Workgroups suddenly no longer visible

[bauhsoj]

I recently bought a laptop and added it to the network with the same workgroup name. There are already three computers on the network with cable connections and the laptop is wireless. They are all connected to the same router.

I was able to access all the workgroup computers just fine as of yesterday but today when I woke and started the laptop up all the other computers on the network are no longer visible in the network map. I checked the workgroup name and it is still what it should be and I even logged into the router from the laptop and found all the computers connected as expected.

I tried adding back the laptop's network place from one of the other computers but when I do I get the following error message: Computer is not accessible. You might not have permission to use this network resource. Contact the administrator of the server to find out if you have access permission. The network path was not found.

I have admin access on every computer and sharing is enabled for all of them.

What is going on here? Why would the laptop suddenly become isolated on the network? I haven't installed or changed anything since last night.

The laptop is running Windows Vista. Two other computers are running Windows XP SP 2. Another computer is running Mac OS X.

[bauhsoj]

I have also discovered that I can't even view the Public folder on the very laptop it is on! I can browse the web and ping other machines on the network so how is it I can't view the public folder on the very machine it resides on??

I get the error: Windows cannot view \\NC-PC\Public

"NC-PC" is the name of the laptop I am sitting at! When I click "Diagnose Problem" after that other error shows I get the error: Cannot communicate with NC-PC (192.168.1.5)

Just in case this would be helpful to know, I also have Norton 360 installed. Previously I had a trial for Norton Internet Security installed which I uninstalled before installing 360.

[johnwill]

Please supply the following info, exact make and models of the equipment please.

What country are you located in.
Name of your ISP (Internet Service Provider).
What is the expected Upstream/Downstream speed for your ISP Connection?
Make and exact model of the broadband modem.
Make and exact model and hardware version of the router (if a separate unit).
Model numbers can usually be obtained from the label on the device.
Connection type, wired or wireless.
If wireless, encryption used, (none, WEP, WPA, or WPA2)
Make and model of your computer.
Version and patch level of Windows on all affected machines, i.e. XP-Home (or XP-Pro), SP1-SP2, Vista, etc.
The Internet Browser in use, IE, Firefox, Opera, etc.




Please give an exact description of your problem symptoms, including the exact text of any error messages.

If you're using a wireless connection, have you tried a direct connection with a cable to see if that changes the symptoms?

If there are other computers on the same network, are they experiencing the same issue, or do they function normally?




On any affected computer, I'd also like to see this:

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

Type the following commands:

PING 216.109.112.135

PING yahoo.com

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.

[bauhsoj]

I can't get access to the internet anymore. The situation on that computer has deteriorated further. At first I thought it was the Norton 360 firewall so I allowed various items through the firewall using that interface and then the network started working again. A couple hours later, without changing ANYTHING the internet stopped working. I woke up this morning having left the laptop on and now the network doesn't work again. It is as if Norton 360 is changing something on the fly in the background and making up arbitrary firewall rules. I tried disabling both the Windows Firewall and Norton's but that doesn't even work anymore.

Since I don't have access to the internet or the network from that computer I am going to try typing out the results of these below...

PING 216.109.112.135

PING: transmit failed, error code 1231.
PING: transmit failed, error code 1231.
PING: transmit failed, error code 1231.
PING: transmit failed, error code 1231.

Ping statistics for 216.109.112.135:
     Packets: Sent = 4, Received = 0, Lost = 4 (100% loss).

PING yahoo.com

Ping request could not find host yahoo.com. Please check the name and try again.

NBTSTAT -n

Bluethooth Network Connection:
Node Ipaddress: [0.0.0.0] Scope Id: []

    No names in cache

Local Area Connection:
Node Ipaddress: [0.0.0.0] Scope Id: []

    No names in cache

Wireless Network Connection:
Node Ipaddress: [169.254.***.***] Scope Id: []

            NetBIOS Local Name Table
        Name               Type              Status
    --------------------------------------------------
    NCPC            <00> UNIQUE            Registered
    NHOME           <00> GROUP             Registered
    NHOME           <1E> GROUP             Registered
    NCPC            <20> UNIQUE            Registered
    NHOME           <1D> UNIQUE            Registered
    ...__MSBROWSE__.<00> UNIQUE            Registered

IPCONFIG /ALL

NOTE: Because of the huge volume of information to type out from IPCONFIG I am just going to abbreviate it down to the only active connection and I will also list the others that are disconnected. Let me know if you need me to include any additional information on those that have "media disconnected".

Windows IP Configuration
    Host Name . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . : NCPC
    Primary DNS Suffix . . . . . . . . . . .  : 
    Node Type . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . : Hybrid
    IP Routing Enables . . . . . . . . . . .  : No
    WINS Proxy Enabled . . . . . . . . . . .  : No

Ethernet adapter Bluetooh Network Connection:
    Media State . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . : Media disconnected

Wirelss LAN adapter Wireless Network Connection:
    Connection-specific DNS Suffix . . . . .  :
    Description . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . : Broadcom 4321AG 802.11a/b/g/draft-n Wi-Fi Adapter
    Physical Adddress . . . . . . . . . . . . : 00-21-00-18-97-A5
    DHCP Enabled . . . . . . . . . . . . . .  : Yes
    Autoconfiguration Enabled . . . . . . . . : Yes
    Link-local IPv6 Address . . . . . . . . . : fe80::***:30a1:***:54d1%11 (Preferred)
    Autoconfiguration IPv4 Address. . . . . . : 169.254.***.*** (Preferred)
    Subnet Mask . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . : 255.255.0.0
    Default Gateway . . . . . . . . . . . . . : 
    DNS Servers . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . : fec0:0:0:ffff::1%1
                                                fec0:0:0:ffff::2%1
                                                fec0:0:0:ffff::3%1
    NetBIOS over Tcpip. . . . . . . . . . . . : Enabled

Ethernet adapter Local Area Connection:
    Media State . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . : Media disconnected
    Description . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . : NVIDIA nForce Networking Controller
    Physical Address. . . . . . . . . . . . . : 00-1E-68-6D-5F-54

Tunnel adapter Local Area Connection* 6:
    Media State . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . : Media disconnected
    Description . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . : isatap.{7C61A940-D92C-4A34-8F0D-0B7660D080E8}

Tunnel adapter Local Area Connection* 14:
    Media State . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . : Media disconnected
    Description . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . : isatap.{86AA818D-E3DA-4F2B-4F2B-BBAD-F38997A1F423}

Tunnel adapter Local Area Connection* 15:
    Media State . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . : Media disconnected
    Description . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . : isatap.{44BB7C28-CEDD-47B1-860A-9FCC05E21}

Tunnel adapter Local Area Connection* 18:
    Media State . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . : Media disconnected
    Description . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . : 6T04 Adapter

Tunnel adapter Local Area Connection* 19:
    Media State . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . : Media disconnected
    Description . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . : Toredo Tunneling Pseudo-Interface

Please note, my IP addresses (IP v4 & 6) have been purposefully obfuscated with ***. So please let me know if for some reason you need that private messaged to you with the full address.

---

What country are you located in: United States

Name of your ISP (Internet Service Provider): Road Runner

What is the expected Upstream/Downstream speed for your ISP Connection? 1mbps/10mbps

Make and exact model of the broadband modem: Motorola SB5101

Make and exact model and hardware version of the router (if a separate unit): Netgear WGR614 v7

Connection type, wired or wireless: wireless

If wireless, encryption used, (none, WEP, WPA, or WPA2): WPA-PSK [TKIP]

Make and model of your computer: HP Pavillion dv9000

Version and patch level of Windows on all affected machines, i.e. XP-Home (or XP-Pro), SP1-SP2, Vista, etc:
Laptop = Windows Vista SP1
Two desktops = Windows XP SP2
One Mac = Mac OS X

Note that ONLY the laptop has these problems.

The Internet Browser in use, IE, Firefox, Opera, etc: IE and Firefox

If you're using a wireless connection, have you tried a direct connection with a cable to see if that changes the symptoms? Yes, tried both, same results wired and wireless.

If there are other computers on the same network, are they experiencing the same issue, or do they function normally? Yes, all other computers work perfectly on the network.

[bauhsoj]

Any ideas?

[lawrence.cook]

ive found that vista almost has a mind of its own... it still confuses me to hell sometimes!!!
but try do a system restore to when it was working, its helped me on many occasions!!!
let me know if it works!!

[bauhsoj]

I uninstalled Norton 360 and the moment I did that the internet started working again. I think I will just give Bitdefender a try. Norton obviously still has much work to be done on their product.

[johnwill]

The while point of the IPCONFIG was to see specifically the information you blanked out. However, since the IP address starts with 169.254, it's not significant in this case, you have no network connection with that computer.

TCP/IP stack repair options for use with Windows Vista.

Start, Programs\Accessories and right click on Command Prompt, select "Run as Administrator" to open a command prompt.

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

Reset WINSOCK entries to installation defaults: netsh winsock reset catalog

Reset IPv4 TCP/IP stack to installation defaults. netsh int ipv4 reset reset.log

Reset IPv6 TCP/IP stack to installation defaults. netsh int ipv6 reset reset.log

Reboot the machine.