donpick
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Requesting help for "The list of servers for this workgroup is not currently available" Error
There are 6 computers in our network. Five of them run Windows 7 pro and 1 runs Windows home premium.
They are all in a peer to peer network
All of them are running Virtualbox . The guest operating system on all of them is Windows 2000.
The Windows 2000 is needed to run software called MD Dictate. It is old software.
Five of the computers connect just fine to the MD Dictate software. The home premium computer does not.
I keep getting the error “The list of servers for this workgroup is not currently available” only on the Windows home premium computer.
The database for the MD Dictate software is SQL server 2000. This resides on one of the Windows 7 computers . We call it the “server” computer. The SQL server 2000 is running in Windows 2000 in Virtualbox on this “server” computer.
In order for a computer to be able to run MD Dictate , it must connect to \\mdserver .
What I have done so far:
- I made sure the workgroup name is the same in the Windows 7 and Windows 2000 operating systems.
- There is no DHCP server. All the computers have static ip addresses. I made sure all of them were unique. All are on the same subnet (192.168.1 etc and 255.255.255.0)
- I executed net view on all the computers and all the computers names appear.
- I can successfully ping from Windows 7 Home premium computer (let’s call it W7H) to the “server” computer.
- Netbios over tcp/ip is set for all the computers.
When I start Windows explorer on the W7H computer and type in \\Mdserver , this is when I get the “The list of servers for this workgroup is not currently available” error. So it seems to me SQL server has nothing to do with this problem. I believe it is a network problem.
In the past, whenever I have had problems getting a computer to communicate with MD Dictate , all I have had to do is to be sure the user name is in the user list on both computers. For example, for computer 1, the user logs in as Able. So I have created the a user account called Able in the Windows 7 users and also in the Windows 2000 user account. Both are set as administrators.
On the “server” computer, it also has the same user accounts for Able in Windows 7 and Windows 2000.
What ideas do you have as to how to get the W7H computer to connect to \\Mdserver ?
They are all in a peer to peer network
All of them are running Virtualbox . The guest operating system on all of them is Windows 2000.
The Windows 2000 is needed to run software called MD Dictate. It is old software.
Five of the computers connect just fine to the MD Dictate software. The home premium computer does not.
I keep getting the error “The list of servers for this workgroup is not currently available” only on the Windows home premium computer.
The database for the MD Dictate software is SQL server 2000. This resides on one of the Windows 7 computers . We call it the “server” computer. The SQL server 2000 is running in Windows 2000 in Virtualbox on this “server” computer.
In order for a computer to be able to run MD Dictate , it must connect to \\mdserver .
What I have done so far:
- I made sure the workgroup name is the same in the Windows 7 and Windows 2000 operating systems.
- There is no DHCP server. All the computers have static ip addresses. I made sure all of them were unique. All are on the same subnet (192.168.1 etc and 255.255.255.0)
- I executed net view on all the computers and all the computers names appear.
- I can successfully ping from Windows 7 Home premium computer (let’s call it W7H) to the “server” computer.
- Netbios over tcp/ip is set for all the computers.
When I start Windows explorer on the W7H computer and type in \\Mdserver , this is when I get the “The list of servers for this workgroup is not currently available” error. So it seems to me SQL server has nothing to do with this problem. I believe it is a network problem.
In the past, whenever I have had problems getting a computer to communicate with MD Dictate , all I have had to do is to be sure the user name is in the user list on both computers. For example, for computer 1, the user logs in as Able. So I have created the a user account called Able in the Windows 7 users and also in the Windows 2000 user account. Both are set as administrators.
On the “server” computer, it also has the same user accounts for Able in Windows 7 and Windows 2000.
What ideas do you have as to how to get the W7H computer to connect to \\Mdserver ?
as far as i remember, only computers with windows server license can connect to more than 5 computers same time. if more you need additional client licenses.
you may think of running win 7 pro or win 10 pro and use the windows 2000 application in a VM.
then you would need 1 windows server (2012, 2016, or 2019) with 5 client licenses (included).
Sara
you may think of running win 7 pro or win 10 pro and use the windows 2000 application in a VM.
then you would need 1 windows server (2012, 2016, or 2019) with 5 client licenses (included).
Sara
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Another point is that the software you're running is really really old, and is no longer supported for Microsoft in any way.
One last "try" I'd do is to disable the firewall on the "server" windows 7 machine to test if there is a problem with the SMB protocol, probably it would work or not.