I have a home network set up over a Linksys Router. Both computers are set up on the MSHOME workgroup. One computer can see itself and the other computer under "Workgroup computers" but the other one can't even get into the workgroup computers list. When I click on "View Worgroup Computers" I get an error message stating:

"Mshome is not accessible. You might not have permission to use this network resource. Contact the administrator of this server to find out if you have access permissions.

The List of servers for this workgroup is not currently available.

Like I said, the other computer with Windows XP Home is working fine, it's just the professional computer with the problems.

From reading your information it appears to me that you have more than a single workgroup: MSHOME and WORKGROUP COMPUTERS.

I somehow don't believe this is the case though.

Just to be sure go to Start and right click on My Network Places (or My Computer), Explore.
Expand Entire Network, expand Microsoft Windows Network to see the available 'Workgroups'.
If you expand MSHOME you should see your two PCs by their computer names. Do you not or do you see more than one workgoup?

Bryan

Actually Workgroup names are not that critical. If you cannot find a computer and suspect the Workgroup name might be wrong, type the computer name in the address bar in the format \\ComputerName. Assuming everything else if right, XP will find the computer and you will end up with two Workgroups in My Network Places. This is the only way to log onto a computer in a different Workgroup, XP will not find it automatically, but if you tell it it is there then it will find it.

If you still cannot log onto the other computer then there is some other problem. With XP you have to have and account with the same User Name and password on each computer that you wont to log onto. So if you are logged on as Joe Smith on one computer and want to connect another computer, there must be an account called Joe Smith on that computer as well.

Stuart

Both computers are in the same workgroup, MSHOME. I once had this working. I ran the "set up a home or small office network" wizard and gave both computers identical settings (except for their names, of course). I know the other computer with windows XP home is set up right because it can see both computers in the workgroup. It can't access my computer though (The one with windows XP Professional). I know I should see MSHOME under workgroups but I can't even get to that window. This is when that error message appears.

File sharing would be nice but it's not necessary. I'm mainly looking to share the printer.

Have you set up a user account as described earlier. It is a requirement with XP Professional but not XP Home.

File sharing and printer sharing come as a job lot. You cant have one without the other. However, if you don't want file sharing, just don't designate any files or folders as shared items.

Stuart

I now have both computers set up with the same account name and there is still no change in the situation.

I believe I know where the root of my problem is. If either of you went into "My Network Places" on your computers and then clicked "View Worgroup Computers" you would see every computer on the workgroup, correct? If I can get past that error message it should be smooth sailing from there. I had all of this set up properly once upon a time.

Here's all the settings on both computers:

Workgroup: MSHOME
Both are set to connect through a residential gateway (Linksys Router)
Windows XP Pro computer is called ASUS
Windows XP Home Computer is called Gateway

Gateway can see ASUS under worgroup computers but can't access any files (Both accounts being used have the same name)
ASUS can't even view the computers in the workgroup.

Can you ping both computers?

Not sure... how do you do that again?

start - run - cmd

ping asus
ping gateway

If those don't work, run ipconfig to get their ip addresses, and then ping by ip address.

What happens if on Asus for example you do start - run - \\gateway

or on gateway vice versa?

"...but in my defense, it was dark, I was drunk, and it was delicious!"

The two computers can't ping each other. When I run IPCONFIG on either computer a command box shows up and then closes again before I can see if it says anything. I do, however, know the IP addresses from my router settings and they are both able to ping eachother using their IP.

You run ipconfig from a Cmd prompt.

Start > Run > Cmd *then* enter ipconfig.

Stuart

Yeah, I got it. I already knew the IP addresses though. I can ping to the other computer this way but I still can't connect to the printer.

Turn your firewall off , if you have one running.

There are no firewalls currently running. Even Windows Firewall has been disabled.

Where is the printer? Connected to MSHOME?
Do you have something/anything actually shared on the MSHOME PC beyond an empty folder?

(Grasping at straws now)
Bryan

MSHOME is the workgroup. The printer is connnected to GATEWAY and I am trying to access it from ASUS. ASUS is the one with Windows XP Professional. I believe there is something wrong on ASUS's side of the connection.

I keep re-reading the posts and by the time I get to the bottom I forget some things.

Have you run the Add Printer Wizard from ASUS? Control Panel, Printers and other hardware, Add a Printer.

Do you have any files to actually be shared on GATEWAY? If there is nothing to share then GATEWAY will not advertise it's shares. If this is so then since there is nothing to share then when trying to access GATEWAY it will produce the message because the only things that are on the machine have not been granted permission to share.

If the Printer has not been added to ASUS and there is nothing to be shared on GATEWAY then GATEWAY will not be seen in the Network.

I hope we are getting somewhere,
Bryan

Change the workgroup from mshome to something else.

A long time ago there waas an article in a pc magazine about MSHome being a problem for some networks.

Change it to Bill or Office or something.

Larry

In response to Bryan's post:

I have both hard drives set to be shared over the network and the printer. I have tried adding the printer through the wizard but it can't even find the computer on the network.

Response to Larry's post:

I once had the workgroup called Aliant but still had the same problems. To rule this out as a problem I will change it to something else just to be sure.

I am having the SAME EXACT problem with my attempt to network my home computers. The only difference is that I am using two versions of XP home edition, neither one is the professional version. I am, however, having the same issue where I created a workgroup called "HOME" and can see both computer names under HOME from one PC (but can't access the other computer's files because I get that error that you got) and I can see the workgroup HOME from the other computer, but can't see either computer name from the second computer and get an error telling me to contact the admin. So I wouldn't want anyone steer you (or me) in the wrong direction thinking that the XP Pro might be the difference. I hope someone can give us both the answer because if we both have the identical problem, it must be sort of common...

I found this on another forum, hope it helps...

This problem is caused when the "RestrictAnonymous" LSA registry value in XP gets changed from its default value of "0" (disabled) to "1" (enabled). This registry value can be located by opening regedit and going to:
[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Control\Lsa]

A more user friendly way of adjusting this same setting is to go to Control Panel --> Administrative Tools --> Local Security Policy --> Local Policies --> Security Options. Make sure the following setting is set to "Disabled":
-- Network access: Do not allow anonymous enumeration of SAM accounts and shares

Do not confuse this setting with the setting that preceeds it not including the text "and shares" at the end of it. That's an entirely different setting that should be "Enabled" by default!

The website where it came from:
http://www.experts-exchange.com/Networking/Q_21256617.html

When I seen that post I thought for sure it was going to be the solution to my problem. It is something that I haven't done before. I checked these settings both ways and found that they are both set right. I'm sure we'll get it eventually. Thanks for all your help so far though.

I have found my problem!! My zone alarm firewall was actually blocking my IP Address from "intrusions", but I wasn't aware of it. When I went in from my laptop to map the network drive, instead of just browsing, and looking for my "HOME" network, I used the desktop's IP address as the server and clicked "browse". Then the zone alarm blocked it. I found the log entry, and selected it as a "trusted" zone, and did the opposite on the other computer. Now I can view the files from my desktop from my laptop, but when I try the other way around, it asks me for a password, but that's ok. I really only needed the files from my desktop anyway. If you are using zone alarm or another firewall, you are probably being blocked and don't even know it. If you think that this may be your problem, and need further details, let me know...

I have both firewalls disabled to eliminate that as a problem. There is still something wrong that we're all missing and we're probably all going to kick ourselves when we find it.

It's funny, because I was able to pull up one of the shared folders on the desktop from my laptop for about 2 minutes or so, then the laptop completely froze on me, and the old issue we've been having seemed to have resurfaced, so you're right. There is something else. It's as though one of my computers got wise to what I was doing and said, "Oh no. Not so fast".

A friend of mine is having the same problem with his home network. He has three computers, one with XP Professional and two with Home.

I have the same problem exactly, but my setup is slightly different.

I have 3 computers networked through my router, all in same workgroup, all configured correctly, each with its own IP address and all able to access the Internet with no trouble.

One PC has Win XP. Both the others have Win ME. Upon getting the XP system, I did initially run an upgrade on the others, as per the XP networking wizard, but it proved to be such a pain that I configured things manually instead.

So, as far as my network goes - both ME computers can see each other perfectly. But the XP one gives me the message that the original poster is getting. This tells me that it may be an XP issue, and perhaps is related to permissions in some program on XP - but which one? I continue to hunt ...

Sherri

Okay I have made slight progress ... previously when clicking on My Network Places on the XP PC, it couldn't find anything and I got the permisson message.

I just unchecked the option in my Norton Anti-virus to "stealth blocked ports" on the firewall settings page (even though firewall was turned off)and hey presto, now at least the XP PC and its shared files show up in the My Network Places window with no error message ... still can't see the others though ... but I have an idea.

Sherri

YES!!!!!!!!!!!

I didn't need to do my idea at all ... the network refreshed itself and I closed the windows and opened them and all three showed up on all three computers ... yay!

So it was the anti-virus option of "Stealth unblocked ports" that did it.

Good luck, the rest of you.

Cool Sherri, good catch and gives us something to work with if it comes up again.

Larry

I was reading through your posts and they have just confirmed my suspicions, Whilst norton av software is good i have found it to be far too intrusive on the system, It may be an idea to use Mcafee which has a much more user friendly system and is far less intrusive.
It also works as well, bonus eh?

Merlin out..........ttfn