I mean that if I navigate to a machine in the network neighbourhood and
double click it, I get any one of a number of errors. If I go to start/run
and type \\computername I get the same types of errors. If I go to
start/run and type \\computername\sharename it works fine.
If the sharename (you typed) were only $ shares like C$
that might make sense.
There must be some non-hidden shares for the other
methods to work.
I am under the impression that the IPC$ share is actually
used to authenticate connections to all other sharepoints
so (even if that is not true) you hide the real symptoms
by saying IPC share it broken.
What do you get if you open a command prompt and type:
net view \\servername ???
How about:
net use \\ServerName\IPC$
How about:
\\IP.of.Ser.ver\IPC$
If either of the last work (reliably and repeatedly) then IPC$
is fine.
You may have to disconnect from everything on that server
to really test the above since once connected you don't
generally need to authenticate again.
On the affected server does: net share
....show the IPC$ share?
Chances are it is really some sort of authentication, and then
high percentage in Win2000+ domains a DNS, problem.
