Link to home
Start Free TrialLog in
Avatar of JoanEdington
JoanEdington

asked on

Win XP Pro SP3 PC shown as UNKNOWN in Netgear Router

I have lived with this for some time but it is possibly becoming a problem. We have a small network of 3 Win XP Pro boxes connected in a workgroup by a NEtgear router. 2 of the PCs appear in the Attached devices list with their computer name. The other simply shows as Unknown, although it has the correct IP and MAC addresses. I have looked at some similar posts but have not found an answer as yet.

The router is set up as a DHCP server and the PC, which is set to use DHCP, is picking up an address correctly. Netbios over TCP/IP is enabled and the Windows firewall is disabled. TCP/IP Netbios Helper is running and Routing and Remote Access is disabled. Client for Microsoft Networks and File & Printer Sharing are also enabled. These are some things that were mentioned in other posts.

The output from ipconfig /all is as follows:-
Windows IP Configuration
        Host Name . . . . . . . . . . . . : Squaw
        Primary Dns Suffix  . . . . . . . :
        Node Type . . . . . . . . . . . . : Unknown
        IP Routing Enabled. . . . . . . . : No
        WINS Proxy Enabled. . . . . . . . : No
Ethernet adapter Local Area Connection 2:
        Connection-specific DNS Suffix  . :
        Description . . . . . . . . . . . : Broadcom NetXtreme 57xx Gigabit Controller
        Physical Address. . . . . . . . . : 00-21-70-78-31-89
        Dhcp Enabled. . . . . . . . . . . : Yes
        Autoconfiguration Enabled . . . . : Yes
        IP Address. . . . . . . . . . . . : 100.0.0.12
        Subnet Mask . . . . . . . . . . . : 255.0.0.0
        Default Gateway . . . . . . . . . : 100.0.0.2
        DHCP Server . . . . . . . . . . . : 100.0.0.2
        DNS Servers . . . . . . . . . . . : 100.0.0.2
        Lease Obtained. . . . . . . . . . : 06 April 2012 13:08:30
        Lease Expires . . . . . . . . . . : 09 April 2012 13:08:30

I have even tried reserving an IP address on the router manually giving the correct name but still it connects as Unknown.

I am currently using a hard-wired LAN connection but I get the same results if I connect to the network via a wireless connection.

The reason it has raised its head is now I have a Win 7 netbook and want to use a shared CD drive on the PC that is Unknown. On the Win 7 m/c I can see all the PCs on the network but, if I click to expand the unknown one it says that Windows can't access it. If I click on the others I see all the shares etc. The only difference I can see is this Unknown device name in the router so wondered if it could be causing the problem.

Is there anything that might have changed since previous posts that could cause this behaviour?
Avatar of BelushiLomax
BelushiLomax
Flag of United States of America image

Do you have an internal DNS server or just NetBios and your router? You could set up dns internally on a workstation with server installed. Possibly even a low/no cost open source product you could throw on an unused pc...
Avatar of JoanEdington
JoanEdington

ASKER

We just use the router as DNS server. Since the other Win XP PCs work fine, as do our 2 Win 7 netbooks, I feel that setting up workstations etc for DNS shouldn't be necessary. I'm sure it must be some setting in this PC.

Thanks anyway, But I hope it won't come to that.
Avatar of Darr247
Compare the workgroup names on the Computer Name tab when you do Start->Run, sysdm.cpl [Enter] on each computer.

To make them show up in Win7's network map, you'll want to add the Link Layer Topology Discovery responder.
LLTD Fix for XP
The download link in that KB article will get you v5, which will fix XP SP2... it will refuse to install on SP3, however, and
MS forgot to put it in the service pack rollup... so you have to request the hotfix to get v6, which will install on SP3.
HotFix Request for SP3
The workgroup names are the same in all the PCs. On the Win7 network map it sees them all too. It simply won't recognise the one the router sees as unknown or expand the details. I've requested the hotfix and will see if it gets round the access problem.

I would still like to get the computer name into the router list if possible though. I can't see any differencesbetween the IP & Netbios setups.
ASKER CERTIFIED SOLUTION
Avatar of David Johnson, CD
David Johnson, CD
Flag of Canada 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
SOLUTION
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
So really now it's just a matter of aesthetics.  Try renaming that PC to something else as it may have a character in the name that the router can't handle.
I am going to close this topic since it seems to have solved itself. Possibly it was making the connection, but it is now seen as its proper name in the router and all is well.
The reason I am accepting one of my comments as part of a multiple solution is because it was basically fixed by comparing with my husband's machine. I didn't in fact need to do any of the suggestions although they were interesting and may have been needed in other circumstances.