[el_vago32]

Hi Guys, this is the scenario: 4 workstations running Win98 SE, and another workstation acting as a file "server" running Win2k Professional. When I go to "Network Places" in any of the Win98 workstations, there are no visible PC's, and if I double click "Entire Network" it gives the error "could not access network...bla,bla". But that's not all. When I go to "Network Places" in the WIn2k WS, I can see all of the workstations including itself (it is named "apps")and I can access all of the PC's without any problem. Other issue is: in the "Run" dialog box I type "\\apps" (without the quotes), inmediately says that cannot find the network address (or resource, dont remember very well), and the same happens if I type its IP address. But I type the name (or IP address) of the others workstations (those running Win98), it access them just well. And finally it gets a little weirder, each one of the Win98 Workstations have a mapped network drive, which is reconnected every time you login; that network drive is located in "Apps" and it connects very fine, so I dont understand why I cant access "Apps" from either Run or Netowrk Places.

Hope I gave information enough, I need a hand here guys, thax in advanced.

PS: Today they've (customers) called me and said that these problems seem to happen only when the Win2k Pc is turned on :x . guess it may help.

[adamvjackson]

Sounds like a NetBIOS/master browser issue. Check to ensure that NetBIOS over TCP/IP is enabled on the Windows 2000 Professional PC.

Let us know if that helps. Also, are you running any firewall software on the 2k machine?

[el_vago32]

No, dont have any firewall running.

Thanks for your suggestion (quick huh? :P), I'll try that.

[nosrednaoen]

Strange Problem never saw that type of problem. may i say that can you ping the ip of the file server from Win98sec. sorry if I am slow b coz i am new to computers and still learning.

[el_vago32]

Yes, I can ping anyone including the Win2k Box.

Nevermind, we're all learning here, aren't we?

[adamvjackson]

I'm not an expert about NetBIOS/master browser service, but it would seem like you want to forcefully set one of the Windows 98 PCs as the master browser.

Here's a few artices on the KB which may help.


http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=kb;en-us;188001
http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=kb;en-us;818092
http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=kb;en-us;102878
http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=kb;en-us;285035

Anyway, good luck, post if you need more info.

[el_vago32]

Ok, thnx for your advices; this is the veredict: A DAMN VIRUS!. The Win2k machine got infected with 2 different virus, the W32.Spybot.Worm and Trojan.Adclicker. Actually the first one was the one that caused the disaster. Note, I had to set the "Computer Browser" service to start manually, I dunno why but this service seemed to cause all the Win98 machines not to show under Network Places, then I had to make some changes to registry to share again the IPC$ resource.

A good read to this Issue is located http://www.experts-exchange.com/Networking/Q_21010475.html

To Re-share the IPC$ resource you have to open Regedit and go to:
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Services\lanmanserver\parameters

In the left Panel change the values of the AutoShareServer and AutoShareWks to "1". If They're not listed, create'em as DWORD Values.

See you next time and thx again.