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Invisible workstation

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12 replies

by rbobcat

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I have an NT Workstation on a Domain that can see and use our Network/Intranet. But you cannot see this workstation anywhere else on the network. All SP's and patches are installed.

12 replies

by sgt_shultz

ok, by not 'see' it, do you mean it's not in the network neighborhood (a browse issue, maybe) or you can't ping it (what protocols do you use?). I'll take a flyer at it. If you can ping 'out' from the bad pc, but can't ping 'in'. change the network card out and see if that helps...if you can ping both ways, and access the the bad pc from another by computer name (e.g. \\workstationname\c$) maybe you need that utility called browstat off the nt resource disk to help you debug the browser issue.
how long has this been going on? did it ever work? is there anything in the event view on the bad pc?

by joseph moore

It could just have the Hidden flag set on it.

Go to the workstation, click Start -> Run and type in:

NET CONFIG SERVER /HIDDEN:NO

Click OK.

That will unhide the machine from the Network Neighborhood view.

hope this helps

by rbobcat

Yes, it can be pinged, but not seen on any other station in the network neighborhood

by rabbit_runner

Answer #2 is the 'command prompt' answer. For the GUI, check in the 'services' applet of the control panel. Find the SERVER service. Most likely it is not running. Or some process will not allow it to start up when the workstation is rebooted. I have seen systems that will not allow the SERVER service to start. We would then re-apply the current service pack and this would correct the problem.

If the SERVER service is not running, then the computer is not being shared over the network. In otherwords, there are no 'shares' and it is not visable.

Hope this helps.

by motleykrue

Several things you can do. Ping the computername and see what is the result. Try and connect to the c$ share using net use ie: net use x: \\computername\c$ and see what the result is..
possibly wins is screwed.. remove the machine name from from wins..
possibly the machine account is screwed. remove the machine from the domain and add it back in. you will need to remove the account and create a new account as well as removing the entry from wins and dns.. possibly a dodgy nic.. Also i Generally find when this happens i eventually reinstall nt as with futher invesigation there is usually more than one problem with the machine..

by rbobcat

The system belongs to a Domain, and the ping by computername would not work.
I ended up wiping the system and installing W2K.
Problem Fixed.

by ctmoore1998

What is the connection protocol?? Also is the workstation a member of the domain??? or just a workgroup??? Can you do a search for the computer from the server or another workstation and 'see' the workstation. Try by IP address as well as the machine name. Also verify your IP configuration.

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