Connecting to workgroup

[AaronG1980]

I am having the hardest time getting my new laptop to connect to my office's network. I just got the new laptop and set up the wireless card entered the encription key, and made the connection.

I can get on to the internet, I can ping any other computer in the office, I can print through TCP/IP print servers, and I can check E-mail.

The problem is when I try to connect to the network drives on the servers The computer sits there hanging and then gives me this error message:


"Error occurred while reconnecting Z:to \\cal-onc\Public"
"Microsoft Windows Network: The local device name is already in use."
"This connection has not been restored."

I went to the server and checked the laptop's user account to make sure it had all the same permissions as everyone else and it does.

I'm at a loss. Here's all the pertinant info.

SONY PCG-GRT250P
WinXP SP2
ORiNOCO 802.11ag ComboCard Gold
3com wireless router
3com network switch
(server) Win2K

[glc]

How did you map the drives - with a login script or in Windows? Disconnect the network drives and go through the mapping procedure again if necessary.

In XP's Folder Options, View - uncheck the box for automatically connect to shared network resources - or something like that.

[AaronG1980]

Okay, I mapped the drives from windows when I first set up the account.

I unchecked automatically detect... disconnected the drives and tried to map them and I got the same error message.

I also tried browsing to the folder through My network Places - View Workgroup Computers - (server name) - (folder name) and all I get is the hourglass hanging and then this error message saying the folder is not accessible, and that I might not have permission to use this network resource. But I set up the user login account and I know it does have permission to use this resource.

Did I miss something? I don't know where else I can look to give permission to this computer.

[Pounder]

Does your laptop have a name or different name than your other pc's

[AaronG1980]

It's named laptop5 We have four others all named sequentially. I set up the other 4 laptops exactly the same way as this one and that's why I'm confused. They are all Sony Vaio PCG-GRT_ models so I know the computer is compatible, and the names of the other laptops work fine so I don't know why this one wouldn't work.

What's confusing is that I can "see" the other computers in the network, and I can ping their IP adresses but when I try to access a shared directory I end up with the error message.

[Carpedebass]

Check the protocols and make sure your laptop is set up with the same as your other PCs.

[glc]

Are you sure you are not logging into a domain - and the login script is not already mapping drives?

[AaronG1980]

Yes, We have a very odd system here. It all started out to based off a UNIX server for everything. Internet and the works all ran off that machine. All the workstations were windows 98. The network consisted of 7 computers at the time, so it was set up in a workgroup. We've since shifted to a windows 2k server set up here running a citrix evnironment and 45 workstations, long storie short we've never changed from a workgroup since the creation of the whole mess.

I did set up the workgroup on the laptop and specified the workgroup name when I set it up.

[revelation]

I just poured my morning coffee and set out to ask the experts at PCmech a similar question. One of the sales guys at work just bought himself a new Sony laptop with XP Home on it. He needs to connect to the network at work. I went through the same steps that you went to, but could not even "see" the network. We called in a tech for help and he spent some time on the machine and got it working. The only thing that he shared with me was that it was because the machine had Windows Home and not Pro. He did not want to devulge what settings had to be changed or what services needed to be installed.

[bailey]

well that makes sence as xp-pro is designed to do just that much easer, and home is not. thats the main differance between the too.

[glc]

XP Home cannot log onto a Windows domain, it is only workgroup capable.

The tech probably slipped a copy of XP Pro onto the machine and isn't sharing that info with you due to maybe some licensing issues.

[AaronG1980]

Thanks for all the help once again everyone. You're advise as usual was very helpful in troubleshooting this problem.

I found a solution. The problem was with the actual wireless card itself.

I uninstalled the drivers that ORiNOCO supplied and started from scratch.
I went to the ORiNOCO drivers site and downloaded the latest version.
Then went to the windows site and downloaded a patch for the driver that I just installed so I could use the windows wireless connection manager.
Set up the network and the appropriate passwords.
Restarted the computer and all is working well now.

I hope this helps!

-Aaron