Link to home
Start Free TrialLog in
Avatar of Mitleid242
Mitleid242

asked on

Can only browse ONE other machine on an NT4 network...

Hello there. I'm currenty managing a network made up of an NT4 server, 5 XP Pro machines and one 98 machine. There is one computer on the network, that for the life of me, I cannot get to sucessfully browse other computers. It can only browse through one other particular machine and the network. All of my other machines, including the win98 machine, have no problem at all when it comes to going through each other's shared resources. I've tried leaving/rejoining the domain several times already, deleting ALL of the listed machines from the NT4 Server Administrator, even renaming every computer on the network, but to no avail. All machines except for the server and the single isolated machine remain inaccessible. Any ideas, or diagnosis suggestions for the one machien I can browse, that I can try out? I'm getting to my wits end with this... Thanks in advance.
Avatar of Mitleid242
Mitleid242

ASKER

Oh... Forgot to mention. I did try altering the permissions settings on the machine I wanted to share from, but that did not work either.
Avatar of ShineOn
Have you verified that you don't have a computer name conflict?  Just a thought...

Have you checked your TCP/IP properties to make sure that NetBIOS over IP is turned on?

Can you find other computers on the network using their IP addresses if you do a search for other computers?
No name conflicts, and I can ping other users on the network no problem. As far as you're talking about NetBIOS, where should that be enabled? One of the first things I tried doing was installing the NetBIOS protocol, but that didn't do anything... What specific NetBIOS settings do you happen to be referring to>?

Thanks...
ASKER CERTIFIED SOLUTION
Avatar of TIMFOX123
TIMFOX123
Flag of United States of America image

Link to home
membership
This solution is only available to members.
To access this solution, you must be a member of Experts Exchange.
Start Free Trial
There should be an option in the properties for TCP/IP protocol, click on the "Advanced" button, select the WINS tab, and make sure the radio button next to Enable NetBIOS over TCP/IP is on.

NetBIOS is essential for peer-to-peer networking of Windows PC's.  NetBEUI is not a routable transport, so you need to use either NetBIOS over IP or NetBIOS over IPX.  

If you have no luck with NetBIOS over IP, you could try NetBIOS over IPX.  IPX is a more effective carrier of NetBIOS than is TCP/IP.  Of course, that would mean adding it to all of your PC's.
You said you can PING the other PC's - but can you find other PC's on the network using the "search for computers" function of My Network Places?  Either by name or by IP address?
So there's one machine that can't browse any other PC on the LAN?
Here comes some questions! :)

What O/S is that machine?
From that machine, can you ping other computers by IP address?
Can you ping other computers by computer name?

Are you using LMHOSTS/HOSTS/WINS and or DNS for name resolution?
Are all PCs in the same network segment?
Are all PCs in the same domain/workgroup?

Do you have NetBIOS over TCP/IP enabled?
Have you set a NetBIOS Scope ID?
Do you have TCP/IP filtering enabled?
Do you have a personal firewall running (esp XPs)?
JammyPak -

If you read the other comments, most of what you posted was already said or asked.

I think the very last question may be the most important, if the one that can't see the others is an XP.  That, and simple file sharing can cause problems with "normal" Windows file sharing.

Mitleid242 -

One other thing you should try is using an LMHOSTS file, like JammyPak mentioned in one of his questions.  I am making an assumption here that since you only have 6 client machines that you have not gone through the bother of setting up WINS on the NT4 server, but have been relying on the master browser for name resolution.
As vague as your answer was, you were right, Tim. I've inheretid this network, so there are a ton of little quirks that I don't even know about. It turns out that the two machines that could see each other had their WINS server specified; all the other machines could not. Why some could see each other and some could not I don't exactly understand, but after setting all my machines to the same WINS server they can all access each other just fine without any hitch at all. I'm not a professional admin, so I guess it's an excusable mistake... Hehehe. Thanks for all the input, everyone.

Don't I feel foolish...
Mitleid242-

What was the resolution to your problem.  Was it the WINS settings as indicated by TIMFOX123?

If that was your problem, and his comment was the correct answer, then you should award him a higher grade.

Please go to https://www.experts-exchange.com/help.jsp, click on the "closing questions" link, and select the "what's the right grade to give" link, then read that section so you understand why I say this.

An exactly correct answer deserves an "A".

A "C" should only be given if the question has not resulted in a solution for you, but you want to award effort.

To have the grade changed, post a question (costs zero points) in the Community Support TA, asking a moderator to change it.  Include a link to the question.

Thanks.
I didn't even notice that. Thanks for bringing that to my attention. My apologies, Tim. I'll submit that to the TA right away.
The "why" is because, since they're domain members, the server is the master browser, and name resolution over IP is done with WINS if no LMHOSTS file exists.