The network path was not found.

[wheelsoffire]

My roommates and I set up a network here at school, and we can all access each others computers with the exception of one of my roommates' computers. He can get into our shared folders and everything, but no one else can get into his. When I go to My Network Places, none of his shared folders show up at all, whereas in his My Network Places, he can access everything else on the network. When I go to "View workgroup computers", his computer shows up but when I try to access it the error message reads:

"(Computer name) is not accessible. You might not have permission to use this network resource. Contact the administrator of this server to find out if you have access permissions.

The network path was not found."

Any help at all would be much appreciated.

[bAdWaYz]

What ver of Windows does his computer use vs everyone else? Does he have a firewall running that might block local network traffic? Does he have file and printer sharing enable on his computer. Make sure his computer has the same workgroup name as the rest of you.

[wheelsoffire]

His computer is running Windows XP Home and everyone else has XP Pro; no firewall. Printer and file sharing are enabled and it's under the same workgroup name.

[wheelsoffire]

Any help?

[bAdWaYz]

On all the XP Pro computers is simple file sharing on or off?

[wheelsoffire]

On.

[wheelsoffire]

He reformatted his computer and that fixed it, so I suppose we'll never know what was wrong.

[surfermote88]

I have exactly the same problem with one of my laptops on my home computer. Is there any other way than reformatting the affected computer? Any help would be greatly appreciated.

[bAdWaYz]

I have exactly the same problem with one of my laptops on my home computer

Do you have the exact same setup as the above poster had? Windows XP pro on one computer and xp home on the rest? Do all computers have the same workgroup name? Is file and printer sharing enabled on all computers? Any firewalls that could be blocking local traffic? If you type net view and a command line what do you see?

[surfermote88]

Yes, except for the fact that I have Windows XP home on all 3 computers. They all have the same workgroup name, and file and printer sharing is enabled on all of them. I am only using the Windows firewall (I don't have ZoneAlarm). In the Windows Firewall I am allowing file and printer sharing (it is checked as one of the exceptions). When typing netview it shows all three computer names (Desktop, Laptop 1, Laptop 2), and it says the command completed successfully. That's the case on all 3 machines.

Something else I have discovered: When trying to ping laptop 2 (the laptop I can't access from the other two computers) it always says "request timed out". When pinging the other two computers (desktop and laptop 1) from laptop 2, it works. That is, I always get 4 successful replies.

[z1p]

What machines can't access what machines? It sounds like file sharing is working except TO laptop 2, is that correct? Can laptop 2 access its shares through network places?

[surfermote88]

When trying to access the laptop 2 shared file folder from either the desktop, or laptop 1, I get the error message (the same one mentioned in the very first posting in this thread). I can access the desktop and the laptop 1 shared files from laptop 2. I hope I am making sense.

[z1p]

Can laptop 2 access its own shares?

[surfermote88]

Yes it can.

[z1p]

Do you the computer browser service running on all 3 machine? If so disable it on laptop2 and restart it. Then run "net view \\laptop2" on one of the other machines.

If that doesn't work, try completely disabling the XP firewall on the laptop (FOR TESTING PURPOSES). The ping failing seems to indicate that something is blocking some of the network traffic to the machine, let's make sure its not the XP firewall. Have you ever installed another firewall on the laptop?

[surfermote88]

Sorry, I don't know how to disable the "computer browser service". Could you tell me how to do that.

I disabled the windows firewall as well as my antivirus software (McAfee V 8) on laptop 2 in the past to see if that solves the problem, but that didn't have any effect either. I don't have any other firewall installed either.

Here is something else I've tried in the past (based on Microsoft KB entry) , however, without success.

http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=kb;en-us;840634

[z1p]

Let's hold off on the browser service for now. Believe it or not I was going over my config at home trying to figure out any settings that may be affecting you and I found that I was having problems accessing my wife's laptop.

As it turned out sharing had been disabled, even though I had shared folders and could see them being shared on the laptop itself. So, I'd like you to check that if you don't mind. Go to a shared folder. open its properties and make sure that it is being shared. (Don't depend on the little hand to show you it is being shared, my folder had the hand, but sharing was still disabled).

Another thing, are you sharing a drive letter or just a folder? XP does not like to share whole drives.

[Archangel122184]

Let's hold off on the browser service for now. Believe it or not I was going over my config at home trying to figure out any settings that may be affecting you and I found that I was having problems accessing my wife's laptop.

As it turned out sharing had been disabled, even though I had shared folders and could see them being shared on the laptop itself. So, I'd like you to check that if you don't mind. Go to a shared folder. open its properties and make sure that it is being shared. (Don't depend on the little hand to show you it is being shared, my folder had the hand, but sharing was still disabled).

Another thing, are you sharing a drive letter or just a folder? XP does not like to share whole drives.

Just a thought, the reason this happens most of the time is because someone immediately goes into advanced mode sharing without enabling filesharing in the OS. Make sure you are in Simple file sharing mode (you can find this at the bottom of the folder options) and then check to make sure it is enabled.

[surfermote88]

Let's hold off on the browser service for now. Believe it or not I was going over my config at home trying to figure out any settings that may be affecting you and I found that I was having problems accessing my wife's laptop.

As it turned out sharing had been disabled, even though I had shared folders and could see them being shared on the laptop itself. So, I'd like you to check that if you don't mind. Go to a shared folder. open its properties and make sure that it is being shared. (Don't depend on the little hand to show you it is being shared, my folder had the hand, but sharing was still disabled).

Another thing, are you sharing a drive letter or just a folder? XP does not like to share whole drives.

I just checked. In the Network Sharing and Security box both, share this folder on the network, and allow network users to change my files are enabled. I am just tyring to share a folder, not a whole drive.

[surfermote88]

Just a thought, the reason this happens most of the time is because someone immediately goes into advanced mode sharing without enabling filesharing in the OS. Make sure you are in Simple file sharing mode (you can find this at the bottom of the folder options) and then check to make sure it is enabled.

I went to FOLDER OPTIONS --> VIEW, but I cannot even see an option called simple file sharing.

[z1p]

Don't worry about it. You have XP home and it only hassimple file sharing available. Thats why you don't see an option to turn it off and on.

Now to disable the browser, go to the Control Panel->Admin Tools->services
FInd the "Computer Browser Service" and disable it.

[Archangel122184]

Don't worry about it. You have XP home and it only hassimple file sharing available. Thats why you don't see an option to turn it off and on.

Now to disable the browser, go to the Control Panel->Admin Tools->services
FInd the "Computer Browser Service" and disable it.

My applogies to you both, I missed that you had home installed, I read over badwayz post and assumed you had pro.

It has been a little while since I've worked with home so I do not know the default setting for this anymore, however, if you are trying to use file share on a network where user names and passwords are not synced through a domain or computer to computer and the servers hosting the shares is based off of NT/NTFS and the client doesn't know to validate against the host, the guest account must be enabled and allowed to be logged into. Like I said, I don't know if home has it enabled by default, but its a thought that I had...

[z1p]

Actually AA, the guest account doesn't need to be enabled for simple file sharing to be used. (As a matter of fact disabling the guest account is one of my first tasks on setting up an XP machine) It is true that simple file sharing authenticates as guest, but disabling the guest account doesn't prevent that.

[surfermote88]

I disabled the computer browser service on laptop 2, re-stared it, and tpyed net view \\laptop 2 in the command prompt (using laptop 2). Here are the results:

Share name = SharedDocs
Tpye = Disk
Used as = Blank (It doesn't actually say blank, but there's nothing under the "used as" column heading)
Comment = Blank

Share name = printer
Type = print
Used as = Blank
Comment = (the name of my printer)

The command competed successfully.

I then used my laptop 1 and my desktop, went to "My Network Places" > "View workgroup computers". I can see all three computers. When attempting to access laptop 2, unfortunately I got the same error message again:

"Laptop 2 is not accessible. You might not have permission to use this network resource. Contact the administrator of this server to find out if you have access permissions.

The network path was not found."

I then enabled my guest account on laptop 2, tried to access it from the other two computers again, but that didn't work either.

[z1p]

OK a couple of more things to look at.

Go to your network connections and open the properties for the Local Area Connection. What protocols are installed on laptop2 are they the same as the othe machines?

Do you have an authetication tab in the properties box?

[surfermote88]

Laptop 2 has 1 additional protocol installed that the other 2 machines don't have. It is called "Deterministic Network Enhancer". All 3 machines have the following protocols:
Client for Microsoft Networks
File and Printer Sharing for Microsoft Networks
QoS Packet Scheduler
Internet Protocol (TCP/IP).

All 4 (or 5 in the case of laptop 2) are checked

None of the machines has an authentication tab in the properties box. The laptops have a General, Advanced, and Wireless tab. The desktop, which has a cable connection to the wireless router, only has a General and Advanced tab.

I just want to say that I really appreciate your help and your patience!! In the meantime I have also contacted my computer manufacturer (HP), as well as Linksys. Both have walked me through about an hour of troubleshooting steps, however, without any success.

[z1p]

Do you use a VPN from laptop2 at times? If not I'd remove then "Deterministic Network Enhancer" just to remove one more item that affects the area where you are having problems. But, to be honest I don't think its an issue.

Let me think some more on where to head from here and I'll get back to you.

[surfermote88]

Thanks so much, z1p!!! The problem is finally solved!! I had a VPN client installed on laptop 2, which I used in the past to log on to a university network. After removing the VPN client I was finally able to access the laptop 2 shared file folder from the other 2 machines.
Thanks again!!

[z1p]

NP, I'm just glad we finally got there. :)

-z1p