P
Phil Carroll
I am trying to add a new XP machine to an existing SOHO network. Silly me. The new computer has XP installed but not yet activated. The MB has massive integrated devices, including Gigabit ethernet and 1394.
The existing network has been working for almost seven years with zero problems, first using coax then switching to 100 Base T. Before introducing the new machine, the network consisted of: Win2k Pro desktop, Win98 desktop, Win98 laptop, Cisco 678 DSL router providing DHCP and NAT, and HP JetDirect controlling an HP 3300 series unit, all on one DLink 10/100 switch. The net was running NetBEUI. All three computers share files with the other two, and all three use the Internet.
I started by disconnecting the laptop and using its port to attach the XP computer. The default configuration that XP installed instantly hooked to the Web and popped up an MSN screen. I told XP about the network attached printer and installed the JetDirect .inf file and the printer worked. Two minutes. By this time, I am thinking networking in XP is a snap!
Time to fire up file sharing. I installed NetBEUI from the CD and bound it to file sharing and MS network client and rebooted. (I had already joined the workgroup during installation) No go. XP will not recognize the existence of any computers on the network. The other computers can not see the XP computer.
Finding out that MS will not provide any support of NetBEUI with XP, I bit the bullet. Reconfigured everything to use TCP/IP instead. Stupidly, at this time I also carried the XP CD over to the Win98 computer and ran the network wizard as instructed by the XP wizard. Gotcha! The Win98 computer is now screwed up and networking will have to be reinstalled.
I am now concentrating on sharing just between the WinXP and Win2K computers. An old post in this newsgroup suggested that it will only work if the workgroup is name "MSHOME", so I set both the XP and Win2k to join MSHOME. With the network reconfigured to use NetBIOS over TCP/IP and the bindings set for TCP/IP, Win2k sees the XP shares. Works perfectly. However, from the XP side it is a totally different story. When I try to expand "Microsoft Network" there is a delay that feels like 10 minutes but I think it is actually only about 2 minutes. Finally, XP reluctantly shows the name "MSHOME". Expanding that results in another interminable wait, then the two computer names appear. Then, if I click on the name of the Win2K computer, there is yet a third interminable wait, followed by a message"xxx 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." (Were there ever more idiotic messages than these messages to "contact the administrator"?) Sometimes, such as just now, the message comes up when I try to expand the workgroup, and the xxx in the message is the name of the workgroup. Sometimes it finds the computers. It never finds any resources it can share.
I have been struggling with this for at least 4 days. A couple of days ago, it was working to the extent that the delays disappeared, but no access to Win2K. I am close to tossing XP in the trash and loading a real OS onto this machine. But hopefuly, somebody knows the magic incantations that will make XP retrieve files from another computer.
The existing network has been working for almost seven years with zero problems, first using coax then switching to 100 Base T. Before introducing the new machine, the network consisted of: Win2k Pro desktop, Win98 desktop, Win98 laptop, Cisco 678 DSL router providing DHCP and NAT, and HP JetDirect controlling an HP 3300 series unit, all on one DLink 10/100 switch. The net was running NetBEUI. All three computers share files with the other two, and all three use the Internet.
I started by disconnecting the laptop and using its port to attach the XP computer. The default configuration that XP installed instantly hooked to the Web and popped up an MSN screen. I told XP about the network attached printer and installed the JetDirect .inf file and the printer worked. Two minutes. By this time, I am thinking networking in XP is a snap!
Time to fire up file sharing. I installed NetBEUI from the CD and bound it to file sharing and MS network client and rebooted. (I had already joined the workgroup during installation) No go. XP will not recognize the existence of any computers on the network. The other computers can not see the XP computer.
Finding out that MS will not provide any support of NetBEUI with XP, I bit the bullet. Reconfigured everything to use TCP/IP instead. Stupidly, at this time I also carried the XP CD over to the Win98 computer and ran the network wizard as instructed by the XP wizard. Gotcha! The Win98 computer is now screwed up and networking will have to be reinstalled.
I am now concentrating on sharing just between the WinXP and Win2K computers. An old post in this newsgroup suggested that it will only work if the workgroup is name "MSHOME", so I set both the XP and Win2k to join MSHOME. With the network reconfigured to use NetBIOS over TCP/IP and the bindings set for TCP/IP, Win2k sees the XP shares. Works perfectly. However, from the XP side it is a totally different story. When I try to expand "Microsoft Network" there is a delay that feels like 10 minutes but I think it is actually only about 2 minutes. Finally, XP reluctantly shows the name "MSHOME". Expanding that results in another interminable wait, then the two computer names appear. Then, if I click on the name of the Win2K computer, there is yet a third interminable wait, followed by a message"xxx 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." (Were there ever more idiotic messages than these messages to "contact the administrator"?) Sometimes, such as just now, the message comes up when I try to expand the workgroup, and the xxx in the message is the name of the workgroup. Sometimes it finds the computers. It never finds any resources it can share.
I have been struggling with this for at least 4 days. A couple of days ago, it was working to the extent that the delays disappeared, but no access to Win2K. I am close to tossing XP in the trash and loading a real OS onto this machine. But hopefuly, somebody knows the magic incantations that will make XP retrieve files from another computer.