Rough…This may solve some problems I have seen posted in this Forum lately…
Well, Microsoft networks have changed with Windows XP, or at least they have changed with my network. Presently, I have six computers on the network. One of them is a brand new computer on my workbench, with Windows XP Pro OEM that I built for a customer. The other computers are:
My computer with windows Me
My Wife’s computer with Windows 98
My son’s computer with Windows Me
A Windows 2000 Pro scratch computer I use for troubleshooting/answering questions
An old Windows NT Server, which is also a domain controller and hosts our E-Mail and accounting...
All of the computers are networked with and SMC Barricade SMC7008BR broadband router/7-port Ethernet switch.
We are not running WINS or DNS servers on the server. All of the computers are configured to obtain their IP addresses automatically from the router’s built-in DHCP server and to use the router’s DNS proxy server (everything is auto). That works very well.
Some of the computers are setup to log into the domain and others are configured just to use the workgroup, mainly because I have not maintained good configuration control. I plan to get rid of the domain and perhaps UPGRADE the server to Linux.
First, as mentioned in a previous post, XP cannot connect to domain controller unless the server is running TCP/IP.
This computer was setup to use a workgroup instead of connecting to the domain. Initially, only TCP/IP was installed. After connecting the XP computer to the network, I could browse (all of the computers on the network from the XP computer (they showed-up in My Network Places, Entire Network, Microsoft Windows Network, workgroup, but the XP machine did not show-up in My Network Places/Network Neighborhood on any of the other computers. However, I could find the XP computer using Search on all of the computers. So, I installed NetBEUI (see http://duxcw.com/faq/network/xpnetbeui.htm). This has often fixed problems of this nature with older versions of Windows. According to Microsoft, however, one should not have to resort to this practice and to run Windows Networking (share files, etc.) you should only need one NetBIOS protocol. The NetBIOS protocols are: NetBEUI, IPX/SPX, and TCP/IP. That didn’t change a thing.
Fix #1: With the Windows Explorer on the XP computer, right-click My Network Places, Properties, select TCP/IP associated with the network adapter, WINS tab, and select Enable NetBIOS over TCP. The default is:
“Use NetBIOS from a DHCP server. If static address is used or the DHCP does not have a NETBIOS setting, enable NetBIOS over TCP.”
Well, the default might be OK if XP Pro is used to share the Internet, but it certainly won’t work on my network and on many others. Maybe, I should have used the idiot Wizard.
When that was done, the XP computer showed up on all of the computers except on my Me Computer. My Son’s Me computer saw it and THE Wife’s 98 computer saw it. I could find it by searching, but no matter what I did, I could not get it to stay in My Network places. THE Wife’s computer was running TCP/IP and NetBEUI and my son’s computer was running only TCP/IP.
Fix #2: remove NetBEUI from Windows Me computers that are used with Windows XP. That worked, so I removed NetBEUI from all of the computers.
You may also have to activate the Guest account on XP computers (Start, Control Panel, Category View, Performance and Maintenance, Computer Management, System Tools, Local Users and Groups, Guest, and uncheck Account is disabled, if it is.
(I am so happy that XP has made all of this soooo simple). Larry
