Workgroup Network Problems

[tesco]

I have three computers on the network:
Computer 1 (Mine)
Windows 7
Username: tesco

Computer 2
Windows 7
Username: tesco

Computer 3
Windows Vista
Username: somethingelse

All three are in the same workground, have windows firewall disabled, and do not have third-party firewalls installed.
All three computers have at least one folder shared.

Computer's 2 & 3 can connect to eachother just fine. They can also both connect to computer 1 just fine.
When connecting, each will ask for the username and password to access that computer. Once it is entered I am able to browse the shared folders just fine.

The problem is with computer 1. It cannot connect to either computer 2 OR 3.
I do not get a username/password prompt at all, it just goes straight to "The network path was not found".

Any ideas?

An update: I was mistaken. The vista machine can access either win7 machine, but the win7 machines cannot access anything at all.

[Cabalo]

Have you tried connecting to PC 2 or 3 using their LAN IP instead their netbios name ?

[tesco]

How do I do that?

[Cabalo]

Open IE, and in the address put \\the-remote-pc-ip
For example, \\192.168.1.2

You do know which IPs are attributed to each one? Are you using DHCP or manually assigning IPs ?

[c0ld]

Disable the Homegroups on the W7 computers. It causes no end of buggy behaviour on mixed networks.

[tesco]

Disable the Homegroups on the W7 computers. It causes no end of buggy behaviour on mixed networks.

You might be on to something, but I can't figure out how to turn it off.
When I click on "Leave the homegroup..." it says "Windows couldn't remove your computer from the homegroup".
I'm not sharing anything in the home group.

edit: Just managed to 'leave the homegroup'. That didn't help me.
Wasn't a total loss though. It got rid of that pesky homegroups icon from my windows explorer. :01:


Open IE, and in the address put \\the-remote-pc-ip
For example, \\192.168.1.2

You do know which IPs are attributed to each one? Are you using DHCP or manually assigning IPs ?
Ya I know the IPs.
I'm just getting the same error "Windows cannot access \\xxx.xxx.xxx.xxx"

[Cabalo]

Ok, so try do the following:
1st - Check if the time and date are correct on each machine. Sometimes people mistake AM with PM. Then try to connect. If it works, ignore the 2nd part of the post.

2nd - click the start button and type secpol.msc in the search function. Browse to "Local Policies" -> "Security Options". Now look for the entry "Network Security: LAN Manager authentication level" and open it. Click on the dropdown menu and select "Send LM & NTLM - use NTLMv2 session security if negotiated". Apply the settings.
In the Advanced sharing settings page of Network and sharing center, you need to have it set as Work/Home profile. Try
-Enable network discovery
-Turn on file and print sharing
-Turn off password protected sharing
-Use user accounts and passwords to connect to other computers
The other settings such as encryption I have set as use 128 bit encryption.
Please check related policies.
1. Enter “gpedit.msc” in the Start Search box.
2. Open “Computer Configuration”/Windows Settings/Security Settings/Local Policies/Security Settings.
3. In the right pane, enable the following policies:
Network access: Allow anonymous SID/name translation
Network access: Let Everyone permissions apply to anonymous users
Also please disable the following policies.
Network access: Restrict anonymous access to Named Pipes and Shares
Network access: Do not allow anonymous enumeration of SAM accounts
Network access: Do not allow anonymous enumeration of SAM accounts and shares

[darkstate01]

I'm amazed no one has asked can you ping the ip of the rogue pc?
And as cabalo has said in great detail make sure you add the user to the folder permissions.Can you post some screen capture pics of your errors as well and any info your event viewer is giving you.
Event viewer is god of info on your pc.

[backlash]

I found that I had to share the folder with everyone. Sharing tab > advanced sharing > permissions > add everyone there.

[tesco]

OK I've just realized something.
When I posted this thread I didn't have access to Computer 2 (win7).
I just went on it now and it's also not able to connect to either of the other computers.
This means the vista machines can access both of the win7 machines, but the win7 machines cannot access anything (neither win7 nor vista).



Ok, so try do the following:
1st - Check if the time and date are correct on each machine. Sometimes people mistake AM with PM. Then try to connect. If it works, ignore the 2nd part of the post.

2nd - click the start button and type secpol.msc in the search function. Browse to "Local Policies" -> "Security Options". Now look for the entry "Network Security: LAN Manager authentication level" and open it. Click on the dropdown menu and select "Send LM & NTLM - use NTLMv2 session security if negotiated". Apply the settings.
In the Advanced sharing settings page of Network and sharing center, you need to have it set as Work/Home profile. Try
-Enable network discovery
-Turn on file and print sharing
-Turn off password protected sharing
-Use user accounts and passwords to connect to other computers
The other settings such as encryption I have set as use 128 bit encryption.
Please check related policies.
1. Enter “gpedit.msc” in the Start Search box.
2. Open “Computer Configuration”/Windows Settings/Security Settings/Local Policies/Security Settings.
3. In the right pane, enable the following policies:
Network access: Allow anonymous SID/name translation
Network access: Let Everyone permissions apply to anonymous users
Also please disable the following policies.
Network access: Restrict anonymous access to Named Pipes and Shares
Network access: Do not allow anonymous enumeration of SAM accounts
Network access: Do not allow anonymous enumeration of SAM accounts and shares

Just checked all of your suggestions and then logged out/in (as I was told when applying one of the settings) and it hasn't helped.


I'm amazed no one has asked can you ping the ip of the rogue pc?
And as cabalo has said in great detail make sure you add the user to the folder permissions.Can you post some screen capture pics of your errors as well and any info your event viewer is giving you.
Event viewer is god of info on your pc.
All computers can ping all other computers. This is confirmed.
Infact I can even connect using Remote Desktop Connection. I used the computer name to connect, ip also works.
It is just the file & printer sharing that is a problem.

6405

[Cabalo]

What about this?

http://img9.imageshack.us/img9/1683/captureha.png

[Appzalien]

I vaugely remember something from my short stint with 7 (I hated it), something about ipv6 being enabled on 7 made it impossible to connect properly. Or maybe it was ipv6 on vista not able to connect, I can't remember. But one of them has ipv6 enabled by default and it causes problems with other machine that don't. Supposedly you can turn it on on the others that don't or turn it off on the ones its active on. I turned it off.

[darkstate01]

Then i think its a permissions problem,just add the user/computer to the ntfs-also make sure you have aloud enough people to connect at 1 time look at the "Limit the number of simultaneous users".
It shouldn't be that hard to solve.

[darkstate01]

Did it solve the problem? or have you solved it yourself? If so what was the problem and how did you solve it.
Curious thats all.

[tesco]

Nahh didn't solve it.
It can't be a permission problem, the vista machine can access the win7 machines. :wacko:
I also tried disabling IPv6 but that didn't help. Haven't restarted since then though.

[backlash]

have you tried using the run command like this:

\\computername

to access the other computers?

[darkstate01]

You beat me to that one.
start-run-\\computername\sharedfolder then put you name and pass in and see what it spits back at ya.
Don't give up, i like a challenge.

[tesco]

You beat me to that one.
start-run-\\computername\sharedfolder then put you name and pass in and see what it spits back at ya.
Don't give up, i like a challenge.
That doesn't work.

This is starting to bug me again.
My sister just got a laptop and I'm trying to help her transfer all of her music and other files from her pc to laptop but the PC cannot be accessed. It was "computer 2" in my original post.

So to recap...
Laptop 1
Windows 7

Laptop1 can access computer 1 because it gets a password prompt, but computer 1 cannot access laptop1.
Computer 2 cannot access the laptop OR be access by the laptop.
Computer 3 communicates normally with the laptop (no problem there).


I think there could be a service or something else disabled that shouldn't be.
I'm going to probably format computer2 and reinstall windows7 on it, then troubleshoot from there to see what caused the issue so that I can fix my own computer (computer1).

[Cabalo]

You don't happen to be using some vLite custom version of windows on any of those PCs ?

[tesco]

You don't happen to be using some vLite custom version of windows on any of those PCs ?
Nope I've never used one of those in my life.
I like to do the customizing myself.

They're even runnning different releases of windows7, computer2 is running the beta and computer1 is running something from around april 2010 (one of those monthly releases with the integrated updates).

[654654sdsgs]

Try Disabling Homegroup

http://windows7forums.com/windows-7-networking/3482-how-do-i-disable-homegroup.html

Other Tips

http://blogs.techrepublic.com.com/window-on-windows/?p=1910&tag=EyeBrow

http://www.overclock.net/networking-security/699274-help-vista-pc-cant-access-shared.html