Problem viewing computers in workgroup

  • Thread starter Thread starter Peter Yocom
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Peter Yocom

I have two computers in a small home network. One running XP home and the
other running XP pro. Both are set to use the same workgroup name. When I
select "View workgroup computers", both computers see each other. However if
from either computer I double click on the other, I get the error 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. The network path was not found". This seems to be
some sort of address resolution problem because if I set up a LMHOSTS file
with the IP addresses of the computers everything works fine. However I want
to use DHCP to assign the IP address since one of the machines is a work
laptop and that is how we are configured at work. Therefore using the
LMHOSTS file is not a good solution. Anyone have suggestions on what I can
look at to figure out what is going on? I do find it strange that XP can
find the computers initially to display them in the "View workgroup
computers" display, but cannot then find the network path when a computer is
selected.

Thanks for any help,
Peter
 
-----Original Message-----
I have two computers in a small home network. One running XP home and the
other running XP pro. Both are set to use the same workgroup name. When I
select "View workgroup computers", both computers see each other. However if
from either computer I double click on the other, I get the error 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. The network path was not found". This seems to be
some sort of address resolution problem because if I set up a LMHOSTS file
with the IP addresses of the computers everything works fine. However I want
to use DHCP to assign the IP address since one of the machines is a work
laptop and that is how we are configured at work. Therefore using the
LMHOSTS file is not a good solution. Anyone have suggestions on what I can
look at to figure out what is going on? I do find it strange that XP can
find the computers initially to display them in the "View workgroup
computers" display, but cannot then find the network path when a computer is
selected.

Thanks for any help,
Peter


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Click to expand...
Peter I am having the same problem only one computer is
running XP Home and the other Win 98 SE
If you get any help please forward it to me
Thanks so much
Bob
 
Check to see if Netbios over tcp/ip is enabled. You want to right click
on your network adapter (the one serving the local network), open
properties, highlight tcp/ip, select properties, advanced, click the
wins tab and enable netbios over tcp/ip if it's not enabled on all the
computers.

This may help or it may not.
 
That was my first thought as well. Second thought is to enable simple
file sharing on the XP Pro machine in the Folder Options control panel.
Bottom of the list on the View tab, IIRC.

If you just switched one of the machines on, you may have to wait quite
a while before you can access the other machine. One quick workaround is
to enter \\x.x.x.x in the address bar, where the x's denote the IP
address of the other machine.

Of course, you have to make sure you shared something on each machine.
 
Pete,

You mentioned that you wanted the computers to get an IP address via DHCP. What are you using as a DHCP server? A router perhaps?
 
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