Windows 7 Win 7 PC won’t see any of my XP computers

[ngosslin]

O.K., here I go. I have 4 XP Pro boxes all have SP3 and work on the network just fine sharing and using my network printer. Now I have a Win7 Ultimate PC (got it for x-mas) and I can get it to see any of my XP boxes. I don’t consider myself a networking guru, but I’m not an amateur at this either. MS seems to have made this WAY more difficult than it needed to be. I have spent many hours sifting though posts that seem to be close to my issue, but nothing I have tried seems to make any difference. My virus software has been removed and the firewalls turned off. I have made sure that all the services that some of the posts indicated needed to be on are on. I can however remote desktop into one of my XP boxes via its IP but not its name. Maybe something there, don’t know. I would greatly appreciate any help that anyone could give me, and thanks in advance for just taking the time to read my ranting.
Signed
Totally frustrated with MS!!!

 

[Joe S]

Homegroup only works with Windows 7 PCs. Try going into network and sharing center advanced settings home or work scroll and check out the sharing down near bottom turn off password sharing and change to use user accounts to connect. Then make sure all of the PCs have the same workgroup.
Joe

 

[ngosslin]

10-4 not using the Homegroup using the work setting and all PC do have the same workgroup name, and i have turned off the password sharing option. still no change.

 

[Joe S]

Did you check the box to use user account to connect? Did you try powering your router off and then back on? sometimes that resets defaults and clears bad settings. Sometimes my XP box is really slow connecting I mean occasionally 10 min! Make sure that the XP firewall doesn't turn itself back on. I've had problems with that before.
Joe

 

[ngosslin]

Yes i check the "use the user account to connect option as well" When i reset my router i couldent get back on the internet till just now. My firewall is still off on the xp box. I have seen that it takes a long time for the network computers to show up sometimes as well, but i have been at this for weeks now. any idea as to why i can remote desktop but still can see the XP box?

 

[ngosslin]

Not sure what you are saying but i cant get the xp box to even find any shares on the WIN 7 box. Although the XP box can see the WIN7 box, just can get to it.

 

[Trouble]

He was talking about mapping a drive from the Windows 7 machine to a share on the XP machine. Which should work also, but let's talk about the direction you seem to want to go. First if you open the run dialog box on the xp machine and type Link Removed what happens. Are you being prompted for a username and password, or are you getting an access denied message. Just need to know what the results are.

 

[RAK]

Try this:
Open the Control Panel (icon view) and choose Network and Sharing Center. Click the link under "view your active networks" You may find it says "home network". if so, click it.
In the next window choose "Work network" that will switch you from a homegroup to a workgroup so your two computers can talk to each other.
In, and from the XP computers, right click any files you want to share on either computer and allow sharing and grant full permissions. Do this all the way up/down the explorer chain to/from the files you want shared.

 

[ngosslin]

Thanks to all for your help, I will try these tonight when i get home and let you know. Thanks again.

 

[theblackghost]

it worked for me

in ur xp computer start -my network places-set up a home or small office network follow the process then it say you're almost done ask u for create a disk network setup then u have to use a usb pen drive or memory stick the follow the instruction it work 100% trust me. am happy after that!

 

[jackthomson]

I'm having similar problems. My Windows 7 laptop cannot find my Windows XP laptop on the Network tab.

Confusingly it works fine the other way around. ie my Windows XP can find my Windows 7 laptop. And my Windows 7 laptop can ping my Windows XP with no problem at all. And finally they've both definitely got the same Workgroup name and I've got network discovery switched on in Window 7 (it just appears not to be working).

Any ideas?

 

[Trouble]

I'm having similar problems. My Windows 7 laptop cannot find my Windows XP laptop on the Network tab.

Confusingly it works fine the other way around. ie my Windows XP can find my Windows 7 laptop. And my Windows 7 laptop can ping my Windows XP with no problem at all. And finally they've both definitely got the same Workgroup name and I've got network discovery switched on in Window 7 (it just appears not to be working).

Any ideas?

jackthomson:
Similar but slightly different. Your XP machine is almost certainly hosting some type of third party firewall of Internet Security Suite with a firewall type applet and that is what's probably causing your issue. Please temporarily uninstall any such software and see if your problem persists.

 

[jackthomson]

Thanks for the quick response.

I've disabled my XP security suite but that hasn't worked.

Before I upgraded to Windows 7 my laptop was a Vista laptop and it could connect fine to my XP laptop...

 

[Trouble]

Generally, we've found that attempts to shut off or disable such third party software, have proven worthless and an uninstall, often using the more comprehesive and exhaustive software removal tools for your specific suite is required. Seems you can often reinstall the same product after the network is up and running without issues

 

[jackthomson]

Fair enough. However my XP laptop is my company's laptop and I don't want to mess around with the security too much.

But I would argue that because it previously allowed connections from Vista, the fault lies in Windows 7 or in my Windows 7 setup.

 

[Trouble]

I can certainly understand not wanting to mess with the company laptop. So let's try instead, rebooting the XP machine in safemode with networking and see if the problem persists. This is not always a 100% reliable diagnostic procedure, since some of the parts of some of the software I'm talking about may still persist even in safemode with networking and then too, if you're using a wireless card on the laptop, the drivers may not load and so we can't test but it's worth a try. If not maybe we can try something else.

 

[acurasd]

Sir,
I have to know this.... This will make it alot easier for us to fix your problem.

How is your network set up.

You say you have alot of computers....

This is the information needed:


OS: Windows 7 - did you upgrade or did you do custom install and format the drive first?
Do you get a Dymamic IP from the router or do you have static IPs to all your computers....
What Firewalls do you use on all of your computers?

are they hard wire or wireless?

Under your router... how is your LAN configured... is it: 192.168.0.1 , 192.168.1.1 or 192.168.2.1

and may i get your DNS configuration. that way i can help you configure your network and i can help make it all work nicely.

this information is under your STatus under the routers Web page

 

[jackthomson]

Thanks for the help everyeone.

I dug out an old Ubuntu server running Samba and my Windows 7 picked it up no problem. So I can only assume that the fault lies with my XP laptop (and my company's configuration of it).

Since all I really want to do is to synchronize folders and I can do that because my XP laptop can see my Windows 7 laptop, then I'm not going to bang my head any further on this one.

So in conclusion, it's a bit annoying and my Windows 7 laptop still can't see my XP laptop but I'm satisfied that the fault lies with my XP laptop.

Thanks.

 

[RAK]

Original Poster, ngoslin. Were you succesful.