My Network Places Disappearing

[jillsy]

I have had my computers networked for years with few problems. I have periodically added/deleted computers with no problems. Each time, I would just run the XP network setup wizard and everything would go smoothly. For the past year, my network has consisted mainly of 2 XP PCs, a XP laptop (connected wirelessly via internal Wireless-G card), and a Vista PC (connected wirelessly via Linksys WUSB600N USB adapter); I also have a couple of other XP PCs I turn on once in awhile. They have all connected and the various shared folders have shown up in My Network Places on the different computers. The folders even appear there for awhile if a corresponding computer is turned off; if they do go away, they come back as soon a the computer is turned on.

Until about a month ago, I was using a Linksys BEFSR41 router, a couple of Linksys 10/100 switches, and a Linksys WAP54G wireless access point to connect everything. Last month, I replaced the router, access point, and one of the switches with a Linksys WRT610N wireless router and an EG008W gigabit switch. My two main XP PCs are connected to the router via cat5e cable, and the XP laptop and Vista PC are connected wirelessly. The router has the same settings as my old router (same IP address, etc.); the XP PCs and laptop connect via DHCP and the Vista PC has a static IP address.

Until last Saturday, the shared folders were showing up in My Network Places as usual. Then all but one of the Vista PC's folders disappeared from my PC's Network Places. Even restarting both PCs didn't help. I could get to the other folders if I typed their paths directly into the address bar, though. I checked the other XP PC and the laptop and they had lost some or all of their listed shared folders. So I ran the XP network setup wizard on all XP systems, restarted all, and everything was fine. However, today it's beginning again. All systems are connected to the internet and I can access our network printer and network hard drives from all computers. I can still connect to the desired shared location if I know its exact path to type in manually so this isn't a firewall or connection issue.

I'm also seeing NetBT errors in my Computer Management Event Viewers:

- The name "MYNETWORK :1d" could not be registered on the Interface with IP address 192.168.1.103. The machine with the IP address 192.168.1.101 did not allow the name to be claimed by this machine. (Source NetBT, Event ID 4321)

- The browser was unable to promote itself to master browser. The computer that currently believes it is the master browser is COMPUTER2. (Source Browser, Event ID 8009)

I'm not sure about the first one, but I had seen the browser error before when I still had my old router and it didn't appear to cause any problems.

This is a real pain since I frequently copy/move files among my various systems. I'm glad I can still connect, but it's certainly more convenient to just open them from a list of locations. Plus it's frustrating to have something suddenly stop working when I haven't changed anything. I know I changed my router, but that was a full 3 weeks before this problem began.

Does anyone have any ideas on how to fix this? Would running the network setup wizard and changing the network name help? I will be reformatting one of the XP PCs since I think its hard drive is dying. Will it help to give it a new name when I set it up again?

Thanks in advance and sorry for the abundance of info.

Jill

[mojo]

I personally never, ever use the list in My Network Places, as I find if very clumsy to click multiple times instead of just typing in directly what I want. You do not have to type the full path, just \\computername and then hit enter. All of the shared folders on that computer will pop up and you can browse to whatever you want. If you really love having your network places in the gui already populated, you can create manual ones just by using the "add network place" wizard instead of pulling your hair out trying to get them to auto-populate.

[jillsy]

Thanks for the advice. I did just add a couple of folders that way. Will they stay if I add them that way, or is it likely they'll keep disappearing?

[chuck4456]

You need to set them all as MSHOME.

[mojo]

Originally Posted by jillsy Thanks for the advice. I did just add a couple of folders that way. Will they stay if I add them that way, or is it likely they'll keep disappearing?

When you create them manually they're pretty good at staying put, even if the computer they're on can't be reached.

[jillsy]

Yes, the items I added last night are still there this morning even though one of the systems is currently off. I'll just do it that way from now on rather than running the network setup wizard. Thanks for the help.

Jill

[glc]

Originally Posted by chuck4456 You need to set them all as MSHOME.

No........they just all have to have the same workgroup name.

[jillsy]

By manually adding paths I was having no problems for awhile. However, about a week ago, I went to access a shared folder on my husband's computer form my computer; I received the hourglass followed by the may not have permission... "The network path was not found" message. I tried again a little while later and was able to connect to his system normally. The problem has persisted since - switching between not being able to connect and being able to connect.

I have changed nothing related to our router, network, firewalls, etc. In addition, I can access other network devices connected to our router, such as a network hard drive and network printer. It's just other PCs on the network I'm having trouble with.

Another problem I noticed a couple of days ago (it could have started last week, though) is that my Hauppauge MediaMVP media extender will not locate my SageTV PC. I have been using the MVP and SageTV system for nearly a year with no problems. Again, I have changed nothing. The MVP just lost the connection for some reason and when I tell it to scan the network, it claims it doesn't find the SageTV server.

Another tidbit just in case it provides a clue... The other night, I checked the network view on my SageTV system (running Vista) and it could see my husband's computer but not mine even though they were both on and I had just accessed a shared folder on the SageTV/Vista system from my system (have had same intermittent connection problems between my PC and SageTV PC, though). Could there be something corrupt on my PC? If so, how would this relate to the media extender connection issue?

Oh, and one more thing... about an hour ago, I could get no connection via Network Places between my and my husband's computers, but was able to ping his computer by IP address (not by name) from my computer. A couple of minutes ago, I was suddenly able to access each computer's shared folders from the other.

I've checked for viruses, etc., on all systems and came up dry. Does anyone know what could be causing this problem?

Thanks,
Jill

[mojo]

I can think of nothing else except username/password isues. Make sure that all computers involved have the same user accounts set up with the same passwords and things should be much easier. For sagetv, are you running it in service mode? If so, use the service control utility in the sagetv start menu folder to change the user to a real account instead of the localsystem account that it defaults to. If you're not using it in service mode, you probably should be . If you're not using it in service mode and don't want to, make sure that the user you're logged in as when you launch sagetv is a real user with a password. Vista computers get along much better when everyone has a password, and sagetv doesn't really work at all with network shares when it doesn't have a password.

Also, congrats on using SageTV! I've been using it for years and I absolutely love it. And in case you haven't discovered it for yourself, they have very large, very active forums that can be a great resource.

[jillsy]

Thanks for the suggestions, mojo. It just so happens I'm preparing to do my annual reformatting, plus some upgrades, for my and my husband's PCs. I'm going to see what happens after I get us back up and running, run network wizard, etc.

One thing I've suspected is the Linksys EasyLink Adviser (LELA) I allowed to install on my PC when I set up my WRT610N router about a month before these "My Network Places" problems began. I'm in no way thinking I'm in the clear yet, but yesterday I disabled the Pure Networks Platform Service that is automatically installed with LELA. Pure is supposed to enable file/printer sharing and network monitoring. Shortly thereafter (not right after, though), I was able to access my husband's shared folders from my PC. Since I booted up today, I have been able to access his folders every time I've tried. I have not had a chance to try out the connection between my MediaMVP and SageTV system yet, though. I don't plan to install LELA on my PC after reformatting; I didn't find it that useful and, if I left it running, it would prevent my SageTV system from going to sleep.

I am running SageTV in service mode. I hesitate to mess with anything there since, after some tweaking, I have had the Sage system running as I want for about a year. It comes on to record and sleeps when done. I really love SageTV and have had few problems with it. I will look into your suggestions, though, if this MediaMVP problem persists.

Thanks again for the help.

Jill