[wombatau]

I have three computers on a home network, two running XP Pro and the third with XP Home. All have Trendmicro IS. Out of the blue none would communicate with the other with the usual error message of "Home is not accessible etc" that you find all over the sites and forums. I have followed all the advices - restrictanonymous at 0, turned all firewalls off, Net Bios, IRPStackSize -- the problem does not want to go away. These changes have brought improvment, but the XP Home machine can see the others but cannot access (even though sharing is fully on for both) but both XP Pro machines can see and access the XP Home . Are there other settings I should be checking?

[JohnWill]

Turn off any firewalls for debugging. If the firewall is the problem, you'll have to configure it to allow access to "trusted zone" addresses. Note that some firewalls must be completely uninstalled to stop them from affecting your networking.

Hold the Windows key and press R, then type CMD to open a command prompt.

In the command prompt window that opens, type type the following commands:

PING each remote computer by IP address, and if successful, PING by name. Open a command prompt as described above and type.

PING <ip address>
or
PING <computer name>

Where:
<ip address> - is the x.x.x.x IP address
<computer name> - is the computer name

A failure to PING is almost always a firewall configuration issue. Any failure to PING needs to be corrected before you go any farther.

Note: You can obtain the IP address and computer name of a computer by opening a command prompt (DOS window) and typing IPCONFIG /ALL. This should work for any Windows version. The IPCONFIG /ALL display will provide a wealth of useful information for debugging your network connection.

Check your Services are Started on all PCs:

• COM+ Event System (for WZC issues)
• Computer Browser
• DHCP Client
• DNS Client
• Network Connections
• Network Location Awareness
• Remote Procedure Call (RPC)
• Server
• TCP/IP Netbios helper
• Wireless Zero Configuration (XP wireless configurations)
• WLAN AutoConfig (Vista wireless configurations)
• Workstation

Note: You can check the services in Control Panel, Administrative Tools, Services.

All of these services should be started, and their startup type should be automatic.

If a service is not running, open it's properties and check the dependencies. Check each of the dependencies and see which one is preventing the service from running. Checking the event log is also a good idea here, there may be clues to what is failing.


All computers should be in the same workgroup for computer browsing to function properly. File & Print Sharing has to be enabled on any computer you wish to share files or printers from. You also need to actually share the resource in question from My Computer, right click on the drive/printer/folder, and select sharing.

If you encounter difficulties accessing computers that are visible in Network Places (Network and Sharing Center in Vista), make sure the computer being accessed has an account with the same name/password as the system connecting to it uses to login. NOTE: Vista's default is to require a password on the account to enable file/print sharing.

While the default NetBIOS setting is correct for normal network configurations, it's possible for it to be altered, and it costs nothing to make sure it's correct. NETBIOS over TCP/IP must be enabled for normal network browsing. You can open a command prompt as described above and type the following command: nbtstat -n. This will display the status of NetBIOS or indicate it's not configured.

[wombatau]

Turned off the firewalls on all three. The XP Home computer could be pinged by both XP Pro machines. XP Pro-1 could ping XP Home. XP Pro-1 could not ping XP Pro-2. XP Pro-2 could not ping XP Pro-1. XP Home could ping XP-2. XP Home could not ping XP Pro-1. I hope that makes some sense to you. I cannot put it together. It seems that XP Pro-1 has the main problem...........thanks

[JohnWill]

Did you check all the services I mentioned in the previous post?

[wombatau]

No -- I misunderstood. I thought that if pinging did not work then I should stop and then fix that issue. I will check all of those and get back to you. Interestingly, XP Pro-2 can see XP Pro-1 via Network Places and can browse, but it does not ping it.

[wombatau]

I have checked and set all the services you noted. I checked pinging again and it is the same. The problem still exists. All firewalls are turned off and file and printer sharing is one. Hope you have some more tricks.

[JohnWill]

OK, we'll need to see a bit more information. I need to see the following from each of the three computers.


Hold the Windows key and press R, then type CMD to open a command prompt:

In the command prompt window that opens, type type the following commands, one at a time, followed by the Enter key:

Note that there is a space before the -n or the /ALL, but there is NOT a space after the - or / in the following commands.

NBTSTAT -n

IPCONFIG /ALL

Right click in the command window and choose Select All, then hit Enter to copy the contents to the clipboard.
Paste the results in a message here.

If you are on a machine with no network connection, use a floppy, USB disk, or a CD-RW disk to transfer a text file with the information to allow pasting it here.

[wombatau]

Sorry for the deal --had to go out of town -- hope this is what is supposed to come up....it only seems to show the main XP Pro computer and not the XP Pro laptop or the XP Home desktop -- should I do the same for both of them and send?

Microsoft Windows XP [Version 5.1.2600]
(C) Copyright 1985-2001 Microsoft Corp.
C:\Documents and Settings\Peter>NBTSTAT -n
Local Area Connection 4:
Node IpAddress: [192.168.0.141] Scope Id: []
NetBIOS Local Name Table
Name Type Status
---------------------------------------------
DAD <00> UNIQUE Registered
HOME <00> GROUP Registered
DAD <20> UNIQUE Registered
HOME <1E> GROUP Registered
HOME <1D> UNIQUE Registered
..__MSBROWSE__.<01> GROUP Registered
C:\Documents and Settings\Peter>IPCONFIG /ALL
Windows IP Configuration
Host Name . . . . . . . . . . . . : dad
Primary Dns Suffix . . . . . . . :
Node Type . . . . . . . . . . . . : Unknown
IP Routing Enabled. . . . . . . . : No
WINS Proxy Enabled. . . . . . . . : No
Ethernet adapter Local Area Connection 4:
Connection-specific DNS Suffix . :
Description . . . . . . . . . . . : Marvell Yukon 88E8053 PCI-E Gigabit
Ethernet Controller
Physical Address. . . . . . . . . : 00-15-F2-CA-E4-12
Dhcp Enabled. . . . . . . . . . . : Yes
Autoconfiguration Enabled . . . . : Yes
IP Address. . . . . . . . . . . . : 192.168.0.141
Subnet Mask . . . . . . . . . . . : 255.255.255.0
IP Address. . . . . . . . . . . . : fe80::215:f2ff:feca:e412%4
Default Gateway . . . . . . . . . : 192.168.0.1
DHCP Server . . . . . . . . . . . : 192.168.0.1
DNS Servers . . . . . . . . . . . : 192.168.0.1
fec0:0:0:ffff::1%1
fec0:0:0:ffff::2%1
fec0:0:0:ffff::3%1
Lease Obtained. . . . . . . . . . : Saturday, November 07, 2009 12:20:13
AM
Lease Expires . . . . . . . . . . : Sunday, November 08, 2009 12:20:13 A
M
Tunnel adapter Teredo Tunneling Pseudo-Interface:
Connection-specific DNS Suffix . :
Description . . . . . . . . . . . : Teredo Tunneling Pseudo-Interface
Physical Address. . . . . . . . . : 00-00-00-00-00-00-00-00
Dhcp Enabled. . . . . . . . . . . : No
IP Address. . . . . . . . . . . . : fe80::ffff:ffff:fffd%5
Default Gateway . . . . . . . . . :
NetBIOS over Tcpip. . . . . . . . : Disabled
Tunnel adapter Automatic Tunneling Pseudo-Interface:
Connection-specific DNS Suffix . :
Description . . . . . . . . . . . : Automatic Tunneling Pseudo-Interface
Physical Address. . . . . . . . . : C0-A8-00-8D
Dhcp Enabled. . . . . . . . . . . : No
IP Address. . . . . . . . . . . . : fe80::5efe:192.168.0.141%2
Default Gateway . . . . . . . . . :
DNS Servers . . . . . . . . . . . : fec0:0:0:ffff::1%1
fec0:0:0:ffff::2%1
fec0:0:0:ffff::3%1
NetBIOS over Tcpip. . . . . . . . : Disabled
C:\Documents and Settings\Peter>

[TerryNet]

should I do the same for both of them and send?

Yes; John said, "I need to see the following from each of the three computers."

[wombatau]

This is from the XP Pro laptop:
Microsoft Windows XP [Version 5.1.2600]
(C) Copyright 1985-2001 Microsoft Corp.

C:\Documents and Settings\Administrator>NBTSTAT -n

Wireless Network Connection 2:
Node IpAddress: [192.168.0.162] Scope Id: []

NetBIOS Local Name Table

Name Type Status
---------------------------------------------
LIFEBOOK-PMW <00> UNIQUE Registered
LIFEBOOK-PMW <20> UNIQUE Registered
HOME <00> GROUP Registered
HOME <1E> GROUP Registered

C:\Documents and Settings\Administrator>IPCONFIG /ALL

Windows IP Configuration

Host Name . . . . . . . . . . . . : LIFEBOOK-PMW
Primary Dns Suffix . . . . . . . :
Node Type . . . . . . . . . . . . : Unknown
IP Routing Enabled. . . . . . . . : No
WINS Proxy Enabled. . . . . . . . : No

Ethernet adapter Wireless Network Connection 2:

Connection-specific DNS Suffix . :
Description . . . . . . . . . . . : Intel(R) Wireless WiFi Link 4965AGN
Physical Address. . . . . . . . . : 00-1D-E0-8B-1D-B7
Dhcp Enabled. . . . . . . . . . . : Yes
Autoconfiguration Enabled . . . . : Yes
IP Address. . . . . . . . . . . . : 192.168.0.162
Subnet Mask . . . . . . . . . . . : 255.255.255.0
Default Gateway . . . . . . . . . : 192.168.0.1
DHCP Server . . . . . . . . . . . : 192.168.0.1
DNS Servers . . . . . . . . . . . : 192.168.0.1
Lease Obtained. . . . . . . . . . : Saturday, November 07, 2009 10:31:29
AM
Lease Expires . . . . . . . . . . : Sunday, November 08, 2009 10:31:29 A
M

C:\Documents and Settings\Administrator>

This is from the XP Home desktop:
Microsoft Windows XP [Version 5.1.2600]
(C) Copyright 1985-2001 Microsoft Corp.

C:\Documents and Settings\gmw>NBTSTAT -n

Local Area Connection:
Node IpAddress: [192.168.0.189] Scope Id: []

NetBIOS Local Name Table

Name Type Status
---------------------------------------------
GMW <00> UNIQUE Registered
HOME <00> GROUP Registered
GMW <20> UNIQUE Registered
HOME <1E> GROUP Registered
HOME <1D> UNIQUE Registered
..__MSBROWSE__.<01> GROUP Registered

C:\Documents and Settings\gmw>IPCONFIG /ALL

Windows IP Configuration

Host Name . . . . . . . . . . . . : gmw
Primary Dns Suffix . . . . . . . :
Node Type . . . . . . . . . . . . : Unknown
IP Routing Enabled. . . . . . . . : No
WINS Proxy Enabled. . . . . . . . : No

Ethernet adapter Local Area Connection:

Connection-specific DNS Suffix . :
Description . . . . . . . . . . . : VIA Rhine II Fast Ethernet Adapter
Physical Address. . . . . . . . . : 00-1A-92-6F-5A-3C
Dhcp Enabled. . . . . . . . . . . : Yes
Autoconfiguration Enabled . . . . : Yes
IP Address. . . . . . . . . . . . : 192.168.0.189
Subnet Mask . . . . . . . . . . . : 255.255.255.0
Default Gateway . . . . . . . . . : 192.168.0.1
DHCP Server . . . . . . . . . . . : 192.168.0.1
DNS Servers . . . . . . . . . . . : 192.168.0.1
Lease Obtained. . . . . . . . . . : Saturday, November 07, 2009 8:09:28
AM
Lease Expires . . . . . . . . . . : Sunday, November 08, 2009 8:09:28 AM


C:\Documents and Settings\gmw>

[JohnWill]

Well, the computer dad and gmw both think they're the master browser. This is almost always because of a firewall component blocking access by the network.

[wombatau]

I am using Trendmicro IS, but at the moment I have ALL firewalls turned off on all of the machines

[JohnWill]

Well, apparently not ALL the firewalls are disabled.

[wombatau]

I always felt it was in the firewalls when the problem first happened with Windows original firewall -- I have windows firewall turned off and also Trendmicro is turned off in the software and Trendmicro is not happy with me for doing it -- am I missing something or do I have to remove Trendmicro altogether

[TerryNet]

Sometimes those firewalls get corrupted so it is best to uninstall Trendmicro. And use their Removal Tool or cleanup procedure if they have one. Then you can reinstall and configure it after you determine whether or not it is the culprit for this issue.