Can only access XP machine via IP address

[alanlw]

I have a home network consisting of a Win 7 laptop, a Win 7 netbook, a Vista laptop and an XP desktop. The first three are connected wirelessly, the desktop via a cable.
In nearly all cases I can access the shared folders on the other networked machines simply by going on to 'network' and clicking on the icon for the other machine - EXCEPT I cannot access the XP Desktop from the Win 7 laptop this way - I simply get the message 'Windows cannot access Desktop. But if I enter the IP address for the Desktop I have no problems accessing the files on the desktop.
I have also no problems accessing the Desktop from the Vista laptop or the Win 7 Netbook by clicking on the Desktop icon.

Although I cannot be certain, this problem seems to have started after I stayed in a college and had to install some software to access their LAN. I used to have no problem with accessing the Desktop.

Has anyone any bright ideas?

Thanks.

Alan

PS I am no expert on Win 7 or networks.

 

[TrainableMan]

I'm not a networking expert either but you might try this idea I found to delete the credentials and see if that fixes it. See HERE

 

[alanlw]

Thanks for the suggestion but there were no credentials defined for the desktop PC. I deleted everything but it makes no difference.

 

[Core]

I'm not an expert either, but... What if you add the IP and device name of the Desktop into the hosts file on the Windows 7 laptop? Obviously if this works you'd have to set up static IPs for the machines for it to work in the future, but I am just wondering if this would fix the issue.

In other words, if the desktop is called Desktop, and its IP is 193.168.100.33, you open launch Notepad on the Win7 laptop with Administrator privileges, and open c:/Windows/system32/drivers/etc/hosts, and add
193.168.100.33 Desktop
into the file, and then save it. You don't have to reboot anything, it should take effect immediately.

Does this enable you to browse the desktop from the laptop?

 

[TrainableMan]

Is it strictly the desktop folder that you can't access or is it any folder on the XP machine?

 

[alanlw]

Is it strictly the desktop folder that you can't access or is it any folder on the XP machine?

It the whole machine I cannot access via the name DESKTOP (which is the XP computer name). Via the IP address I can access my folders and shared folders.
Thanks.

 

[TrainableMan]

Something you mentioned about the computer being configured to work at college. It may have been joined to a DOMAIN. Turn that off if it is on: see HERE.

Make things easier by using the same Workgroup (Control Panel > System); In Vista & W7 the default Workgroup is "Workgroup" but in XP it was "MSHome". And Homegroups don't work with XP so disconnect from any Homegroups.

Still not it???

Does your userid on the W7 laptop differ from your userids on the other 3 machines?

Also, could you compare the W7 netbook & the W7 laptop Control Panel > Network and Sharing Center, "Change advanced sharing settings" - any differences?

Normally the issue is going from XP to W7 because simple file sharing is not W7's default like it is in XP so hopefully it is the DOMAIN thing. Or maybe you want to try what Core mentioned above.

 

[alanlw]

Something you mentioned about the computer being configured to work at college. It may have been joined to a DOMAIN. Turn that off if it is on: see HERE.

Make things easier by using the same Workgroup (Control Panel > System); In Vista & W7 the default Workgroup is "Workgroup" but in XP it was "MSHome". And Homegroups don't work with XP so disconnect from any Homegroups.

Still not it???

Does your userid on the W7 laptop differ from your userids on the other 3 machines?

Also, could you compare the W7 netbook & the W7 laptop Control Panel > Network and Sharing Center, "Change advanced sharing settings" - any differences?

Normally the issue is going from XP to W7 because simple file sharing is not W7's default like it is in XP so hopefully it is the DOMAIN thing. Or maybe you want to try what Core mentioned above.

Many thanks too. Have been through all your points.

There was no domain defined, alas.
All computers are on the same workgroup (not called Workgroup)
All the userids are the same
There were some small differences in the advanced settings in Network and Sharing Center. I have changed them to be the same as the Netbook but alas it makes no difference.

I'll try Core's suggestion next.

I do sometimes have a big ? appearing on my network map between the win7 laptop and router (but not always). See attached. Could that be anything to do with it?

Thanks again.

 

[TrainableMan]

Question mark issue:

I saw a suggestion a couple places to go to Control Panel > Device Manager and open the properties of your Network card. Go to the advanced tab and, if it is enabled, change "Priority & VLAN" to "VLAN Enabled". (They specifically mention Realtek drivers so if yours is a different company then you may not have this option.)

Another suggested that the problem may be related to Bonjour which installs with Apple stuff like ipods so try disabling that Service in Services.msc and reboot.

 

[alanlw]

Question mark issue:

I saw a suggestion a couple places to go to Control Panel > Device Manager and open the properties of your Network card. Go to the advanced tab and, if it is enabled, change "Priority & VLAN" to "VLAN Enabled". (They specifically mention Realtek drivers so if yours is a different company then you may not have this option.)

Another suggested that the problem may be related to Bonjour which installs with Apple stuff like ipods so try disabling that Service in Services.msc and reboot.

Thanks again.
I do have a Realtek driver and did what you suggested but it makes no difference.
Bonjour is not running so that can't be it.
Tough one this ....

 

[alanlw]

I'm not an expert either, but... What if you add the IP and device name of the Desktop into the hosts file on the Windows 7 laptop? Obviously if this works you'd have to set up static IPs for the machines for it to work in the future, but I am just wondering if this would fix the issue.

In other words, if the desktop is called Desktop, and its IP is 193.168.100.33, you open launch Notepad on the Win7 laptop with Administrator privileges, and open c:/Windows/system32/drivers/etc/hosts, and add
193.168.100.33 Desktop
into the file, and then save it. You don't have to reboot anything, it should take effect immediately.

Does this enable you to browse the desktop from the laptop?

I guess in some ways I am almost doing this already. I set up static IPs for my attached devices so I could access the desktop consistently through the same IP address (e.g. I use this IP address for my sync software routines). It works fine and I'm sure your suggestion is a work-around that would work too. However it doesn't explain why I have the problem in the first place.
Thanks for the suggestion anyhow.

 

[Core]

On the xp machine, try enabling netbios over tcp/ip, and also make sure that in the lan adapter settings file & printer sharing for ms networks is checked.

 

[alanlw]

On the xp machine, try enabling netbios over tcp/ip, and also make sure that in the lan adapter settings file & printer sharing for ms networks is checked.

Thanks again.

I can try that but I would have thought the problem must be on my Win 7 laptop as I can access the desktop XP machine OK (i.e. using its logical name) from our Vista laptop and from our Win7 netbook. It's only on the Win7 laptop I have to use an IP address to access the desktop.

Or is my knowledge too limited?

A

 

[Core]

Are all your Windows 7 and Vista machines running Windows in 64-bit?

 

[alanlw]

No, they are both 32 bit. So worth changing the XP machine after all?

 

[Core]

No, I think you're right and it's an issue with the settings on the 7 laptop. Have you compared the network settings on the laptops to see if they are identical?

 

[alanlw]

This is where my knowledge is hazy, I'm afraid. What network settings do I need to look at? Thanks.