WinXP Home net view "System error 53 has occurred. The network path was not found."?

[Karandras]

Wow, I have never seen this error before. Google and Microsoft's sites are not helping at all, all the things that MS says is what I'm doing to create the problem is wrong. Here is what is going on:

Workgroup - e-henry.ca
IPs - 192.168.0.1-102

three other computers on the network can access the shares and the workgroup no problem. All the other computers can access eachother. This is a new laptop, getting correctIP (192.168.0.101), can ping the gateway and access the internet.

Here is the weird part, my server is 192.168.0.3 my main machine can ping it no problem but this laptop cannot ping 192.168.0.3 but it can ping the other two computers on the network. Don't know if that will effect this at all.

I can access my main machine's shares by run \\computername but it still asks me for a username and password even though I have the two users (my girlfriend and I) with all the same passwords on all the machines.

When I try to go into My Network Places, it is empty. When I try to see all the computers on the network I get

So I thought I would try to see what this computer can see for shares c:\net view, get that system error 53 has occured. What the hell does that mean? Gah, geting annoyed with this.

Can anyone help at all? I'm not sure if this topic has to go into Operating Systems or Networking...its kinda a mix of both.

Thanks.

 

[sandmanx]

What OS do you have on the server? Sounds like it could be an XP SP2 issue if it's on there, or possibly a firewall/ip filtering issue. Mentioning what OS's are on all the machines would be helpful.

As far as error 53, what is the error in the event log exactly, or does it log to the event log? If it is, check out eventid.net with the error number.

As far as the error you posted, I've seen network places empty many times on a domain, and on workgroups before, I wouldn't trust it too much. Did you try \\(ip address) as well, could be a problem with not resolving the computer name right.

 

[Karandras]

Hey, Thanks for the reply!

Here are the OSs and names

4 Computers

PC - Win2000 Server - CID - 192.168.0.3
PC - Win XP Pro (2) - BOB and ZEUS - 192.168.0.100 & 101
Notebook - Win XP Home w SP2. firewall off - LAPTOP - 192.168.0.2

Ok, so BOB, ZEUS and CID can access the shares on the network no problem. They can see the shares..etc..etc..
BOB and ZEUS can ping everything on the network

LAPTOP cannot see any of the shares
it can only access BOB and ZEUS via Run \\computername
LAPTOP cannot ping CID but can ping the gateway, BOB and ZEUS.

No other firewalls on the network. NetBIOS over TCP/IP is enabled on all the machines.

Do you need anymore info?

 

[sandmanx]

Have you checked tcp/ip filtering on the server to make sure it's not filtering out any IPs?

Beyond that, what are you using for a router? Is this network hardwired, wireless or a mix? It could be a setting on your router (if you're using one.) It is quite weird that you can see some of the machines though with the laptop and the server is not responding at all though. It might be something with XP home, as I won't touch that os, but it shouldn't have problems connecting to a workgroup, and still should be able to ping CID.

The only other info I see off a quick google search is to make sure file and print sharing is installed on the laptop. I know you said you did a search on google, but did you go under the groups section? This is where I find most answers to problems I've had in the past with weird windows errors. Make sure to keep your searches as general as you can to get the most feedback.

 

[Karandras]

Thought I would post the resolution for this problem. There were two main problems:

#1 - Something on the XP Home machine was configured wrong from the factory, reformated the machine, used their boot up disk and everything worked no problem after that.

#2 - I have my server on a DMZ so I have a software firewall to control the traffic. I thought I had the whole 192.168.0.0 network in there but nope, I only had it from 192.168.0.1-100. I was banging my head on the desk after I figured that one out.

Thanks to all who helped!