Can see the computer but cant access it

Hi everyone,

I have several W2K PC that belong to a NT domain. One of the PC's has an attached shared printer. All of the PC's but one can connect to the share. The PC that can't shows the computer name when I browse to it, but when I click on the computer, I get a message saying that the computer is unavailable. It looks like the same symptom you would see if you suddenly disconnected the PC. The connection is good. Could I have a traffic problem?

Thanks

 

Exact, entire error message would help.

 

You say NT LAN - are you using WINS ?

If not do so !

Try also clearing your local netbios name table with nbtstat -R (case sensitive) as it may be that your name cache is listing an old IP address for the PC in question

If this doesnt help, post back ! If it does post back anyway !

 

hi AndyO

i am having a somewhat similar experience, and would like to know if doing as you've instructed will cause any problems?

is clearing the netbios name as you've instructed the rough equivalent of deleting a windows file that will then regenerate itself upon reboot?

thanks



mark

 

Mr Mark

the NBTSTAT command just clears out the cache of names

assuming that you are using WINS the name table will be rebuilt from the server, if not then the table will be built up by auto discovery as you go along (slightly slowing the network as broadcast takes place)

This of course assumes that you not using 2K or XP which are more reliant on DNS which is a different story....

 

AndyO

using both.

so, same question with regard to causing any probs?

also (sneaking in one more question)...

can dual booting two operating systems on one of two machines in a LAN cause extra problems, or considerations?

one machine runs winxp exclusively

the other dual boots win98se & win2000pro

the dual boot pc is not able to access every file and folder on the winxp machine... for instance, the programs folder... i get an access denied error. yet i am able to open other folders, like the drivers folder and the my downloads folder.

the winxp machine can access everything on the dual boot pc.

thank you



mark

 

Clearing the cache is safe. For NT systems (NT4/2K/XP) using DNS you do this by opening a cmd window and using ipconfig /flushdns which is equally safe.

I honestly don't know with a peer-to-peer network. For one that is using Domains, you must give the computer a different name under each OS or things won't work right at all. Might be safer to do that with a workgroup as well.

Finally, your access issues are probably from the way user names are set up. Try this. Assuming you have the XP PC named XP and it has a user account dual that has a password and is a member of the administrator group so has full access to everything on XP:

From the other PC and windows explorer, map a network drive to \\XP\C$ and select to connect as a different user. When you get to the screen for username and password, put in the user as XP\dual and the password for the dual account on the XP PC.