XP Netbios failure?

[tim romano]

I have a workgroup LAN in my home office consisting of several Win98SE pcs, one NT4WS, and a recently added XP Pro box (hp e-pc42). All belong to the same workgroup. Many people have advised me NOT to run the Network Wizard disk that is produced by XP on 98 and NT, and so I have not done that. I've run the Wizard only on XP. I have also disabled the XP firewall (ICF).

-- The 98 and NT boxes can see and browse each other.
-- The 98 and NT boxes can see and browse the XP box.
-- XP Pro can only see the others; it cannot browse them;
this is the error when I click on one of the 98 or NT boxes beneath the
Windows Networking workgroup:

"\\{PCNAME} is not accessible. You might not have permission to use this
resource..."

I have read article Q318030 on this error, and have ascertained that the
BrowserService is started on NT and XP, that BrowserMaster is set to automatic on 98, and that NETBIOS is enabled over TCP/IP on all machines.

Here are some more facts which might lead to a solution, especially #6-
10:

0. XP network diagnostics show everything as PASSED.
1. TCP/IP is the only protocol used on the LAN.
2. NETBIOS over TCP/IP is enabled on all machines.
3. ComputerBrowser is enabled on NT and XP.
3a. BrowserMaster is set to automatic on 98.
4. Static IP addressing (192.168.1.x) over subnet 255.255.255.0
5. Linksys DSL router/switch is the default gateway.
6. All machines, 98, NT, and XP can ping each other by IP address.
7. NT and 98 can ping each other by computer name.
8. 98 can ping XP by computer name.
9. NT can ping XP by computer name.
10. XP box can *not* ping any other box by computer name.

In light of #6-9, doesn't #10 suggest that NETBIOS name resolution is not
working on my XP box? I've disabled it and re-enabled it and repaired the
connection.

When I run nbtstat -c I get:
no names in cache.

Any help would be appreciated!

[Erwin Zoer]

Hello Tim,


My suggestion would be to try to add the machine names and IP addresses in the %systemroot%\system32\drivers\etc\lmhosts file as preloaded (#PRE) entries. E.g.

192.168.1.? MACHINE #PRE

This should solve any name resolution problems. Try to see if accessing shares from XP to W98 then works.


Good luck,


Erwin

[tim romano]

Adding the pc names and ip addresses to the lmhosts file, (and then, on the WINS tab, importing the lmhosts file) worked like a charm. The #PRE directive was not required.
Thank you.

[Jon Finley]

MS has another way to fix the problem without maintaining the lmhosts file.

It involves netbios over TCP as you suspected.

http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=kb;en-us;Q318030


Jon

[tim romano]

Jon,
Enabling NETBIOS over TCP/IP (as recommended by Q318030) is necessary but not sufficient. I had already taken that step and still had name-resolution problems.
Thanks,
Tim Romano

[Jon Finley]

I still see the real issue as: why isn't XP resolving the netbios names through a brower request, or broadcast.

lmhosts would be a good work-around if the other systems were on another sub-net, but a browse master request or broadcast SHOULD have returned a result for XP to connect with.

Anyway, glad that lmhosts provides what you need.


Jon

[tim romano]

Jon,
Yes, I agree with you: within the same subnet, broadcasts ought to work according to Microsoft documentation.
Tim

[Ronniel Joseph Libunao]

hi guys!
why not try this?
http://www.microsoft.com/technet/treeview/default.asp?url=/Technet/prodtechnol/winxppro/proddocs/sag_tcpip_pro_usewinsconfig.asp

[tim romano]

Ronniel,
I get this error message when I visit the URL you posted:

"The page you're looking for has been moved or removed from the site.".

Anyway, I'm up and running, with the only problem being that it takes a very long time for other machines on the network to copy files onto a share resident on the XP machine, but if XP copies to itself those same files from the shares on the other machines on the LAN, performance is excellent.
Tim

[Roger Faucher]

Tim:

Are you familiar with how to award points to people who help you? The procedure is usually part of any notification you receive from the ITRC Forums.

Thanks.

Roger