I maintain a small network of computers, all on the same workgroup, and the network works fine on most of them. But there is one problem computer that can’t “see” any other machines in the workgroup.
Background Info:
1) BadMachine is a desktop on Win2000 Pro.
2) All machines have internet connections that work.
Symptoms:
1) Other machines can see the BadMachine in Computers Near Me, but when you try to connect to the BadMachine you get this message: “\\BadMachine is not accessible. The network path was not found.”
2) The bad machine can see the workgroup in Entire Network\Microsoft Windows Network folder, but it cannot see any of the other computers, including itself. If you click on the workgroup icon, BadMachine thinks and thinks and finally?? does nothing! No error message, it just stops looking eventually.
3) There are lots of Event ID 8021 and 8032 events in the events log on the Bad Machine.
8021 – “Browser was unable to retrieve a list of servers from the browser master on the network device. The data is the error code.”
8032 – “The browser has failed to retrieve the backup list too many times on transport
4) BadMachine can ping localhost. BadMachine can ping the IP for the wireless router. BadMachine cannot ping other machines on the network. Other machines on the network cannot ping BadMachine.
Things I have tried:
1) Checked that the “RestrictAnonymous” value is 0 and not 2.
2) Checked the node type ? it is hybrid, not point to point.
3) Checked that the Net BIOS Helper Service is running.
4) Checked that File and print sharing is ON.
5) I have installed and uninstalled NetBEUI, since there was contrary advice on whether this would help or hurt. It didn’t make any difference.
6) Checked that there is no firewall or security software operating on BadMachine.
7) Checked that there are some shared files on BadMachine.
