Resolved Win 7 Network issue and Share tab fails

I've been running a home network with three computers.

The main computer is a desktop running Vista.

The others are laptops running XP Pro and Win 7. At this stage I could access across the network with no problems.

I then added a further Win 7 laptop.

All computers can access the internet with no trouble which suggests that the basic configuration is correct in each case.

From either Win 7 box I can access the XP Pro and Vista boxes from anywhere but the two Win 7 boxes refuse to see each other reporting Error 80070035, network path not found. The same now happens when I try to connect to the Win 7 boxes from the Vista and XP boxes.

All computers share the same workgroup name.

A possibly related issue is that on the two Win 7 boxes when I click on a folder I wish to share, for example, and select 'Properties', all of the tabs work as expected, until I click on the 'Sharing' tab. At this point Windows Explorer hangs and I have to close the program. This has only happened since I added the second Win 7 box, which may or may not be a coincidence.

Until I can access the 'Sharing' tab I am in a quandary.

Incidentally, despite some of the links working, I cannot ping any computer within the network. Using tracert goes through my router into the outside world, as it were and after about 18 or so steps times out. Seems a littel odd that tracert looks beyond the router as I was using the usual address style of 198.162.x.x.


Any ideas?

 

Sorry to post originally in the Win 7 Forum. Thanks for relocating it.

The problems have largely been resolved, despite the issue being clouded by a (it now appears) separate issue with Windows Explorer.


The Vista and both Win 7 boxes are protected by McAfee so, in a logical progression I double checked all of the settings.

Previously I could access the original Win 7 box from the Vista box with no problems other than having to enter the relevant username and password. (Win 7 seems to expect that, but I can live with that minor inconvenience.) This option had disappeared at some time in the recent past, (two or three days at most), before I found the original issue.


The problem, (or at least stage 1), was that I could not ping the Win 7 box. This was fixed by configuring the McAfee firewall to allow ICMP ping requests.

At this point I still could not access the files, so a further delve into the McAfee Firewall setting revealed that the option to allow access to Windows File Sharing (NETBIOS) Ports 137-139 had been unchecked. By rechecking this option the problem was solved.

Using exactly the same procedures on the latest Win 7 box also resolved that issue.

Now, happily, (phew!), I can access files from any local computer.


There is still an issue with Windows Explorer which I will post separately in the Windows 7 Forum.