[Mosquito.Tyler]

We have four towers and one laptop in our home, all the towers are running XP Home 32-bit and the laptop came with Vista Basic.

I have tried everything I can think of short of a sledge hammer, and for the life of me I cannot get these computers to get along with each other.

We have a cable modem connected to a Netgear WGR614v6 wireless router (updated with latest firmware). Two computers are connected via CAT-5, and the other three (laptop included) connect wirelessly.

It would seem that connectivity is great, every computer can access the internet, and every computer has no trouble using the network printer connected to one of the towers. The trouble starts when attempting to share files.

The computers can see each other, what I mean is that when I go into the "view work group computers" window, each computer is able to establish the connection and display the computers on the network. However when you double click on an icon (representing a computer on the network) an error pops up reading:

\\Computer is not accessible. You might not have permission to use this network resource. Contact the administrator of this
server to find out if you have access permissions.

Access is denied.

From this point I am lost for ideas to fix the issue, but the reason I have kept poking at it on my own for so long is because one of the computers on the network seems to be able to half-way connect. What I mean by that is, each computer on the network can browse it's shared folders, and even copy to and from them. However I cannot browse any other computers from said computer.

I thought that maybe that computer was the problem but through all of my investigation it doesn't seem configured any differently than the rest of the computers on the network.

So I've come here in hopes that there is a networking guru that has an idea of where to go from here and help me fix my network.

If you've read this far, thank you, and please post your ideas even if they seem simple, they may spark ideas for future posters with more experience or a greater understanding of my problem.

[TerryNet]

Can we assume that you've enabled file and printer sharing on the XPs (let's save the Vista for after we get the XPs working)?

If you answered 'yes' the most likely problem is a 3rd party firewall (security suite) on each computer. Often they must be completely and cleanly uninstalled or properly configured for the desired access. Sometimes 'disable' or 'turn off' will suffice.

Can you ping each (from other computers) by IP address? By computer name?

[Mosquito.Tyler]

Can we assume that you've enabled file and printer sharing on the XPs (let's save the Vista for after we get the XPs working)?

Yes, and the laptop with Vista is currently out of town for the week.

If you answered 'yes' the most likely problem is a 3rd party firewall (security suite) on each computer. Often they must be completely and cleanly uninstalled or properly configured for the desired access. Sometimes 'disable' or 'turn off' will suffice.

I've disabled windows firewall on all (XP) computers, all computers are running avast antivirus. I haven't tried disabling that, but I know that avast does not have a firewall, and I wouldn't want to run my network without antivirus. The only firewall I know that I have that I don't think I can do anything about is the router.

Can you ping each (from other computers) by IP address? By computer name?

Yes by name, yes by internal IP (192.168.x.x).

[TerryNet]

Try the following; it fixes one registry corruption.

Possible Fix for corruption “Access Denied” Problem:

Using notepad create a file named FIXANON.REG with the following contents:

------------------- cut after this line -------------------
Windows Registry Editor Version 5.00
[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Control\Lsa]
"restrictanonymous"=dword:00000000
------------------- cut before this line -----------------

Double click on the file and say Yes to the merge into registry question.

Restart and see if this helps with the access issue.

[Mosquito.Tyler]

Thank you TerryNet, this registry entry seems to have fixed the issue on the first machine I tried it on. I will spread it to the rest, hopefully you won't hear from me again =P

[TerryNet]

I hope I do hear. Preferably success. And then there's still the Vista?

[Mosquito.Tyler]

Success.

The Vista machine isn't back till tomorrow, we'll see how it goes, I'll definitely post here if there are any problems. Thanks again.

[TerryNet]

I doubt that script has ever been tried on a Vista, so be sure to backup the registry or create a System Restore Point before trying it. And, you can ping the Vista by IP address and name, right?

[Mosquito.Tyler]

I don't think the laptop was ever having problems being viewed, just the rest of the network, so I wasn't planning on editing the registry with that, but thanks for the warning

I'm 99% certain my problem is solved.

Again, thank you for all your help and I'll post if there are problems with the vista (still isn't back yet).

[TerryNet]

You're welcome. I think you set a new record. That script may have fixed two computers for somebody, but this has to be a first for FOUR!

[Kruger2002]

Hi there, I'd be interested to hear if that fixes the issue you had with the Vista laptop.