Strange Network Neighborhood Problem

[Archer01]

Ok, whoever can solve this one for me gets a Popsicle and an "I am a Genius" hat.

I’m working on a five-peer workgroup, which consists of a mix of machines running XP Pro and Win98. Everything is fine with the group except for one of the Win98 machines. This one machine appears in the list of workgroup computers on machines with XP and in the Network Neighborhood on machines with 98. HOWEVER, when I go into the Network Neighborhood on this one particular machine it only displays the Entire Network Icon and when I click on that icon I get the following message. “Unable to browse the network. The network is not accessible. For more information, look in the Help Index at the topic 'Network Troubleshooter'.” The computer behaves as if it is not connected to the network while all the other computers behave as if it is. In addition, the computers are connected together through an eight-port router, which connects to the Internet. All the computers including the one that behaves as if it is not connected to the network can access the Internet. I’ve pretty much run though the list of suggestions offered in the Microsoft Knowledge Base for this problem and still haven’t found a solution. Here are some solutions I’ve tried so far.

-Switching ports on the hub (No effect)

-Using a completely different NIC (No effect)

-Reloading 98 over the current installation. (It’s not my computer and for a variety of reasons doing a fresh install is the solution of last resort.)

-Reloading/Updating the NIC driver (No effect)

-Moving the PCI network card to a different slot (No effect)

-Removing and reloading all network components from both the Network Neighborhood/Properties and from the Hardware Manager. (No effect)

-Pinging other computers in the workgroup. (Pings are all successful)

-Using different protocols on the network (No effect)

I am about out of ideas. If anyone can tell me how to fix this without doing a fresh reload of 98 I would appreciate it. Thanks.

 

[Unolocogringo]

couple things.

Have you set up file and print sharing and shared at least one drive on this machine???

Are all of the computers assigned to the same workgroup????

As a last resort Install NETBEUI. Some 95/98 machines have a problem on a LAN without this installed.

I aint signing nothing!!!

 

[Archer01]

Yes I tried all of those things too. Sorry I left them off the list. It doesn't seem to be a network issue. Rather it seems to be an internal Windows 98 problem of the Network Neighborhood not properly communicating with the hardware. At least that's my best guess.

 

[casiowatch]

I think it has something to do with logining into an account. If you don't log in (always pushing cancel when it asks you to log on) it wont allow you to browse the network. See if you can create a user account, then log on. And make sure you have file and print sharing added to network properties.

 

[Archer01]

That might be. Windows hasn't been prompting me for a username and password at startup, no matter what changes I've made to the system. Any suggestions as to how to make it do this?

 

[lagger]

make sure microsoft client in enabled in the network properties to get the log in screen (not just windows logon)

<font color=red><b> <A HREF="http://www.geocities.com/SiliconValley/Hills/9267/fuddef.html" target="_new">FUD</A></font color=red></b>

 

[CALV]

seen it loads of times on 98 and ME, I'll bet you can access the other machine if you enter it in the address bar, i.e. \\nameofotherpc\nameofshare is your primary logon set to windows networking or windows logon? it should be the formar (though it will (SHOLD) work anyway), there IS a fix somewhere on ms kb for this and I cant remember what it is, I'll look when I get home if I get chance. I hate 9x/me for networking, no end of silly problems like this.



If they squeeze olives to get olive oil, how do they get baby oil?

 

[dr_jones]

As a run around i've found that creating a shortcut on the problem machine to the particular network folder that you need access to will not give you that meassage and will be a lot quicker than routing through the network neighbourhood

 

[lyc360]

that is THE problem. Well known issue when mixing Win98 and NT/2K/XP.

<i>It's an engine, and it's loud.</i>