Can't browse My Network Places - please help

Hi,

I'm having a very strange problem trying to browse from a XP Home system to a XP
Pro system in My Network Places on a peer to peer network.

XP Home system \\XPHOME

XP Pro system \\XPPRO, with simple file sharing enabled. The computer browser
service is running. The guest account is enabled. "Accounts: Limit local account
use of blank passwords to console logon only" is disabled in Local Security
Policy.

Here's the problem:

When you go into My Network Places on \\XPHOME, you cannot browse to \\XPPRO.
When you double click on XPPRO in My Network Places, you get an error:

\\XPPRO 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.
Access is denied.

Strangely enough, you CAN map a network drive to XPPRO using UNC (Universal
Naming Convention). I.E. going into Tools / Map network drive, and entering
\\XPPRO\sharename works with no problem at all. It's just browsing in My Network
Places that doesn't work.

Also, browsing for a shared printer in the Add Printers dialog works too. Weird.

And the reverse direction, browsing to XPHOME from XPPRO works just fine.

It's just trying to browse to XPPRO from XPHOME in My Network Places that
doesn't work.

I've gone down the checklist and I can't figure out what the problem is. Any
ideas / suggestions?

Thanks!

I had the same problem a few days ago. Found out I had the XP Firewall
enabled on one, or maybe it was both machines. Apparently, the firewall
prevents file and printer sharing through a router.



wrote:
Hi,

I'm having a very strange problem trying to browse from a XP Home
system to a XP Pro system in My Network Places on a peer to peer
network.

XP Home system \\XPHOME

XP Pro system \\XPPRO, with simple file sharing enabled. The computer
browser service is running. The guest account is enabled. "Accounts:
Limit local account use of blank passwords to console logon only" is
disabled in Local Security Policy.

Here's the problem:

When you go into My Network Places on \\XPHOME, you cannot browse to
\\XPPRO. When you double click on XPPRO in My Network Places, you get
an error:

\\XPPRO 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.
Access is denied.

Strangely enough, you CAN map a network drive to XPPRO using UNC
(Universal Naming Convention). I.E. going into Tools / Map network
drive, and entering \\XPPRO\sharename works with no problem at all.
It's just browsing in My Network Places that doesn't work.

Also, browsing for a shared printer in the Add Printers dialog works
too. Weird.

And the reverse direction, browsing to XPHOME from XPPRO works just
fine.

It's just trying to browse to XPPRO from XPHOME in My Network Places
that doesn't work.

I've gone down the checklist and I can't figure out what the problem
is. Any ideas / suggestions?

Thanks!

Hey Mark, I had this too after changing one computer's connection from
wireless to ethernet connection, but found a fix. Mark your network
connection in your firewall as trusted on all the computers in your
network. Then, be sure all the computers on your network have the same
workgroup name. (Right click on My Computer, choose Properties,
Computer Name, then Workgroup) Then, step each computer through "Setup
a home or small office network" (go to control panel, network
connections) with the same workgroup name as well. Then restart the
computers. That did the job for us. Hope this helps.