File sharing / Network problem 3

[octavee]

I have 3 win XP Home PCs on a ethernet network. Worked fine until last week.

Computer A has no file sharing
Computer B has file and printer sharing turned on (Full read and write)
Computer C has file and printer sharing turned on (Full read and write)

They are all connected with a DSL router and have internet connectivity. B and C are connected with a autoswitch.

Now this is what is happening now:
A can get to B and copy files.
A can see C but can not get to the computer (no permission)
B can see A and C on the network/workgroup
C can not open the workgroup and therefore can not see the shared folders from B. When trying to access the workgroup which you can see it gives an error that you do not have permission.
I already changed the workgroup names, the computer names, disabled the firewall, uninstalled the file sharing and reinstalled it. But still the same problem.

Please help.

Sincerely
Octavee

 

[octavee]

I did the Microsoft utility NTRIGHTS.EXE on both PCs with the problem. All commands were sucessfull. But the result was the same. No permission.

Now both computers are not seeing each other on the network.

I also checked the Node Types: I changed it on the computer/laptop that had Peer-Peer. It has now unknown.
WINS Proxy Enabled is NO on all machines.
The net view command does not work on both computers with problems. The message it gives is: System error 51 has occurred.

I am at a loss.

I tried Safe mode as well, and also changing the guest permissions to the folders. But no positive result.

What's next? I appreciate your help a lot.

I have SP2 on all machines and no changes made that could have caused the havoc.

Thanks
Octavee

 

[bcastner]

Tell me a little more about the hardware being used to make the physical connection. e.g.:
Computer A connects to DSL router,
Computer B connects to switch, shared with C
Computer C connects to switch, shared with B
DSL router connects to switch

Second request. Provide an ipconfig /all from workstations A and from B.

ipconfig /all >ipconfig.txt ## writes output to file so it can be cut and pasted back here.

 

[octavee]

Hi

it is hard to believe. I just wanted to shut everything down and call it a day. I thought just try out one more time. All of a sudden: it worked. I cpuld go the workgroup, to the folders of the computer B, see the shared printer. I do not know if this is just another temporary thing. But for the last 5 minutes it did work. !!!!

Thank you both for your posts. Hope this nightmare is over now.

If not I will post back.

Octavee

 

[bcastner]

It takes several minutes to populate a complete browser table if everything is working right.

Microsoft says 15 minutes.

 

[bcastner]

I forgot to mention this issue above:

I tried system restore, but every time it said 'Could not restore, try another date".

To fix:

Turn System Restore off.
Turn System Restore on.

 

[linney]

I tried system restore, but every time it said 'Could not restore, try another date".

Knowing Microsoft, the hidden meaning of that message is more than likely - try next Saturday it may work then. Which seems kind of apt concerning what has just occurred miraculously to "octavee's" problems.

How to Turn On and Turn Off System Restore in Windows XP

http://support.microsoft.com/support/kb/articles/q310/4/05.asp

Troubleshooting System Restore in Windows XP

http://support.microsoft.com/support/kb/articles/q302/7/96.asp

 

[octavee]

Hi,

to top it of. Now it is like this: I can access the Folder in the workgroup of the other computer, but when I want to go to the main directory of the workgoup folder it tells me again that I do not have permission???

Octavee

 

[bcastner]

Is the root of the drive shared by the computer you are trying to access?

The rule is you can traverse down the directory path of a share, but you cannot traverse upwards towards the root without a new share being made first.

 

[octavee]

I might have been unclear.

The workgroup is 'ACCO1' and I have 2 computers in that workgroup.
One is called SYNTONIC, the other is GAVALIA.

When I access from GAVALIA:
I can access \\SYTONIC\Shared
and
\\SYNTONIC

But I can not access the ACCO1 workgroup.

 

[bcastner]

What happens when you try to view the Workgroup in My Network Places?

Also: Start, Run, CMD

net view

Post the results back here.

 

[octavee]

System error 51 has occured

Windows cannot find the network path. Verify ....

 

[bcastner]

System error 51 has occured

Error 51 is a hard disk error. System Error 53 sounds more plausible:


This error message can occur if computers other than Windows 2000, XP, or later, are in the network, if there is no local DNS server, and if NetBIOS over IP is disabled. This constellation can cause the error message: Network path not found. It can also lead to the function "Show workgroup computers" not showing all (or any) computers.

To enable NetBIOS over TCP/IP, which you need to find pre-Windows-2000 (i.e. Windows 9x, ME, or NT) computers on the network, in Windows Explorer or on the desktop or in the start menu right-click on My Network Places, select Properties, select your network connection, right-click again and select Properties. Highlight the TCP/IP protocol and click on the Properties button, click on the Advanced button, then the WINS tab to get to the NetBIOS setting option. Select "Enable NetBIOS over TCP/IP" and wait a few minutes to let the machine rescan the network. You can also try the standard setting, which should normally suffice.

This issue may also occur if the TCP/IP NetBIOS Helper Service is not running on the client computer. To start this Service, go to Control Panel, Administration, Services, and double-click the TCP/IP NetBIOS Helper Service.

Another related and surprisingly frequent problem is the setting of an unsuitable node type for Windows networks (which use NetBIOS). First check your node type by opening a command line window and typing the command

ipconfig /all

This command reports the node type, among other information. It should be Hybrid or Unknown, but not Point-to-Point (p-node, actually a mistaken interpretation of Peer-to-Peer), because that would work only when a WINS server is present.

If the node type is P, you can use regedit.exe to go to

HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE
\System
\CurrentControlSet
\Services
\Netbt
\Parameters

and delete any of the two values NodeType and DhcpNodeType if they exist, forcing Windows to fall back to its default node type, which should be Hybrid. Reboot.

More details can be found in the article "Default Node Type for Microsoft Clients" at

http://support.microsoft.com/kb/160177/.

RESOLUTIONS:
1) Make sure that File and Printer Sharing is enabled on on the shared computer.
2) Make sure that shared machine has something shared.
3) Make sure that you have created the same workgroup and logon the same username if you try to access w2k/xp network.
4) Make sure that you have enabled NetBIOS over TCP/IP if this is a mixed OS network.

 

[octavee]

I posted my answers behind your text sections:

This error message can occur if computers other than Windows 2000, XP, or later, are in the network, if there is no local DNS server, and if NetBIOS over IP is disabled. This constellation can cause the error message: Network path not found. It can also lead to the function "Show workgroup computers" not showing all (or any) computers.

NetBIOS over IP is enabled. And there is one
more win 98 computer on the workgroup. But we
do not need him there. The win98 just needs
the internet.

To enable NetBIOS over TCP/IP, which you need to find pre-Windows-2000 (i.e. Windows 9x, ME, or NT) computers on the network, in Windows Explorer or on the desktop or in the start menu right-click on My Network Places, select Properties, ....... You can also try the standard setting, which should normally suffice.

This issue may also occur if the TCP/IP NetBIOS Helper Service is not running on the client computer. To start this Service, go to Control Panel, Administration, Services, and double-click the TCP/IP NetBIOS Helper Service.

TCP/IP NetBIOS Helper Service is started

Another related and surprisingly frequent problem is the setting of an unsuitable node type for Windows networks (which use NetBIOS). First check your node type by opening a command line window and typing the command
ipconfig /all

checked and says that it is unknown (OK)

This command reports the node type, among other information. It should be Hybrid or Unknown, but not Point-to-Point (p-node, actually a mistaken interpretation of Peer-to-Peer), because that would work only when a WINS server is present.

RESOLUTIONS:
1) Make sure that File and Printer Sharing is enabled on on the shared computer.
YES
2) Make sure that shared machine has something shared.
YES
3) Make sure that you have created the same workgroup and logon the same username if you try to access w2k/xp network.
YES, in this case, but usually works with
different user names in other networks

4) Make sure that you have enabled NetBIOS over TCP/IP if this is a mixed OS network.
YES

 

[bcastner]

This problem is caused when the "RestrictAnonymous" LSA registry value in XP gets changed from its default value of "0" (disabled) to "1" (enabled). This registry value can be located by opening regedit and going to:
[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Control\Lsa]

A more user friendly way of adjusting this same setting is to go to Control Panel --> Administrative Tools --> Local Security Policy --> Local Policies --> Security Options. Make sure the following setting is set to "Disabled":
-- Network access: Do not allow anonymous enumeration of SAM accounts and shares

Do not confuse this setting with the setting that preceeds it not including the text "and shares" at the end of it. That's an entirely different setting that should be "Enabled" by default!

 

[octavee]

I checked the registry:
"RestrictAnonymous" = 0
"RestrictAnonymousSam" =1

In 'Administrative Tools' I can not find 'Local Security Policy'.

Still the same thing.

 

[linney]

You seem to have a collection of XP Home machines, you need XP Pro to access Group Policy.

Lots of Registry Settings from Group Policy.

http://www.j79zlr.com/gphome.php

292504 - Policy Settings for the Start Menu in Windows XP

http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=kb;en-us;292504&FR=1&PA=1&SD=HSCH

Have another look at the last two links of my 1 Aug 06 0:54 post too.

 

[bcastner]

When all else fails, install Netbui:

Install this on all machines. They will need to be rebooted:

http://www.scotsnewsletter.com/38.htm#tipadaweek

http://www.microsoft.com/windowsxp/pro/using/itpro/networking/netbeui.asp

 

[JohnConnolly]

I had this kind of a problem but with a much larger workgroup (16 machines). Everything was working fine then one day 4 machines couldn't access the workgroup. Hunting in internet I stumbled across a reference to browstat.exe, a program to find the master browser in a workgroup. Master browser? What master browser? I thought a workgroup was peer-to-peer. Not so, there is a master browser and it can wander around from machine to machine so, any machine with something wrong can cause problems for other machines (in our case a Linux server with errors in the smb.conf file). Would never have found it without browstat.exe which comes as part of a pack of service tools from MS.

 

[BigFinn]

Have you tried re-installing XP SP2?

I've had something similar: windows filesharing stops working but pings still travel. The Firewall applet in Control panel can't be opened, it gives an error mesage.

I fixed these symptoms by reinstalling SP2. They seemed to start after I did a windows update.

I have one set of machines that were all built from the same image and this problem applies only to them, so far.

BF