Need help from a Windows 7 guru

[trevorwood]

I'm setting up a Windows 7 machine. Most things are going smoothly, but there's one thing that I can't get to work

I cannot get the computer to see any other computer on the network. All the computers are in the same workgroup. The network on the W7 machine is classified as work. McAfee network management option can see all the other computers.

What am I doing wrong?

TIA

 

[Leo-InstallingIT]

Hi

It is most likely that network discovery is turned off.

Have a look at this too see if it is..

http://windows.microsoft.com/en-US/windows7/Enable-or-disable-network-discovery

Many Thanks

Leo

 

[trevorwood]

Already looked at that and network discovery is turned on - sorry, that was the first thing I found and tried

 

[Leo-InstallingIT]

I can always hope for an easy solution

The McAfee network manager you mention is that running on the machine that can't see the computers?

Many Thanks

Leo

 

[trevorwood]

Yes it is.

I can also map to a networked drive if i put in the full name e.g. \\compname\c$ but I can't find any shared directories or printers by browsing

 

[Pentangle]

NetBIOS browsing is, and has always been, a pile of steaming poo. I should know, I wrote a whitepaper on it back in NT4 days.

The most probable reason why you can't see other computers whilst browsing is that they have their firewalls turned on.

Also, the aggregation of the browse list per subnet isn't instantaneous, it can take up to half an hour or thereabouts to collate an entire list....and that's half an hour of all your computers being ON and networked.

Cheers,
Mike.

 

[trevorwood]

It's not the firewall - the XP computers can see each other and the computers have all been on for several hours

 

[Pentangle]

It's not the firewall - the XP computers can see each other and the computers have all been on for several hours

OK, which firewall are you using on these computers? and whilst you say "it's not the firewall", you've not told us whether the firewalls are on or off.

Despite that, here are a few other questions for you:

1) are the computers on the same subnet?
2) are the computers members of a domain or a workgroup?
3) are the computers members of the same domain or have the same workgroup name?
4) post your nbtstat -a <ip address> output

Cheers,
Mike.

 

[trevorwood]

OK, which firewall are you using on these computers? and whilst you say "it's not the firewall", you've not told us whether the firewalls are on or off.

McAfee security suite. I've tried with the firewall turned off and on, makes no difference

Despite that, here are a few other questions for you:

1) are the computers on the same subnet?
2) are the computers members of a domain or a workgroup?
3) are the computers members of the same domain or have the same workgroup name?
4) post your nbtstat -a <ip address> output

Cheers,
Mike.

computers are on the same subnet - they pick up their IP address from an ADSL router
computers are members of the same workgroup - the PCs running XP can see the PC running Windows 7 and the other PCs running XP, the PC running Windows 7 can only see itself, the router and a NAS device
Should also say it's not part of a homegroup - I tried that and it made no difference

nbpstat for 192.168.1.100 (the windows 7 machine) is

Local Area Connection:
Node IpAddress: [0.0.0.0] Scope Id: []

Host not found.

Wireless Network Connection:
Node IpAddress: [192.168.1.108] Scope Id: []

Host not found.

however it can ping the IP addresses of the other machines

Hope this helps

 

[Pentangle]

OK it does look like the problem exists with the Win7 machine as it's not even attempting to populate the NetBIOS name cache.

Are you running any WINS settings in the Win7 TCP/IP stack? or any hosts or lmhosts file entries (please don't use these - it's a recipe for trouble!)

Also, is your Computer Browser service enabled and running?

 

[soft-industry]

Hello.
I think this article http://www.howtogeek.com/howto/windows-7/share-files-and-printers-between-windows-7-and-xp/
should help you.

 

[trevorwood]

Honestly don't know - it's pretty much as it came out of the box (or off the DVD!)

how do I check

(Computer networks always have been and continue to remain a black art. My network team at British gas used to enscribe pentangles on the floor, and dance around in pointy hats sacrificing chicken entrails - or perhaps they were ethernet cables)

 

[Pentangle]

Honestly don't know - it's pretty much as it came out of the box (or off the DVD!)

how do I check

(Computer networks always have been and continue to remain a black art. My network team at British gas used to enscribe pentangles on the floor, and dance around in pointy hats sacrificing chicken entrails - or perhaps they were ethernet cables)

Trust me, that's not where our company name comes from

If you go to Control Panel -> Administrative Tools -> Services, and then scroll down the list of services you should find "Computer Browser". If it says "Started" against it, then you should be ok there - if not, double-click it, change it from Disabled or Manual to Automatic, start the service and that should be enough from that point of view.

As regards the WINS settings, if you go to a command prompt and type ipconfig /all and paste the results in here, i'll be able to tell you. The use of hosts or lmhosts is a little more convoluted to explain, so we'll leave that for later.

 

[trevorwood]

""Computer Browser" is marked as started and manual

ipconfig /all gives


Windows IP Configuration

Host Name . . . . . . . . . . . . : ash
Primary Dns Suffix . . . . . . . :
Node Type . . . . . . . . . . . . : Hybrid
IP Routing Enabled. . . . . . . . : No
WINS Proxy Enabled. . . . . . . . : No

Ethernet adapter Local Area Connection:

Media State . . . . . . . . . . . : Media disconnected
Connection-specific DNS Suffix . :
Description . . . . . . . . . . . : Realtek RTL8139/810x Family Fast Ethernet NIC
Physical Address. . . . . . . . . : 00-16-36-A4-9C-81
DHCP Enabled. . . . . . . . . . . : Yes
Autoconfiguration Enabled . . . . : Yes

Wireless LAN adapter Wireless Network Connection:

Connection-specific DNS Suffix . :
Description . . . . . . . . . . . : Atheros AR5005G Wireless Network Adapter
Physical Address. . . . . . . . . : 00-19-7D-1C-EA-41
DHCP Enabled. . . . . . . . . . . : Yes
Autoconfiguration Enabled . . . . : Yes
Link-local IPv6 Address . . . . . : fe80::c52b:2a06:62f9:35db%11(Preferred)
IPv4 Address. . . . . . . . . . . : 192.168.1.108(Preferred)
Subnet Mask . . . . . . . . . . . : 255.255.255.0
Lease Obtained. . . . . . . . . . : 23 July 2010 08:12:35
Lease Expires . . . . . . . . . . : 26 July 2010 13:18:18
Default Gateway . . . . . . . . . : 192.168.1.1
DHCP Server . . . . . . . . . . . : 192.168.1.1
DHCPv6 IAID . . . . . . . . . . . : 184555901
DHCPv6 Client DUID. . . . . . . . : 00-01-00-01-13-D8-F7-DC-00-16-36-A4-9C-81
DNS Servers . . . . . . . . . . . : 192.168.1.1
NetBIOS over Tcpip. . . . . . . . : Enabled

Tunnel adapter isatap.{3710BB19-7940-4872-AAE8-12C1C6AB00F5}:

Media State . . . . . . . . . . . : Media disconnected
Connection-specific DNS Suffix . :
Description . . . . . . . . . . . : Microsoft ISATAP Adapter
Physical Address. . . . . . . . . : 00-00-00-00-00-00-00-E0
DHCP Enabled. . . . . . . . . . . : No
Autoconfiguration Enabled . . . . : Yes

Tunnel adapter Teredo Tunneling Pseudo-Interface:

Connection-specific DNS Suffix . :
Description . . . . . . . . . . . : Teredo Tunneling Pseudo-Interface
Physical Address. . . . . . . . . : 00-00-00-00-00-00-00-E0
DHCP Enabled. . . . . . . . . . . : No
Autoconfiguration Enabled . . . . : Yes
IPv6 Address. . . . . . . . . . . : 2001:0:5ef5:73bc:6c:33a5:3f57:fe93(Preferred)
Link-local IPv6 Address . . . . . : fe80::6c:33a5:3f57:fe93%13(Preferred)
Default Gateway . . . . . . . . . : ::
NetBIOS over Tcpip. . . . . . . . : Disabled

 

[Pentangle]

All looks OK (although i'd make computer browser an automatic start rather than manual).

I would now:

1) untick IPv6 in the network stack (unless you're like the 0.00000001% of people using it)
2) ensure your classification of your network in Windows7 is not "home" but "work"
3) ensure the physical workgroup name isn't "home"

See how you get on?

 

[trevorwood]

1) untick IPv6 in the network stack (unless you're like the 0.00000001% of people using it)
2) ensure your classification of your network in Windows7 is not "home" but "work"
3) ensure the physical workgroup name isn't "home"

See how you get on?

1 done
2 was already
3 never was

still no change :|

 

[Pentangle]

OK, am about to go home for the weekend, but have a look at this thread for inspiration...

http://forums.techarena.in/networking-security/1105626.htm

 

[trevorwood]

Thanks for the help so far. If I have time I'll have more of a play over the weekend, but it does seem to be an incredibly common problem - you'd've though Microsnot would have put something out about it by now

 

[REBOOTTHAT]

Hi trevorwood,

You might want to look at this article to disable IP v6 properly as just unticking the box in network properties doesn't seem enough:
http://www.addictivetips.com/windows-tips/how-to-disable-ipv6-in-windows-7/

Also someone at the link below seems to be having the same issue as you (please note the third-party firewall driver post, they also talk about disabling IP v6):
http://social.technet.microsoft.com...g/thread/495f7a0d-3779-4026-9f39-398b89f83e05

Also, from experience, I have noticed just disabling the third-party firewall sometimes isn't enough (on your win7 machine) and I have had to totally uninstall. Don't suppose you can test this theory?

Goodluck!

 

[trevorwood]

1st article didn't help -in fact slightly inaccurate. I've disabled IP6 and it doesn't re-enable on reboot

As to the firewall, I noticed the initial problem before I'd even installed McAfee, so i guess it can't be that

The only thing I'm gettign to now is this is a 90 day evaluation version of Windows Enterprise rather than Professional - perhaps it's been crippled?

 

[trevorwood]

Let me add this and see if this makes anything clearer

On my XP system I'm running a web server. If I open a browser on the W7 system and type in http://xpcomputername/ I can access the default website hosted on the XP system