About Kevin Webb Expertise Windows Network questions. Wireless network technology specialist. 802.11x, as well as proprietary 2.4 and 5 Ghz LAN and WAN hardware questions. Server administrator with 400 Windows 2003 server and quite a few 2000 boxes. 1000 XP workstations.
Experience 5 years as a wireless LAN/WAN tech. A year as a Lotus Notes Admin then two years in Desktop BackOffice Support. Currently an Application Server Systems Engineer for a large Southern based bank. MCSE/MCSA, CCNA, A and other obligatory lesser certs
Question Sorry, I did leave out a couple things....Yes, I did turn off the windows firewall on the laptop. I am not sure if the boxes have home or pro - I will check when I get home. I did also use the wizard on both boxes all the way through. Here's the steps I took:
1) from desktkop shared hard drives
2) from desktop shared printer
3) from desktop ran network wizard
4) from laptop shared hard drive
5) from laptop ran network wizard
6) from laptop connected to shared printer
7) from laptop tested new printer connection (successful)
8) from laptop mapped drives to desktop c: and d:
9) from desktop attempted to map drive to laptop c: - could not open branch on network places tree, but could see the computer name
10)ran ping from desktop to laptop and received a reply
11)gave up after 2 hours of fighting :)
12)did not receive an error message when trying to map drive other than "Unable to connect" - very vague, but I believe it was because I could not expant the branch beyond the name of the laptop.
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Followup To
Question -
Hi Kevin,
I have recently set up a home network which consists of a laptop and a desktop both on windows xp connecting through a d-link router with dsl. The laptop is wireless. I have been successful in sharing a printer as well as from the laptop mapping the desktop's hard drives. My issue is that I am unable to map a drive on the desktop of the hard drive on the laptop. I can see the name of the laptop when trying to map a drive in the network places tree. I am also able to ping the laptop from the desktop. Any idea what may be happening here? Could this be a firewall issue? Or some type of blocking on the part of the laptop?
Answer -
XP Pro and Home handle sharing in different ways. If both are XP Home then simple file sharing makes it pretty easy. If your XP firewall is turned on then there needs to be an exception enabled for file and printer sharing. I'd recommend turning any firewall you have off and testing without it. That will tell you if the firewall is the problem. Or if it is not a factor. Unless it's something like Zone alarm. Zone alarm can screw up windows networking even when it's uninstalled. Something has to be shared of course. I would use UNC path instead of network places when getting to resources. Start, then Run. Type \\servername\share or just \\servername to get to the networked node. Obviously swapping my "servername" and "share" for the name of the remote computer and the name of the share. Unfortunately if you ran the wizards all the way through that could also be an issue. The XP network wizards are garbage. Really all that should be done, assuming setting up the shares manually is possible, is to enable file sharing. Then sharing a resource (file, folder or volume).
If XP pro then it can get more interesting. Much better networking in XP Pro but I assume you have Home on both machines, where you stuck with Simple File Sharing.
Troubleshooting is process of elimination so I'd probably go back to the beginning and walk through the process you took to get something shared out.
If you reply I'd need all the information you have. OS type, the steps you've taken (in detail) to setup the network, method you use to get to the shares, and exact error messages you get when the process fails. You can also gather information from the system event viewer. Right click My Computer, click manage, and hit the system event viewer from that MMC console.
Answer Try UNC path instead of Network Places. It is an incrediby unreliable method of getting to network resources. Typically what you may have is Master browser wars. Without local DNS or WINS windows uses broadcasts and a master browser list to cache computer name to IP mappings.
When you say you pinged successfully, was this by computer name or IP? Doesn't really mean much if it was by IP. If you can ping by computer name then resolution is working. In that case, if we assume the shares are done correctly, then there might be a larger issue. Pinging by name and seeing the remote machine but not getting to any shares is not good and may indicate a wizard problem. As I mentioned, running the wizard is about the last thing I'd ever do to a windows network. This is knowledge few have however and MS puts the wizard there so logic would tell most people to run it. Unfortunately if something goes wrong when running that wizard troubleshooting is virtually useless. You can uninstall file sharing, reboot, then reinstall which might fix the problem.
Go to the Start menu and select the Control Panel.
In the Control Panel window, double-click on Network Connections.
Right-click on the Local Area Connection icon in the window that appears.
From the menu which appears, choose Properties (use the left mouse button to make your selection).
Under This connection uses the following items, highlight File and Printer Sharing for Microsoft Networks. Note: If File and Printer Sharing for Microsoft Networks is not listed, then file sharing was not set up on your computer. You may close any open windows and skip the rest of these instructions.
Click Uninstall.
When you are asked if you are sure you want to uninstall File and Printer Sharing for Microsoft Networks, click Yes.
Click OK or Close to close the Local Area Connection Properties window.
If you are asked to restart your computer, click Yes. If you are not asked to restart your computer, from the Start menu, choose Turn Off Computer. In the Turn off computer window, click the Restart button to restart your computer.
Then go through the same steps except install F&P.
If you were pinging by IP try pinging by name. If that fails then you have a resolution problem. You can fight browser wars by turning all computers off. then booting up one at a time. the first booted computer "Should" make itself the master browser and when the other nodes come online they'll advertise and see that there is an existing master browser.
You can also just use the IP when mapping a drive or using UNC. \\192.168.1.2 from Start then Run box. replacing whatever the IP is of the remote machine.
