15, 2010 5:05:01 AM

Ethernet adapter Wireless Network Connection 3:

        Connection-specific DNS Suffix  . : hsd1.mn.comcast.net.
        Description . . . . . . . . . . . : Dell Wireless 1370 WLAN Mini-PCI Card
        Physical Address. . . . . . . . . : 
        Dhcp Enabled. . . . . . . . . . . : Yes
        Autoconfiguration Enabled . . . . : Yes
        IP Address. . . . . . . . . . . . : 192.168.0.101
        Subnet Mask . . . . . . . . . . . : 255.255.255.0
        Default Gateway . . . . . . . . . : 192.168.0.1
        DHCP Server . . . . . . . . . . . : 192.168.0.1
        DNS Servers . . . . . . . . . . . : 
        Lease Obtained. . . . . . . . . . : Wednesday, September 08, 2010 1:33:49 PM
        Lease Expires . . . . . . . . . . : Wednesday, September 15, 2010 1:33:49 PM

[+BudMan MVC]

"Node Type . . . . . . . . . . . . : Peer-Peer

Which = P-mode

--

# P-node (peer-to-peer): it uses NetBIOS name server such as WINS to resolve names of the NetBIOS. P-node does not work with broadcasts, because it directly query with the name server, enabling computers to resolve NetBIOS name across routers. P-node requires that all computers should be configured with the NetBIOS name server IP address. If the NetBIOS name server is not functioning, computers will not be able to communicate.

--

Well there you go - its never going to broadcast for names.

And for what possible reason would you have a wired and wireless connection going on at the same time?? If you wired, disable your wireless connection. This can quite often be setup automatically to do that.. If detect wired, disable wireless -- most dell wireless drivers have this option.

Change your node type to hybrid or b-mode, or just delete the node type entry and it should revert to default and you should be fine.

http://support.microsoft.com/kb/903267

To resolve this issue, follow these steps:

1. Click Start, click Run, type regedit, and then click OK.

2. Locate and then click the following registry subkey:

HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\System\CurrentControlSet\Services\NetBt\Parameters

3. In the right pane of Registry Editor, delete the following values if they are present:

* NodeType

* DhcpNodeType

Note If the NodeType value is present, this value will override the DhcpNodeType value. If neither subkey is present and if no WINS servers are configured for the client, the computer uses b-node mode. If at least one WINS server is configured, the computer uses h-node mode.

4. Quit Registry Editor.

5. Restart the computer.

6. Try to view workgroup computers on the network again.

Or they have a download on that link to fix it for you ;)

http://go.microsoft.com/?linkid=9668706

[Fraud OS 11]

Try saving the credentials in Control Panel -> User accounts -> Stored user names and passwords and then at the cmd prompt do "net use * /del" confirm yes and try re-accessing the share.

[zeke009]

And for what possible reason would you have a wired and wireless connection going on at the same time?? If you wired, disable your wireless connection. This can quite often be setup automatically to do that.. If detect wired, disable wireless -- most dell wireless drivers have this option.

I'm not certain why both were active, I stopped over there real quick yesterday to get something and was able to run this. It could have been an oversight on turning off wireless.

Thanks for the info guys, I'm going to send him a note to try some of these responses and I'll let you know what happens!

[LiquidSolstice]

Goddamn it BudMan, EVERY time I see a thread in which you've posted, I learn a s*itload of stuff. I guess there's a reason why you're an MVC, and you rightfully deserve it :). Keep the informational posts coming, they're actually pretty interesting (enjoyed your last one that I read that involved symlinks and the WinSxS folder)

[+BudMan MVC]

^Great! That's the whole point ;)

[zeke009]

The manual regedits did the trick he said, the FixIt item did not. He was able to make the changes, remove the hosts file change and access network resources again.

Thanks BudMan!