Windows networking problems: WINS netBIOS etc

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flarkis

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Jul 27, 2009
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I have been trying to solve my problem now for a few days. I have read countless forums but none seem to be that useful. I was redirected here by another member and i was hoping for some insight.

I have 4 computers set up on the network. Three of them are Windows XP and the last one is on vista. The computers are only ever able to see each other if a certain one of these computers is on (called MPC from here on). MPC is running windows vista. When it is turned on the vista machine (Jason), is able to see all computers on the network and can connect to them.

This is not an ideal situation because i dont want to have to turn on this computer anytime i do some network file transfers or if i want to print.

From what i understand i need a WINS server on the network to handle the netBIOS names.

I CAN connect to the computers using \\192.168.0.2 when MPC is off. So this convinces me more or less that it is a WINS/netBIOS problem. Any suggestions would be a great help. Thanks.
 
Everything stated in the OP is correct. You really ought to be able to resolve by broadcast, but perhaps various firewalls/AV programs are preventing this.

I'm assuming they are all on the same subnet/workgroup, and as they are all consumer version OS, that they each have identical username/passworded accounts?
 
Go into advanced TCP/IP properties...under the WINS table, put a check in the checkbox for "Enable netbios over TCP/IP". It's not enabled by default.

WINS is the old Win9X/NT4 way of doing name resolution, since Win2K it's pretty much controlled by DNS. These 2 scenarios are used when you have a real server..meaning domain controller. For peer to peer networks..just enabling netbios over TCP/IP usually does it. The next step is to force a certain computer in a peer to peer network to be a "master browser"..usually this is self elected between the computers to be the newest OS on the network. But this is a more drastic last step not usually needed.

If you're able to get to the computers using \\192.168.1.100 or whatever...it's certainly not a firewall issue, because getting to them via IP address proves file and print sharing is allowed in the firewall.
 
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Thanks for the responses. All the computers are running just the windows firewall, and the antivirus is turned off on all computers durring the tests.

@YeOldeStonecat the netbios was already enabled on every computer

@bobdole369 all one a workgroup 'MSHOME'
 
Well this is actually turning VERY interesting. Doing some research to see if my antivirus was blocking everything i stumbled on someone who had the same problem as me. Apparently when norton antivirus is installed it makes a bunch on funny sharing settings and patches the network drivers. Well i uninstalled norton and got AVG. But apparently some things were not removed by the installers. So i had to go to the norton web site and get a special norton removal tool to completly clean my computer of anything left after the installation.

As soon as i did that POOF. Networking is all the sudden working with all the computers. My guess was that the computers were choosing this computer to be a WINS/netBIOS server because it was running vista therefore the newest version of windows. Now my only problem is i cant get one of the computers on the network. Everyone can see eachother except one XP machine.

sigh...using network shares on gnu/linux is far easier...
 
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