If you can logon locally or use Remote Desktop to do such on one of the
problem computers then you know it is network related and if not you don't
have the proper group membership on the computer. You need to be a
administrator or power user on the target computer in order to create local
user accounts which you probably can see via Computer Management if you have
proper network connectivity. Do you get any particular error message?
Other common reasons that access via Computer Management can fail are that
the target computer has it's Windows Firewall enabled and it does not allow
file and print sharing and remote management exception at all or at least
from the IP of your workstation, that the target computer does not have the
server service running, the target computer does not have the remote
registry service running, the target computer has an ipsec policy that does
not allow your computer to have access to the file and print sharing/remote
management ports/protocols, there is a name resolution problem with the
target computer in which case you could try to access it by it's IP address
but ultimately name resolution problem needs to be fixed, there are
incompatible security settings between computers such as digitally sign
communications [kind of unlikely], or your account does not have "access
this computer from the network" user right on the target computer. You can
use command line tools like ping to test basic network connectivity and
portqry to see if the necessary ports are open on the target computer from
your computer such as 139 TCP and 445 TCP as shown in the example below once
you install portqry on your computer. --- Steve
http://support.microsoft.com/kb/310099 -- portqry
portqry -n 169.254.0.11 -p tcp -o 139,445
portqry -n computer1.mydomain.com -p tcp -o 139,445
