Mystery networks in "MS Windows Network"

[lethe7977 0]

On our network, we have one domain specified called "A". However, when you go to "Entire Network" -> "Microsoft Windows Network" from any PC joined to the domain "A", there are 4 other mystery networks listed there. One of them is called "Workgroup", the others are names that may have been workgroups or file shares in the past. One of the mystery networks will display the computers joined to our domain when you double click on it. If you try to click on the other networks you get the message "(network name) is not accessible. You might not have permissions to access this network resource. Network Path not found."

 

Where are these mystery networks coming from? How can we get rid of them?

 

Thanks!

[Myke 0]

Workgroup is the default domain/network that Windows selects upon initial setup of the OS. You might want to see if any of the machines are currently part of Workgroup. I've seen 98 (all versions) machines continue to show the Workgroup domain despite the fact that no machines are connected to it.

 

As for the other mystery networks, it might be possible that a machine was setup to be on a different network before joining your network.

 

A few questions:

What operating systems are you running on your machines?

How many machines are on your network?

Were each of them fresh installs of Windows when they were hooked up to your network?

What operating systems are you running?

What networking equipment are you using?

[lethe7977 0]

We have all XP Pro machines on our network. Some of those were upgraded from previous versions of windows, so I can see why the workgroup network would be out there. The techs that set up this network are no longer with the company, so we're finding all sorts of oddities and things set up incorrectly that we're struggling with. We have approximately 200 computers on the network. We use mostly cisco routers, and the switches vary but I think most are netgears. Our servers are a mix of Server 2000 and Server 2003.

 

If there is a machine or several machines that were set up with these other networks before joining our current domain, how can I figure out which PCs are causing the problem and how can I "clean" up the misc. networks?

 

Thanks, any insight is greatly appreciated!

[Mel 0]

XP networks will generally find all computers connected to

the router or hub but since you are using a domain your

machines are not members of that workgroup so they cannot

be accessed.

Although a workigroup will locate other boxes connected by hub

or router it can only accesss the ones that belong to the same workgroup and have shared folders.