Question

Unable to access workgroup computer

Asked by: kzoller

I have a home network via a wired router wiith 5 ("A" - "E") computers all in the same workgroup running Win XP. All the workgroup computers are visible from each other. However, all of a sudden one of the computers ("A") cannot be accessed to share its files or even to check its properties. When I try to get to "A" from Network Neighborhood, I get these error messages: " 'A' is not accessible. You might not have permission to use this network resource" or "You do not have appropriate access rights for this server"  It ("A") is able to get into others on the netwok and copy, move etc file to it without problems. File sharing etc. is turned on for the Shared documents folder. I tried turning off my firewall, etc (Norton Internet Security) and because I use Norton, my Windows firewall is normally off. Still the same problem. I can "Ping" "A" without problems from "B" etc.I've run and rerun the Win XP Network Setup Wizard without correcting the problem and know the computer is on the network but there must be some security setting I'm missing (This is one of my kid's computers so they may have changed something unknown to me). I've also run the most recent Norton AntiVirus scan.

What should I try next?
Thank you
KZ

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Asked On
2005-06-25 at 10:43:19ID21470704
Tags

access

,

workgroup

,

unable

,

computer

Topics

Miscellaneous Networking

,

Consumer Firewalls

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Answers

 

by: decoleurPosted on 2005-06-25 at 11:09:07ID: 14301140

Are they running XP Pro or Home? Home has a limit of 5 connections to a share and I wonder if you are running into that ceiling.
Try shutting off one of the working computers after you have verified that it does work, and restart the one that doesn't... after you bring back up the flaky one try connecting again. Does it work with one of the other computers down?

HTH

-t

 

by: kzollerPosted on 2005-06-25 at 12:25:43ID: 14301426

Same problem with only one other computer working - the "bad" one has XP Home, others with XP Pro or XP Home.

 

by: decoleurPosted on 2005-06-25 at 12:30:02ID: 14301461

with one other on, take the bad one and change the workgroup to test, restart and then change the workgroup back, restart... any luck?

 

by: kzollerPosted on 2005-06-25 at 14:28:27ID: 14301802

I tried your suggestion to change workgroup name on the "bad", restart, change back, restart, and still no good.

 

by: Magus_opusPosted on 2005-06-26 at 14:14:48ID: 14304996

do you have automatic updates?  any changes to security settings or have you disabled simple filesharing on one or more computers?

another reason may be a third party, or windows firewall.

 

by: paenil1Posted on 2005-06-28 at 06:26:50ID: 14317950

kzoller

You have to change your security settings on Computer A.  Star/Control Panel/Administrative Tools/Local Security Policies

The under "Local Policies" choose "User rights assingments".  Check to see if 'Everyone' is listed under "Access this computer from the network".  If it's not, then add it.  Then, check "Deny access to this computer from the network" to make sure 'Everyone' is not listed.  If it is, remove it.

Lomi

 

by: kzollerPosted on 2005-06-28 at 14:55:19ID: 14323521

Computer A is running Win XP Home and there is no visible "Local Security Policies" under Administrative Tools (I do have it on another computer running Win XP Pro). Where can I find it on XP Home?
Thanks

 

by: luv2smilePosted on 2005-06-30 at 12:07:26ID: 14341442

There are no security policies in XP home. This is a difference between home and pro and is an example of why it is very important when you ask for help that you state what version of XP you have....it makes a huge difference in trying to provide advice.

Create the EXACT same username with the EXACT same password for all your workstations and see if you can use that to access the machine across the network.

 

by: kzollerPosted on 2005-06-30 at 14:15:27ID: 14342492

I haven't needed to enter usernames or passwords before to use my network (before something messed-up "A")and my other computers run either XP Home or XP Pro without problems with different usernames when originally set up (there is only one username on each computer and that person is the administrator of that machine).

 

by: kzollerPosted on 2005-07-01 at 15:19:43ID: 14351619

I found the answer to my question at the following:

http://www.michna.com/kb/wxnet.htm  and resolved the inability to access "A" computer. The hint was from the Windows XP Newsgroup on the Microsoft.com/windowsXP/expertzone web site.
--------------------------
The RestrictAnonymous registry value
You have both the following symptoms:

You can ping the computer by IP and by name.
When you type on another computer, replacing computername with the name of the inaccessible computer:
net view \\computername

you get one of the various "Error 5" error messages, like "System error 5 has occurred. Access is denied" or "Error 5: You do not currently have access to this file. ..."

This is in some cases caused by a registry setting named RestrictAnonymous. Go to the computer which you cannot access, start a registry editor and change the following registry value.

HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE
 \SYSTEM
  \CurrentControlSet
   \Control
    \Lsa
Value name: RestrictAnonymous
Value type: DWORD

If the value is 1 or even 2, change it to 0, reboot and retest. If the problem is solved, leave the value at zero. If not, you can change it back if you like.

Check immediately afterwards and again after a reboot, whether the value changes back to non-zero on its own. If that happens, then you have to find the culprit, which can be spyware, a worm, or a badly designed security program. In this case this procedure most likely solved your problem, but then the bad software stepped back in and recreated the problem.

In this case you can try to disable running programs and services and retry until you find out which one is responsible. Or you could try to download and run RegMon from www.sysinternals.com. In RegMon set a filter for the registry value in question (or wade through all the registry accesses), set the problem value to zero, then observe which program accesses it and changes it back to 1. Locate that program and uninstall it. And please don't forget to report the bad program here, so we can get a list of offending programs.
---------------------------------------
This site was a great resource.
Ken Zoller

20120131-EE-VQP-002

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