Windows 7 Windows 7 unable to locate networked server

That's what confusing me too. I haven't done a UNC connection but I do RD between these machines all the time via IP. I'll try it via netbios name and let you know.

If possible, please create a shared folder on both of these machines and see if you can map a network drive to both or either from both or either and also from the other non-Win7 machines, using the UNC path just to see if that will serve to break something loose regarding this issue.

I have a shared path on 2 of the three machines and I am not able to map a path to that drive via UNC using the netbios name from any machine in my network.

What type of error message are you getting
"Network path not found" or words to that effect....check the machines hosting the share for third party software, Comodo, Zone Alarm, McAfee, Nortons, etc. either tweak to include other machines into their respective trusted zones, by IP address, or uninstall.
"Access Denied" or words to that effect explore using common usernames and passwords to support Windows passthrough authentication.

I am getting a network name not found. I've checked all machines involved for any third party software that may be impeding any kind of activity. I'll have to take a deeper look and let you know.

Ok so I've checked all the machines to see if they are running any kind of 3rd party software and have turned off all security features and still can't see the machines. Any other ideas?

My only other suggestion at this point would be, to add an lmhosts file to each machine on the network including the information for all machines on the network.
Open notepad and enter the information in the following format, using the tab key to seperate the colums
192.168.1.69 MachineName1 #PRE #DOM:yourdomainname.whatever
192.168.1.70 MachineName2 #PRE #DOM:yourdomainname.whatever
192.168.1.71 MachineName3 #PRE #DOM:yourdomainname.whatever
Substituting of course your specific information
Save the file as lmhosts with no extension (edit, rename if necessary to remove the .txt extension)
Place a copy on every machine here
C:\Windows\System32\drivers\etc
Then on each machine from a command prompt type nbtstat -RR
I have no idea why, in your environment this step would be necessary, however; it should resolve the current issues. The only caveat being, that if a machine is for some reason, unsucessful renewing it's current IP address from the DHCP server and as a result receives a different address then of course this file is static and would require updating if that should occur.

I added all of the machines to one of the hosts file and I'm still not able to see anything from that server. The machine is only seeing 3 other networked machines. This is just odd and bizarre and I can't figure it out. Any other ideas?

hosts is a file to resolve FQDN (Fully Qualified Domain Names) to IP addresses
lmhosts is a file to resolve Netbios Names (Friendly Names) to IP addresses (this is actually what your WINS server should be doing)
Something, somewhere, somehow is preventing this netbios information from being promulgated effectively to some of the network nodes. I suggested an lmhosts file to in effect force feed this information to the nodes on your network that weren't receiving it through the other more conventional means (WINS server and or Netbios over TCP/IP).

dougancil said:

I added all of the machines to one of the hosts file and I'm still not able to see anything from that server. The machine is only seeing 3 other networked machines. This is just odd and bizarre and I can't figure it out. Any other ideas?

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How many actual servers do you have on your network, are you using the term generically to describe any machine hosting shares or are we talking about a specific server in the sense of Windows 2003 server as discussed earlier. It occurs to me that maybe the server is not looking towards itself for DNS or WINS resolution? Maybe actually adding the specific IP address of the DNS and WINS server to the properties of IPv4 on the network adapter of the "server" may help, not the 127.0.0.1 address (loopback) which sometimes occurs by default but the specific private reserved address. Just another thought.

I have 12 servers in my network. Everything from Windows NT to Windows 7 platforms. I inherited this network so there was no rhyme or reason when it was put together. Everything seems to work now though. I added to the hosts file of one of the 3 Windows 7 machines (this one happens to be a server running Windows 7 Ultimate) and rebooted and everything seems to now work. All 3 Windows 7 machines can now see each other and are able to map drives by both IP and Netbios name.

Glad to know that it's working for you currently. Although, as I mentioned earlier, static files like hosts and lmhosts, are not ideal since the information they contain can often become stale as ip addresses may change. As long as you're mindful of that potential problem then I suspect you'll be OK.

As these servers all have static IP's they won't be changing any time soon. The only machines that change IP's are laptops that people bring into the network and any workstations that I add which in two years, has been a total of 2. I will be mindful of the fact that lmhosts and hosts file's are static and if I need to change IP's within my network, I'll keep that in mind. Thank you again for your help.