cant access laptop

J

jake87

New Member
I have four computers setup on my home network. 3 of the computers are working fine, can connect to the internet and can connect to each other. Though none of the computers can access the fourth computer(a laptop), and the laptop cannot access files on any of the other three computers. All computers including the laptop can get the internet.

when i try to access the laptop from another computer i get the msg
"\\laptop is not accessible. you might not have permission to use this network resource. contact the administrator of this server to find out if you have access permissions.

the network path was not found"

and i get the same msg when trying to get files on another computer from the laptop.

all computers are running windows xp.

where do i set who has permission to access what. i thought that i had set it set so no computers should be denied access, maybe i missed something?

any help would be good
 
jake87,

the username and password that you use to logon the laptop has to be added to the other 3 computers and your laptop needs the other 3 computers username and password added to the laptop. That should solve the problem and make sure the permission is set for the laptop so that the 3 computers can access your share folder. I hope this help

James
 
In Windows XP Home Edition, all network connections are mapped through the Guest account. If the Guest account is not enabled or if the Guest account does not have the appropriate share permissions, the connection does not work correctly. If the Guest account has sufficient share permissions, but the Guest account has not been assigned NTFS file system permissions, you can use the Guest account to connect to the local computer. However, in this scenario, you cannot access files or directories.

Everybody who gets onto a networked XP Home computer is automatically authenticated as a "Guest". Doesn't matter who they are, or what kind of privileges they have on their home computer, if they're connected to an XP computer, they're a Guest.

For some reason your guest account may be disabled on the laptop, ie not in the user account part but in the computer management, try this:

On a Windows XP Home computer, or on a Windows XP Professional computer that is not a part of a domain do the following:

1. Right-click My Computer, and then click Manage.
2. Click Local Users and Groups.
3. Click Users.
4. Right-click the Guest account, choose Properties.
5. On the General tab, select Account is Enabled.
6. Click Ok.

If this is not avaiable becasue you are using Home and home doesnt always have this option, try the following:

Open a Command Prompt by running CMD.EXE. (Start/Run) and type cmd

Use the following syntax in the command prompt box:

net user username /active:yes

Where username = Guest

Make sure the spaces etc are exactly the same as the syntax above.

Hope this works
 
Last edited:
thanks for the help smithy i couldnt do the first thing you mentioned, but i activating the guest account from cmd. Im still getting the same error.

The name of the laptop shows up in my work group, when i click on it the error comes up. but if i right click on it and go to properties i get the error "server laptop name cannot be found"
 
I would try a few of the following:

- Checked the wins & dns setting in local area connection

ie go to network connections/ Local Area Connection Properties/ TCP/IP Properties and check all the settings and ip addresses, also check the advance section and make sure everything looks ok.

- Is there a 3rd party firewall running on the Laptop

Check your firewall settings, windows firewall and 3rd party firewall. If you run software firewalls (not windows firewall) on laptop you may not be able to access shares on other machines on the network, due to firewall not configured correctly.

I have also heard rumors that if you running norton security or firewall, this may interfer and you may need to open correct ports.

Try shutting all these down and see if you can connect, if you can its these.

- Does the laptop have the same workgroup as the other three computers ie right click on my computer, select properties, go to the computer name tab and ckeck to see if the laptop workgroup name is the same as the other three computers, if its not. Change it so it is. You will prob have to reboot after you change it.

- Another test you could try is ping the computers

ie start/run and type cmd

enter the ip address of each computer and ensure you get a reply.

ie type the following in the command prompt

ping 192.168.0.85 (where the numbers = you ip address on each computer)

Ensure you get a reply from each computer, even ping the laptop that is a problem.

Then try and ping the name, ie ping laptop (where laptop is computer network name)

If all these tests work using the ip addresses but not the network name, then it is probably a DNS or NetBios issue

Try these and see how you go, if they dont work we will have to think of something else to help find the problem, if disabling firewalls etc doesnt work, let me know the result of the pings you did, so i can help you ensure NetBIOS over TCP/IP and Computer Browser service is running correctly.
 
Last edited:
iv checked the wins & dns settings and everything looks good there.

only one computer is running norton internet security and ports have already been opened. The other computers are all using windows firewall.

i can ping the laptop using its ip address, but when i ping it using the laptop name its still using an old ip address for it (we just resetup the network not long ago because we got some new computers and router)
for example if i enter, ping 10.1.1.* i get a response from the laptop.
but when i enter, ping laptop
it pings the address 192.168.0.*

iv forgotten how to change that.
also i was still having exactly the same problem before i had changed the network.

thanks for the help so far.
 
Reason its pinging the ip address is its recognising the name laptop with the ip adress of 192.168.0.*

Do you get the reply when you ping the name?? ie it will ping [Name] ip adresss

To change the ip address you go to network connections, properties, properties of TCP/IP and where is says ip address name sure the ip adress is the same as other computers, but with the different number.ie 192.168.0.*

Check out these things and see how you go:

1. Right Click My Computer and select properties.

2. Click the Computer Name tab.

This tab displays the computer name, the workgroup or domain to which it belongs, and a brief description of the computer.

3. Click Change, and then click More.

4.In DNS Suffix and NetBIOS Computer Name, do the following:

NetBIOS = the computer name (this should agree to what you think the computer name is ie Laptop)

DNS Suffix = Usually Blank unless part of a domain

The go to the link below, this is a microsoft article release on this issue:

Follow the steps and see how you go.

Ensure this is all done on the laptop (problem computer).

http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=kb;en-us;318030

Cheers
 
Last edited:
i dont think i explained this right.

the current ip address of the laptop is 10.1.1.3
if i ping that address i get a reply
the name of the laptop is SONYVAIO
if i enter, ping SONYVAIO, it associates that name with the ip address 192.168.0.3 which was the old ip address i had for the laptop. So i get no reply if i ping it using the name.

i tried that link and turned on netbios over TCP/IP on the laptop. The computer browser service was already enabled on it.

im still getting the same problem. Any more ideas?
:confused:
 
Open the command prompt again (cmd) and type this on all computers and ensure all the results are the same:

net view

This should show:

\\Computer Name
\\Computer Name etc etc

Once you have done this I would have a look at this website. We have already done many of the things on it but I may be a good idea to run through it all step by step.

http://65.24.134.81/KipSolutions/P2PNetworks/TroubleshootingP2P.htm

This will show you exactly how to complete every step and even has a few diagrams. One of these steps will solve your problem.

The ipconfig.bat file is safe to use, I tested it just now to ensure im am not leading you in the wrong direction.

I don’t think the Check Your Event Viewer is relevant as you do have internet connection already. I think it may be the last few steps that will solve your problem.

Hope this works :)
 
problem solved.

i changed the hosts file that netbios uses for name resolution. when i changed the address from the old ip of the laptop (192.168.0.*) to the new one (10.1.1.*) it started to work. bit strange because in that file the other computers still had the old ip addresses as well but they were still working the whole time. oh well whatever works :)
thanks for the help
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top