Why do file and print sharing work and then fail?

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I have a home network with a netgear wireless router (WPN824v2) with one
Vista Business desktop to which there is a printer attached (and shared), a
network storage device (plugged directly into the router), and three XP
laptops. If the Vista computer has been freshly restarted, or its network
connection restarted, or the router restarted, all of the computers can see
each other (yes, LLTD protocols are installed on all of the computers), share
files, print to the printer, do little dances (okay, maybe not). But after a
couple of hours, the Vista computer (and its attached printer) goes
incognito. None of the XP computers can find it or anything it shares
anymore, and the Vista computer can't access anything shared on the XP
computers or the network storage device. BUT all of the XP computers can
still access each other just fine. And the Vista computer can ping all of
the other devices, but that's really all it can do. That said, Vista also
doesn't lose any other network connectivity, and can still access the web
just fine. It just decides it doesn't like the rest of the computers on my
home network. Any help?

In case this helps:
NetBIOS over TCP/IP is enabled on all PCs
Password protected sharing is OFF
The problem occurs in exactly the same way and with the same frequency with
firewalls on each computer ON and OFF.
Resetting the connection on the Vista computer ALWAYS fixes the problem,
while resetting the connection on any of the XP computers is ineffective.

Thanks!
 
The vent viewer... like the event viewer? What should I be looking for? And
on which computer? At least on the XP laptops, nothing comes up on the event
viewer (either as a success or error) when I try to access resources on the
Vista machine.
And actually, I can't ping it or bring it up using net use in this
direction. But it does ping from the Vista to the XP machines. Could the
uni-directionality of it be indicative of something?
 
alwaysasigh said:
The vent viewer... like the event viewer? What should I be looking for?
And
on which computer? At least on the XP laptops, nothing comes up on the
event
viewer (either as a success or error) when I try to access resources on
the
Vista machine.
And actually, I can't ping it or bring it up using net use in this
direction. But it does ping from the Vista to the XP machines. Could the
uni-directionality of it be indicative of something?
Click to expand...
Yes, it means that the Vista machine is not accepting ping packets. These
are a particular type of ICMP packets.
You will have lots of problems if the Vista machine does not always accept
such packets, and one of them is file and printer sharing failures. The
event viewer on the Vista machine may have additional information.
Jim
 
I have a home network with a netgear wireless router (WPN824v2) with one
Vista Business desktop to which there is a printer attached (and shared), a
network storage device (plugged directly into the router), and three XP
laptops. If the Vista computer has been freshly restarted, or its network
connection restarted, or the router restarted, all of the computers can see
each other (yes, LLTD protocols are installed on all of the computers), share
files, print to the printer, do little dances (okay, maybe not). But after a
couple of hours, the Vista computer (and its attached printer) goes
incognito. None of the XP computers can find it or anything it shares
anymore, and the Vista computer can't access anything shared on the XP
computers or the network storage device. BUT all of the XP computers can
still access each other just fine. And the Vista computer can ping all of
the other devices, but that's really all it can do. That said, Vista also
doesn't lose any other network connectivity, and can still access the web
just fine. It just decides it doesn't like the rest of the computers on my
home network. Any help?

In case this helps:
NetBIOS over TCP/IP is enabled on all PCs
Password protected sharing is OFF
The problem occurs in exactly the same way and with the same frequency with
firewalls on each computer ON and OFF.
Resetting the connection on the Vista computer ALWAYS fixes the problem,
while resetting the connection on any of the XP computers is ineffective.

Thanks!
Click to expand...


The ability to "see" other computers, in Network Neighborhood, is provided by
the browser system. If all of the computers are connected, they will very
politely elect a master browser, and the master browser will, authoritatively
tell each computer what other computers are on the LAN.

If the LAN becomes segmented, as can happen with WiFi, the computers on the
segmented section that does NOT include the master browser will dutifully elect
a new master browser, to authoritatively tell them what computers are on the
LAN. That won't include the former master browser, which is now on another
segment.
<http://nitecruzr.blogspot.com/2005/04/nt-browser-or-why-cant-i-always-see.html>
http://nitecruzr.blogspot.com/2005/04/nt-browser-or-why-cant-i-always-see.html

You can detect the browser status, at any time, by running "browstat status"
from each computer, and comparing the results. Read this article, and linked
articles, and follow instructions precisely (download browstat!):
<http://nitecruzr.blogspot.com/2005/05/troubleshooting-network-neighborhood.html#AskingForHelp>
http://nitecruzr.blogspot.com/2005/05/troubleshooting-network-neighborhood.html#AskingForHelp
 
Okay, here's my question:

How do I fix this? The only thing physically plugged into the router is the
network storage device. Browstat says that browsing isn't active on the
\Device\NwlnkNb transport, but it does say that the network storage device is
acting as the master browser on the domain. But it doesn't seem to be doing
a great job as a master browser. And all of the computer browser services
are off on the other computers. So... Is there any solution if all of the
useful computers are wifi on the network? I'm up to try anything to fix it!
 
How... might I be able to fix the Vista machine not accepting that type of
ICMP packets? Maybe some ports are closed that shouldn't be for some reason?
But would that explain it working when the network is first initiated, and
not later?
 
Okay, here's my question:

How do I fix this? The only thing physically plugged into the router is the
network storage device. Browstat says that browsing isn't active on the
\Device\NwlnkNb transport, but it does say that the network storage device is
acting as the master browser on the domain. But it doesn't seem to be doing
a great job as a master browser. And all of the computer browser services
are off on the other computers. So... Is there any solution if all of the
useful computers are wifi on the network? I'm up to try anything to fix it!
Click to expand...

How to fix it is quite simple. You remove the protocols that aren't used by the
other computers. You make the list ("This connection uses the following items")
identical, on all computers. Remove items on one computer that aren't present
on the others. You don't need NwlnkNb (aka NWLink IPX/SPX).
<http://nitecruzr.blogspot.com/2006/10/network-language-that-your-computer.html>
http://nitecruzr.blogspot.com/2006/10/network-language-that-your-computer.html
 
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