Windows XP not seen on network

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I’m wondering how many others on here have had this problem? Windows machines disappear or never appear on a peer to peer network. I’ve had to over the years keep at least one Windows 98 machine working just so I can always see all the XP machines on my network. I think the problem maybe in how XP home works with a network? Most of my problems have occurred with XP home not showing up. Weird part is 98 can always see every machine on the network. Replies welcome.

Bill

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If your XP machines aren’t seen by your W7 machines then you could be suffering from the Link Layer Topology Discovery Responder installation snafu in XP/SP3. You can repair that by following the instructions at http://x3webworx3.sp…1.0&sa=42397501.

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If your XP machines aren’t seen by your W7 machines then you could be suffering from the Link Layer Topology Discovery Responder installation snafu in XP/SP3. You can repair that by following the instructions at http://x3webworx3.sp…1.0&sa=42397501.

Sorry but that wasn’t my issue, this has been going on for years now long before even Vista.

Bill

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Do you log on to your XP computers using a password? As far I know, you cannot connect to a remote XP computer when that system has no password protected user account(s). It’s been a while since I’ve been using Windows 98, I don’t recall whether it behaves differently in this respect.

One of the downsides of a workgroup environment is the lack of a computer registering which resources (shared folders, printers) are available and which aren’t. Discovery of networked resources will take place when the network interface is initialized (at system startup), this process may not be repeated until the next power cycle (unless some application triggers it, of course). So typically, the last system to boot up will show more devices in “My Network Places”.

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…As far I know, you cannot connect to a remote XP computer when that system has no password protected user account(s)…

This isn’t completely true, but it’s very close.

Some people cannot get this to work without passwords, some can. The difference is something to do with the exact security setup of the PC, but I have never completely got to the bottom of everything you need to get it to work reliably without passwords.

Edited by StuartR to add…

See this post for an example of things that you may have to do.

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This isn’t completely true, but it’s very close.

Some people cannot get this to work without passwords, some can. The difference is something to do with the exact security setup of the PC, but I have never completely got to the bottom of everything you need to get it to work reliably without passwords.

Edited by StuartR to add…

See this post for an example of things that you may have to do.

I think you hit the nail on the head here. I’ve had just enough limited success to say it can work but not on a regular basis. This has plagued me for a number of years now, and I’ve never found an answer to it. Heck I’ll just add password protection to all the XP Home machines and see if my troubles disappear. You wouldn’t think in a home environment you would need logins since it’s assumed you were in a trusted setting, you would think MS would have considered this. But of course I’m sure their reply would be you should be using XP Professional.

Bill

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Do you log on to your XP computers using a password? As far I know, you cannot connect to a remote XP computer when that system has no password protected user account(s). It’s been a while since I’ve been using Windows 98, I don’t recall whether it behaves differently in this respect.

One of the downsides of a workgroup environment is the lack of a computer registering which resources (shared folders, printers) are available and which aren’t. Discovery of networked resources will take place when the network interface is initialized (at system startup), this process may not be repeated until the next power cycle (unless some application triggers it, of course). So typically, the last system to boot up will show more devices in “My Network Places”.

Actually you can connect them, but you very well may be on to something here. Most of the machines I have trouble with are XP Home and they don’t have login passwords. Interestingly enough the one Home machine that always works ok does indeed have a login password. It never occurred to me that a lack of a login password would have any effect on networking in a peer to peer setting. Probably mostly because it never has in the past with older versions on Windows.

Bill

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I’ve been struggling with this issue with XP Professional on a Dell 2.4 GHz machine on my lan — another one with XP Pro, one with XP Home, a latop with Vista, a netbook with XP,and a desktop with Win2K. All the rest can be seen by the others, share files and printers, but the 2.4 machine has been stubbornly out of view until recently. I had identical settings on both of the machines with XP Pro – one was visible, the other was not.

I just ran a freeware program called WinsockxpFix 1.2 ::: http://www.snapfiles.com/get/winsockxpfix.html ::: on the 2.4, and after that I’m able to see most, but not all of the machines on my lan, so I guess in my case it was a problem with the Winsock Layer(s) on this XP machine. I’ve been trying different solutions for months (I’m astounded at the number of ways networking can be massaged), but this little 1 MB program seems to have done the trick for me.

I hope this will be helpful to someone.

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