Can't connect to LAN Workgroup from XP. - by Ostriig
Ostriig on 26/7/2009 at 13:08
This is starting to drive me nuts. I connect my laptop to the LAN on wireless I click on View Workgroup Computers and I get a long wait in front of the hourglass and a "Workgroup is not accessible. You might not have permission to use this network resource. Contact the admin bla bla... Network path not found." error. It's just not on the workgroup, other computers can't see it either, despite the net working fine. I've had my mate check out the router, and everything appears to be in order. And to top if off, using Vista on the same computer it accesses the workgroup just fine.
I've checked that the IPs match up, tried Repair on the connection, disabling and re-enabling the wireless, removing the LAN from the auto-connect list, restarting the laptop, restarting the router - nothing. And what really pisses the flying fuck out of me is that I had it happened a couple of days ago, and after all that crap it started working again, but not now.
Does anyone know what's going on? I use the lan a lot, and booting Vista every time I need to exchange some files from my desktop to my laptop isn't very appealing.
bikerdude on 26/7/2009 at 14:00
Check the time is the same on both computers..
Ostriig on 26/7/2009 at 14:16
The laptop is about 20 secs fast compared to my desktop, it syncs with time.nist.gov instead of time.windows.com (which is default on the desktop), which returns error on attempt. But could that be the problem? I mean, I can't access the workgroup at all, it's not just a connection problem between two PCs.
P.S. Just had my mate check the router, that's 1 hour behind (no daylight savings provision). But again, no other PC has problems connecting to the workgroup, and even though they're all Vista/7 now, the rest of them, I've had this XP installation for roughly a year and the first time this popped up is this past week.
Al_B on 26/7/2009 at 14:55
You may have tried this, but can you connect to your desktop computer from the command line? i.e. using "net view \\< computer name >" or "net use < drive letter > \\< computer name >\< share name >" from your laptop? If you know the IP number of your desktop then you can use that instead of the name.
I have had issues with the node type of a computer on a network so you could check that too. You can find the current node type by doing "ipconfig /all" - again, from the command line. If it's unknown then you may want to try checking the registry value NodeType to HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\System\CurrentControlSet\Services\Netbt\Parameters. Unless you're running a WINS server you probably want to have type 1 or 8. See (
http://support.microsoft.com/kb/160177) Default Node Type for Microsoft Clients for more details.
bikerdude on 26/7/2009 at 16:11
can you ping any other devices on the network..?
Ostriig on 26/7/2009 at 16:37
Quote Posted by Al_B
You may have tried this, but can you connect to your desktop computer from the command line? i.e. using "net view \\< computer name >" or "net use < drive letter > \\< computer name >\< share name >" from your laptop? If you know the IP number of your desktop then you can use that instead of the name.
Only tried now, it says "System error 5 has occurred. Access is denied."
Quote:
I have had issues with the node type of a computer on a network so you could check that too. You can find the current node type by doing "ipconfig /all" - again, from the command line. If it's unknown then you may want to try checking the registry value NodeType to HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\System\CurrentControlSet\Services\Netbt\Parameters. Unless you're running a WINS server you probably want to have type 1 or 8. See (
http://support.microsoft.com/kb/160177) Default Node Type for Microsoft Clients for more details.
Do you mean the (Default) entry? This is what I have:
Inline Image:
http://i211.photobucket.com/albums/bb67/Ostriig/regedit.jpgQuote Posted by Bikerdude
can you ping any other devices on the network..?
Nope. I looked up my desktop's IP as 192.178.1.71 and ping requests to it time out.
Al_B on 26/7/2009 at 16:55
No, the NodeType is an DWORD value in the same way that you have CacheTimeout (for example) in that registry key.
However, the fact you're getting an access denied message suggests that your laptop can reach the desktop computer but is being rejected. I think Vista by default rejects connections to file shares without a valid username and password. The network and sharing center on your desktop will tell you whether this is enforced - look for "Password Protected Sharing". While you're there, you can check "Network Discovery" and "File Sharing" options are both on too. If you trust the network you're on then try turning off password protection to see if you can then view shares from your laptop.
Alternatively, if you have a valid username and password on your desktop then you can manually map a share using the net use command on your laptop:
net use z: \\desktop\share /user:username
It should then prompt for your password and map the share to a drive letter.
Ostriig on 26/7/2009 at 17:33
It's not a problem with this desktop, my housemate can still connect to it just fine from his desktop (indeed, prompted for a user and pass for a secondary account we use for file sharing; and yes, just checked, File Sharing and Network Discovery are on). I'm taking a stab in the dark here, but are you sure it was the desktop that returned access denied, or could it have been the router that would not allow my laptop to look further down into the workgroup? I mean, I can't even send a ping from the laptop to the desktop.
And this has worked just fine up until last week. I can't for the life of me remember having changed anything on the laptop to have resulted in this.
Also, I still can't find the NodeType value you mentioned. Should it be there in any situation?
Al_B on 27/7/2009 at 17:38
Ping (ICMP echo) could be blocked by the firewall on your desktop PC or potentially even a third-party firewall on your computer. However, if your friend can ping your desktop successfully from his computer then yes, you may have a problem.
The NodeType value may not exist by default. If you create it then it should take precedence over the default Windows behaviour or that configured by your DHCP server (i.e. most likely your router in your case). The main reason I mentioned it was because I had a similar problem where a laptop was looking for a WINS server and couldn't browse the network.
Did you try mapping the share from the command line to a drive letter with the /USER option? If that failed, did it also fail if you used the IP number of the desktop computer instead of the name?
bikerdude on 27/7/2009 at 17:43
Ostrig
If you still cant sort this, I`ll pop up and have a look.
