HELP - Disappearing Computers

[jbell77]

My home network is 6 computers: two Windows 7, two Vista Home Premium, one XP Professional (SP3), and one Apple; the XP and one W7 are gigabit ethernet, the rest wireless (D-Link DIR-655 with latest firmware). Everything was working fine for several months until a few days ago, when the XP and the Apple disappeared from the network map. I can still network with them by manually entering their addresses in the network window's address bar. Unfortunately, most of my music and video is on the XP, and not everything you want interacting with the network offers you an address bar.

I have tried rebooting everything, etc. All of the computers show up in the right places on the router. I tried installing the XP hotfix to install LLTD (which supposedly allows XP boxes to see and be seen on a LAN), but no help. The XP can still see the Apple, but none of the others can. The XP can not see one of the Vistas. On the XP, when I click on "view all Workgroup computers" I get an error notice: "Workgroup is not accessible. You might not have permission . . . blah, blah . . . The specified network name is no longer available." I tried recreating the Workgroup on XP, but still get the error.

I have read that this situation can lead to other computers disappearing, and the ability to network manually going away. Any suggestions to cure this will be greatly appreciated. Any successful suggestions will win undying gratitude.

 

[valentin]

Check if the firewalls on the windows computers are on, and if yes - allow exception for file sharing.

Are all the computers in the same windows workgroup?
________
Vapir no2 vaporizer

 

[thiggins]

Could be a Master Browser problem. See http://www.smallnetbuilder.com/content/view/24421/229/1/5/

 

[jbell77]

Check if the firewalls on the windows computers are on, and if yes - allow exception for file sharing.

Are all the computers in the same windows workgroup?

Thanks, Valentin. Yes, firewalls are either off or allow exceptions for file sharing and for network discovery. Yes they are in the same workgroup, although I do not understand the attached error message when I try to view the workgroup on the missing XP

 

[jbell77]

Tim: Thanks much for your reply. I read most of your article, which is very informative. I found out that the Master Browser is the W7 wired one, which stays on all the time. I tried your IP address trick, but it said "Windows cannot find" the IP address. But when I manually put XP's name into the address bar of the network window, it goes right to it. An icon for the missing XP then appears in the navigation pane on the left, and stays there until I close the window. Of course it is not there when I reopen it. The problem with creating a shortcut is that if, e.g., you want to play a video from the XP on PowerDVD, it has no address bar and does not see shortcuts when you send it looking for the video file. Do you have any idea why I can go to the XP by its name but not by its IP address? Thanks again for your help.

 

[thiggins]

Boy, you are a glutton for punishment with that assortment of OSes!

That's odd to be able to reach via host name but not IP. Can you ping the XP machine and can you bring it up by entering \\XP IP address in a Run box?

Did the problem start about the time you put the Windows 7 machine on the network? If it did, maybe you should go back to having a Vista machine be browse master.

 

[jbell77]

Hi, Tim: Yes, I can ping it fine. I did enter the IP address in a run box, but got a "Windows cannot find it" response. The W7 machine has been on since January, but the problem only started about a week ago. I have no idea how long the W7 has been the browse master - I first heard about that from your article today. For what it's worth, I turned off the XP firewall completely, and now the XP appears on the W7 network map (they are both wired) but still does not on the others. (As far as the OS's, I would be ecstatic if Microsoft would offer W7 at some enormous discount so I could kiss Vista goodbye forever. Shall we hold our breath?)

What if anything do you make of the error notice (attached) I get when I click on View Workgroup on the XP? Until recently I would get a window with icons of each LAN computer. Thanks a lot for your thoughts.

JB

 

[thiggins]

Unfortunately, I'm the wrong guy to ask about Vista and its "improved" networking. The network discovery layer they added to make the pretty Vista network maps just adds another layer of confusion and something to go wrong.

Did you ensure that there is only ONE browse master?

Problems like this, unfortunately, are a pain to troubleshoot. My only advice is to strip the network down to two machines, doing a cold boot on both. Then add other machines in, again starting with a cold boot and making sure that all play nice-nice before adding another. As I said, a real pain (and a time sink).

 

[jbell77]

Well, tried numerous suggestions from here and elsewhere and did not resolve the missing computer problem. Was resigned to just working around it as best I could. Then last night, clicked on "network" and the missing computers were back! Still there this morning. The only thing I can think of is I rebooted the W7 computer (which is the browse master) for the first time in a week or more. Is that the trick, or just Microsoft making us crazy?

 

[thiggins]

I should have suggested a reboot, which apparently worked.

Thanks for reporting back.

Once again this proves, if in doubt, reboot!

 

[00Roush]

I have found the most reliable way to share files between computers is to always use the ip address. Actually I have disabled the network discovery layer in Vista and also disabled NetBIOS on all of my windows machines. This cuts down on the unnecessary network traffic and you don't have to worry about which computer is the master browser. My file/print server has a manually set IP address so that it never changes. Instead of constantly having to enter the IP address of my server I just map the IP address to a drive letter. That way I can use it in pretty much any program. You can also create shortcuts to network addresses and use them as folders in Windows.

Then again when you disable NetBIOS you no longer can use the names of computers to access them. Everything has to be done by IP. In my case I don't mind at all but others might like the ease of use.

00Roush