NT 4 Peer to Peer with XP PRO Possible???

[briohater]

If so, please help.

Until yesterday, I had an NT Workstation 4.0 networked to a Win 95 PC without any problems. Then I removed my Win 95 PC (too old) and added a new PC with XP Pro loaded. Now I can't seem to network the two PCs together. I have used the Network Wizard in XP Pro to setup the network and it appears on the XP side and I have setup the network on the NT side and it too shows up in Network Neighborhhood. They both have the Workgroup name. I have reinstalled the Network component on the NT side several times (including the drivers for the NIC card) and I have tried the Wizard on the XP side several times. I am running out of ideas. Can anyone give me some help?

Thanks.

 

[dilettante]

The first thing to check is a very common issue: does the XP machine have the built-in firewall turned on, and is it blocking the traffic?

The second thing is at least as common as the firewall one: do you have file/print sharing bound to NetBEUI on the NT 4 machine?

Most people running small peer-to-peer networks ended up using NetBEUI, especially if they had Win95 machines. Since about the time Win98 came out, MS has been trying to move people to TCP/IP instead.

XP prefers TCP/IP (very strongly), and NetBEUI isn't even a visible networking option, though the software for it (unsupported) is on the Win XP CD.

You might also have been using IPX on your LAN, but IPX can at least be added right from the Network Connection properties page without manually copying software from the CD.

I'd recommend getting rid of NetBEUI and binding file/print to TCP/IP. There are also numerous threads on this in the Win XP forum.

 

[globalstrata]

I will also check the following:

Windows XP and 2000 use by default an encrypted connection. NT4 does not support this. Try disabling the use of IPSEC in the NIC by going to the TCP/IP properties\Advance\Options\IP Security\Properties Gladys Rodriguez
GlobalStrata Solutions

http://www.globalstrata.com

 

[TheOldMan346]

globalstrata,

You are correct that only Win2K and WinXP support L2TP/IPSec. However, it is not used by default. It is only automatically used when a VPN link is established. I have XP, Win2K, Win98 and WinNT. They all communicate and share quite easily without disabling anything.

Microsoft Support states in Q310109"
=======================
The Windows 2000 Routing and Remote Access service supports L2TP over IPSec (L2TP/IPSec) protocol. The Microsoft implementation of L2TP/IPSec is fully compliant with Request for Comments (RFC) standards, and it provides the highest level of security for Virtual Private Network (VPN) connections. Presently, only Windows 2000, Windows XP, and selected third-party operating systems support the L2TP/IPSec VPN client computer role.

Windows 2000 automatically creates an IPSec policy if an L2TP/IPSec VPN link is established. The IPSec policy requires you to install computer certificates on both the Routing and Remote Access VPN server and the VPN client. You can obtain certificates from either a Microsoft Certificate server or from a third-party provider.
=======================

I would lean more towards the situations dilettante suggested.

The Old Man

 

[briohater]

Thank you all for your assistance. I checked and verified all your suggestions and found that none of the conflicts or problems you stated were causing the problem. My XP Pro computer was visible and accessible to my NT computer and the XP Pro was able to ping the IP address and computername of the NT computer. What was puzzling was the missing Sharing option when you right-click the computer on the NT computer. The computer properties screen also was missing a TAB for assigning a share drive name etc....

Somewhere along the way, I must have reinstalled Networking when I removed the Win95 computer and things weren't working properly. Because of the reinstallation of the NIC drivers and Networking it reset NT to original state. Reinstalling SP6 corrected the problem and now both computers are connected and communicating as it should.

Thanks for all the help. Even though it didn't correct the problem, I learned alot from your suggestions.

John