I have an issue that I've seen mentioned here before, but cannot find a solid answer. Basically, I'm having all kinds of browsing issues with my file sharing. All IP issue to the outside world (and inside world, for that matter) are fine. But standard Microsoft Network Browsing isn't working right. The setup is two (almost identical, see below) laptops and a Win2K Server, but not running as a domain, just a workgroup.
The biggest problem I have right now is that on one of the laptops I cannot do a "net view \\servername" and see the shares. BUT if I do "net view \\IPofservername" it works just fine. I can even "Map Network Drive" if I use the "\\IPofservername\share" rather than "\\servername\share". (The other laptop allows me to do "net view \\servername".)
On neither machine can I go to the Windows Explorer and select "My Network Places\Microsoft Windows Network\workgroupname" and see anything. I see the workgroup name, but I get the "workgroupname not accessible. You might not have permission use...". Similarly, I cannot go to either machine and type just "net view" and see shares around the network. I get "System error 6118 -- list of servers for this network is not currently available". Even on the machine that can do "net view \\servername", the "net view" does not work to just generally browse the network. Also, even on the machine that does "net view \\servername" I cannot do "net view \\peername" and see the shares on the other laptop. I have to do "net view \\peerIPaddress" to see the shares there.
Beyond that, the only really interesting thing I have to say about the difference in the two machines is that the NIC drivers (for a wireless PCMCIA card) appear to be different. One on PC (laptop), if I go to the "Control Panel\Network Connections\Wireless Connection" I see three tabs -- "General", "Wireless Networks", and "Advanced". On the other one, if I go to the same Control Panel area, I only see two tabs "General" and "Advanced" -- to me, this seems to mean that the NIC drivers/software are different on the two machines in some way, but I'm not sure how. That's the only difference I can find in the two machines, but it's possible that this could be part of the problem (NetBIOS issues in the driver?) -- if it is such an issue, it would explain at least some of the problems I described above. (I'm currently trying to get this driver issue corrected such that they appear and work identically.)
As I said, I can do what I want using \\ipAddress, so I think all authentication issues (users/passwords on all sharing machines) are taken care of. I pretty sure that's not the problem.
Any ideas?
The biggest problem I have right now is that on one of the laptops I cannot do a "net view \\servername" and see the shares. BUT if I do "net view \\IPofservername" it works just fine. I can even "Map Network Drive" if I use the "\\IPofservername\share" rather than "\\servername\share". (The other laptop allows me to do "net view \\servername".)
On neither machine can I go to the Windows Explorer and select "My Network Places\Microsoft Windows Network\workgroupname" and see anything. I see the workgroup name, but I get the "workgroupname not accessible. You might not have permission use...". Similarly, I cannot go to either machine and type just "net view" and see shares around the network. I get "System error 6118 -- list of servers for this network is not currently available". Even on the machine that can do "net view \\servername", the "net view" does not work to just generally browse the network. Also, even on the machine that does "net view \\servername" I cannot do "net view \\peername" and see the shares on the other laptop. I have to do "net view \\peerIPaddress" to see the shares there.
Beyond that, the only really interesting thing I have to say about the difference in the two machines is that the NIC drivers (for a wireless PCMCIA card) appear to be different. One on PC (laptop), if I go to the "Control Panel\Network Connections\Wireless Connection" I see three tabs -- "General", "Wireless Networks", and "Advanced". On the other one, if I go to the same Control Panel area, I only see two tabs "General" and "Advanced" -- to me, this seems to mean that the NIC drivers/software are different on the two machines in some way, but I'm not sure how. That's the only difference I can find in the two machines, but it's possible that this could be part of the problem (NetBIOS issues in the driver?) -- if it is such an issue, it would explain at least some of the problems I described above. (I'm currently trying to get this driver issue corrected such that they appear and work identically.)
As I said, I can do what I want using \\ipAddress, so I think all authentication issues (users/passwords on all sharing machines) are taken care of. I pretty sure that's not the problem.
Any ideas?