Re: Cannot turn on Network Discovery and File Sharing

[mkarwin]

i have quite similar problem... well maybe not that much:

i have all the services running, everything worked fine. i've recently been joining wlan at school (created another connection, i set up another network) and when i returned home i wanted to check how my desktop running xp is faring with the heavy computational tasks i'm doing right now.

and here comes the first 'zonk' - i can't see neither router nor desktop pc (my network = dt with xp and 2k3 and kubuntu, 1 note' w/ vista hp regularly, 2 'drop-bys'). because i played with vista i know the 2 important devices (dt and router) are ok. on vista however i reached the network and sharing center and here goes another zonk:



and no options can be switched - everything is active yet 'apply' buttons do nothing...

[johnwill]

Even though it appears you're having the same problem, please start a new thread when you have a new issue. It's very difficult to keep two problems straight and who's working on what in a single thread.

I've created a new thread for your issue here.

Note: You will need to post complete details of your configuration and your specific issue in this new thread for us to help you.

Thanks for your cooperation.

[mkarwin]

OSes of the hardware i use are visible in the profile... my router is Linksys one (WRT160N). till, dunno, last week everything was ok. then i had my other pcs off duty :D for a week and a few days. a couple of days ago i tried to use a printer connected to my desktop pc without any luck (no printing possible)... so i tried to upload the files to the shared folder on the big desktop tower :D but again with no luck - unable to see any of the machines on the network, neither the printers connected nor folders/directories/drives shared...

i finally have thought that it must be the notebook and its vista - i tried to check it and as you can see on the picture included in the first post i have network discovery off... the problem is i can't turn it on... i have aegis installed and running, same for microsoft's drivers, lltd or how it is called, simply everything is checked and double-checked but still i can't turn network discovery or anything else on (and everything is "working" as it is not greyed out - the only problem lies in the fact that i can't change any option (i work as admin, uac was put to off, and as on on it has not helped a bit) - i click apply, uac if on asks for permission, and the effect is nothing changes...

any ideas?

[johnwill]

Take a look here: http://windowshelp.microsoft.com/win...8d0a81033.mspx

Also, here's a networking checklist.

Turn off any firewalls for debugging. If the firewall is the problem, you'll have to configure it to allow access to "trusted zone" addresses. Note that some firewalls must be completely uninstalled to stop them from affecting your networking.

Hold the Windows key and press R, then type CMD to open a command prompt.

In the command prompt window that opens, type type the following commands:

PING each remote computer by IP address, and if successful, PING by name. Open a command prompt as described above and type.

PING <ip address>
or
PING <computer name>

Where:
<ip address> - is the x.x.x.x IP address
<computer name> - is the computer name

A failure to PING is almost always a firewall configuration issue. Any failure to PING needs to be corrected before you go any farther.

Note: You can obtain the IP address and computer name of a computer by opening a command prompt (DOS window) and typing IPCONFIG /ALL. This should work for any Windows version. The IPCONFIG /ALL display will provide a wealth of useful information for debugging your network connection.

Check your Services are Started on all PCs:

• Computer Browser
• DHCP Client
• DNS Client
• Network Connections
• Network Location Awareness
• Remote Procedure Call (RPC)
• Server
• TCP/IP Netbios helper
• Workstation

Note: You can check the services in Control Panel, Administrative Tools, Services.

All of these services should be started, and their startup type should be automatic.

All computers should be in the same workgroup for computer browsing to function properly. File & Print Sharing has to be enabled on any computer you wish to share files or printers from. You also need to actually share the resource in question from My Computer, right click on the drive/printer/folder, and select sharing.

If you encounter difficulties accessing computers that are visible in Network Neighborhood, make sure the computer being accessed has an account with the same name/password as the system connecting to it uses to login.

While the default NetBIOS setting is correct for normal network configurations, it's possible for it to be altered, and it costs nothing to make sure it's correct. NETBIOS over TCP/IP must be enabled for normal network browsing.

[mkarwin]

ok all the services you mentioned (and are mentioned on MS sites) are automatic and running/started, workgroup's the same on every machine i have... still things do not work how they are supposed to...

pinging works with both ip and pc names, with either firewall on or off (i'm using windows vista firewall, i have another in the router - built-in one but have not changed the settings there).

when i change the vista firewall to off i have the network discovery automatically set to on and i can't switch it off, plus any attempt to do so results in throwing a message "Incorrect function" and nothing works... switching firewall back on leads to turning every option under network sharing center to off with no possibility to set them on again.

even with firewall set to off i cannot browse the network (even though it's set to private network) neighbourhood - at least it's still empty (only the router is visible).

http://www.microsoft.com/windows/usi...d/default.mspx -> this test says there is nothing wrong with my connection (well, internet works well, it's the lan that's problematic). simply network map is simply not working... and as i said earlier - no "apply" button under network and sharing center works. i even opened the ports listed on http://windowshelp.microsoft.com/Win...45f331033.mspx but with no expected result ;(

the built-in diagnose and repair function does nothing ;(

[johnwill]

Let's see this for each computer.

Hold the Windows key and press R, then type CMD to open a command prompt:

In the command prompt window that opens, type type the following commands, one at a time, followed by the Enter key:

NBTSTAT -n

IPCONFIG /ALL

Right click in the command window and choose Select All, then hit Enter.
Paste the results in a message here.

If you are on a machine with no network connection, use a floppy, USB disk, or a CD-RW disk to transfer a text file with the information to allow pasting it here.