able to Ping but not browse PC's on the LAN

[MarkHollings]

Hi

Something a little odd has happened to our network. We are running Windows Server 2003, with DHCP, DNS and WINS but several of the XP clients can no longer be browsed and neither can the shared remote printers which are attached to them, but they can print locally. The PC's appear on the network and can be pinged by using either the ip address or the client name. PC's at our remote offices , which are connected via VPN used to appear on the network but don't any more and can't be browsed either.

Just to be completely inconsistent, there are some PC's with shared printers that do appear and can be browsed without any problems.

Mark

 

[WhoKilledKenny]

Barring any changes on the network, I have seen this with regards to the firewall configuration on XP service pack 2. If service pack has been applied to the machines in question, check the firewall settings (on the XP boxes).

 

[MarkHollings]

The windows ICS/Firewall has been disabled on all via a GPO.

 

[Spirit]

Alternatively they might be using this reg entry;

HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Services\LanmanServer\Parameters\Hidden=1 (1 hides & 0 Doesn't)

Also just ensure that File And Print Sharing IS enabled on the suspect boxes.

Iain

 

[MarkHollings]

Solved it by restarting the firewall service on the PC! But it complained about having incorrect class and permissions and kept stopping, see kb892199.

Thanks for your help.