Master Browser and wireless XP on network?

[brucew268]

I currently have the problem that laptop A can see and open files on laptop B, but laptop B gets errors when it tries to access shared folders on laptop A.

In reading the SNB How-To article about networks on Windows XP, I ran across the warning about an all-wireless network due to it playing havoc with election of the Master Browser.

Reference article: (http://www.smallnetbuilder.com/lanwan/lanwan-basics/24421-howtoxpsharefix?showall=&start=5)

So does that mean that if I only have laptops on XP, and they mostly connect wirelessly, that I can't expect a network to work stably? Even if I wire one of the latops to the router, it often gets removed in order to accompany me to a meeting. If I get an NAS (currently planning), will that help my situation, or does it not participate in Master Browser Election? I know most NAS's do not have direct keyboard/monitor connections and don;t seem to be Windows-based.

(Wasn't sure where to put this, since there seems to be no discussion of this article under LAN/WAN.)

 

[tipstir]

I've just re-building 2x DELL Latitude laptops C600 series both have Windows XP Pro SP3. But my environment for Networking is Windows 7. For them to see my Windows 7 Workgroup/HomeGroup Shares and access intranet IIS Virtual Shares. There are a couple of steps that are required access these shares since the release of SP3 vs SP2.

Patch
LLTD v5* (ms release but only works with SP2) need to trick it to work with SP3
LLTD v6* (*non-ms release but works with SP2/SP3)

Protocol
IPV6 - invoked

Services
Computer Browser enabled (for master browser or not master browser)
Network Connections enabled
SSDP enabled
UPnP enabled

I put up some useful help links
How to get XP to work with Windows 7?
How to have Network Discovery under XP?

 

[brucew268]

Error resolved

Thanks for your notes, though my current system does not yet have any Windows 7 machines. Perhaps once I add a W7 device, I'll refer back to your posting. But then I don't know what LLTD or IPV6 are...

I did find a solution to my problem, which does not seem to be based in the fact that all my XP devices are wireless. My error message was denying access because "Not enough server storage is available to process this command."

I finally got around to googling the error message (stupid... should have been my first step) and came up with this link http://support.microsoft.com/kb/177078/en-us.

The problem was resulting Event ID 2011 on my Event viewer, and was a problem with the IRPStackSize being too small in my Registry. So I followed MS's instructions above, and the problem was resolved once I got to a stacksize of 18.

I'll watch to see if that or any other errors appear when I remove laptops from the wireless network (without shutting them down), and then reintroduce them.

 

[thiggins]

Pretty obscure error. Glad you got it sorted out.