Question about XP workgroups

ajrutherford

Solid State Member
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10
Hello, all,

I'm having issues with several Windows XP workgroups. This is happening almost everywhere. Same issue, though.

When I have to rebuild a computer, or a migrate my laptop into a new workgroup or anything of that nature, occasionally one or more computers in the network absolutely refuse to recognize any other computer in the network, and the other computers will not see it.

This happens on networks with layer 2 switches, layer 3 switches, firewalls, no firewalls, file sharing on, off, what-have-you.

My question is is there a resource (or set of resources) I could pick up at the local bookstore or download from a company that will help me resolve workgroup issues. On a few instances I've had to resort to reinstalling windows to get everything to work again. But there has to be a solution that doesn't involve such a drastic measure.

Thank you in advance for any advice.

AJ Rutherford
 
The Windows XP Bible has some good info in it. Basically, books on Windows networking. Keep in mind it's Windows, and there's always a possibility something could go wrong. Usually when these types of issues happens, it's permissions issues- usually takes some time to figure out, especially if you have a relatively large workgroup.
 
Is this a home network or something else? Are you getting any errors? Can you do the obvious like pinging the network or servers etc? What OSs are you running on the computers? Are they static or automatic IP's Have you checked ya permissions etc?
Heres a simple guide to check the basics, incase ya havent done so already
http://www.pctechnicians.ca/help/workgroup.html
 
Thank you for the responses.

Most of the networks I deal with are small business and home networks. All of them are workgroup based. The errors I'm getting amount to the same thing, <this> network is unavailable, you may not have permission to use it blah blah blah blah. As for permissions I thought about that, but for some very odd reason if I switch simple permissions off on the system things end up worse than they were before. I have even gone so far as to share a drive and allow everyone full control on a few occasions, with the same result. Rebuilding the computer onto the network doesn't seem to work many times either.

I've consulted my peers I went to college with and they're having workgroup issues as well. All of us came to a conclusion that there might be a firewall issue going on, even if/when you shut off the windows firewall. Norton Internet Security 2006 has been a nightmare on this issue as well.

Pinging tends to work, but that's been hit and miss. A netstat reveals sometimes ports are closed (110, 21, 23 etc.) and I actually can't figure out how to open them.

Thank you, Raffaz, for the link, and pctechmike for the book reference. Even on brief reading there are a few things I've already learned about workgroups.
 
Are these your networks your using? If not then you might need to contact the administrator, to get access. Also if your running norton, try uninstalling it completely, as turning it off doesnt seem to work properly.
Also, you mention permisions, and going by what your saying i think your talking about file share permisions and not NTFS permissions (im just guessing here coz ya mentioned simple permissions).
Another thing is to maybe try a pathping on the network, its a combination of ping and tracert. This might show a problem with a particular router etc in the network.
Thats all i can suggest as i dont really know what type of setup your running.
 
Raffaz said:
... Also, you mention permisions, and going by what your saying i think your talking about file share permisions and not NTFS permissions (im just guessing here coz ya mentioned simple permissions).
Another thing is to maybe try a pathping on the network, its a combination of ping and tracert. This might show a problem with a particular router etc in the network.
Thats all i can suggest as i dont really know what type of setup your running.

Thanks for the advice. I actually didn't know about NTFS permissions.

An update on some of the networks. One of them is just a workgroup using a linksys WRT54G switch with wireless issuing DHCP. That's my home network. I can't figure out why, but one day the computer that refused to play with the rest of the network just started talking to everyone. I could not for the life of me figure out what changed. But it's working fine.

As for the other network. It's using a Linksys firewall switch with DHCP and a L2 switch attached to that for a large network. Eventually the company (they work in a suite next to mine) called their tech support, and according to the people who normally do the network THEY went through the same motions I did in person (check the workgroup, renew the IP, reboot the machine, run the network ID wizard, rebuild the workgroup etc.) and voila it worked. Why it didn't work with me and did with them is again beyond me, but I'm beginning to believe that a domain based network is far better than a workgroup. Any validity in that hypothesis?
 
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