xp-win 7 workgroup sharing

Two Win 7 machines and an old XP system comprise my home network. Since
one is XP, I do not have a Homegroup; sharing is via a workgroup. Without
having made any change I can think of, I find now that neither of the Win
7 machines can "see" the XP system, yet the XP machine can see shares on
both of the Win 7 systems. Both Win 7 systems can see shares on each
other. There are identical user id's and passwords on all three, and the
workgroup name is the same everywhere. How can I debug this? It's been
working fine for years until yesterday...

TIA,
Jason

I did some more investigating. On one, but not both, of the Win 7
systems, System Properties claims I've selected the "work network"
option. If I change it to "home network," the workgroup name gets changed
from what I've set to "WORKGROUP". If I change it back and reboot, the
old name is back, but the network type has changed back to "work"... ?

On Sat, 27 Jun 2015 16:03:22 +0000 "Stormin' Norman"
wrote in article

Have you tried all the basic steps?


Sigh. Yes - everything on your list.

What bugs me is how changes occur - Win Update maybe? I haven't
fiddled with the networking for quite a long time; I have not needed
to. There is one new wrinkle in the setup: I replaced my router a
couple of months ago. Everything seemed to be working properly after
the change though.

On Sat, 27 Jun 2015 09:40:12 -0400, Jason wrote:

Two Win 7 machines and an old XP system comprise my home network. Since
one is XP, I do not have a Homegroup; sharing is via a workgroup.

That's one way. Have you tried any others?

Without
having made any change I can think of, I find now that neither of the Win
7 machines can "see" the XP system, yet the XP machine can see shares on
both of the Win 7 systems. Both Win 7 systems can see shares on each
other. There are identical user id's and passwords on all three, and the
workgroup name is the same everywhere. How can I debug this? It's been
working fine for years until yesterday...

Are you saying it's a network discovery issue? Try accessing the 'unseen'
PCs by using one of the following formats in the Location bar of Win
Explorer. Note that these methods completely avoid the workgroup name
requirement.

\\computername\share
\\IP_address\share

I never use workgroups or homegroups. Instead, I always use IP addresses.
Use "\\IP_address" to see all of the visible shares on the target PC.

Years ago, I had an issue with the Master Browser, a Windows thing where the
various PCs hold an election and decide which of them will manage inter-PC
comms. In my case, when a specific XP machine was elected as Master Browser,
certain other PCs weren't visible in Network Neighborhood (I think it was
during the period where MS called it that.) As a short term fix, I did a
Registry tweak that prevented that PC from becoming the Master Browser, but
for a longer term solution I simply started using IP addresses, which always
works, regardless of workgroup/homegroup status. Naturally, I don't use DHCP
on specific PCs that I always want to access, which makes managing things
easier.


--

Char Jackson

On Sat, 27 Jun 2015 14:34:40 -0500 "Char Jackson"
wrote in article
Note that these methods completely avoid the workgroup name
requirement.

Char and Norman, thanks very much. I'll keep hunting.

I remain curious as to why one of Win 7 machines won't seem to let me
define it as part of a Home network. Does a Work network imply the
presence of a domain controller?

I found a succinct description of the distinction.

http://windows.microsoft.com/en-us/w...-a-network-at-
home-different-from-one-at-work

On Sat, 27 Jun 2015 15:45:37 -0400, Jason wrote:

On Sat, 27 Jun 2015 14:34:40 -0500 "Char Jackson"
wrote in article
Note that these methods completely avoid the workgroup name
requirement.

Char and Norman, thanks very much. I'll keep hunting.

Hunting for what? Did you try either of the other access methods I provided?
Did one or both of them work? If so, that rules out all kinds of things and
narrows your problem to one of discovery.

I remain curious as to why one of Win 7 machines won't seem to let me
define it as part of a Home network. Does a Work network imply the
presence of a domain controller?

Did the discussion about Master Browser election make any sense? I suspect
that that's what's going on, or at least it seems to be one possibility.

--

Char Jackson

On Sat, 27 Jun 2015 20:39:22 -0500 "Char Jackson"
wrote in article

On Sat, 27 Jun 2015 15:45:37 -0400, Jason wrote:

On Sat, 27 Jun 2015 14:34:40 -0500 "Char Jackson"
wrote in article
Note that these methods completely avoid the workgroup name
requirement.

Char and Norman, thanks very much. I'll keep hunting.

Hunting for what? Did you try either of the other access methods I provided?
Did one or both of them work? If so, that rules out all kinds of things and
narrows your problem to one of discovery.

Using the computer name directly worked perfectly in all directions.
Stranely (to me), after I gave up trying to convince the Win 7 machine
that it was in a Home network things began to work. I suspect the problem
was the workgroup name and that would confound the Browser. And me.

I remain curious as to why one of Win 7 machines won't seem to let me
define it as part of a Home network. Does a Work network imply the
presence of a domain controller?

Did the discussion about Master Browser election make any sense? I suspect
that that's what's going on, or at least it seems to be one possibility.

On Sat, 27 Jun 2015 23:10:41 -0400, Jason wrote:

On Sat, 27 Jun 2015 20:39:22 -0500 "Char Jackson"
wrote in article

On Sat, 27 Jun 2015 15:45:37 -0400, Jason wrote:

On Sat, 27 Jun 2015 14:34:40 -0500 "Char Jackson"
wrote in article
Note that these methods completely avoid the workgroup name
requirement.

Char and Norman, thanks very much. I'll keep hunting.

Hunting for what? Did you try either of the other access methods I provided?
Did one or both of them work? If so, that rules out all kinds of things and
narrows your problem to one of discovery.

Using the computer name directly worked perfectly in all directions.
Stranely (to me), after I gave up trying to convince the Win 7 machine
that it was in a Home network things began to work. I suspect the problem
was the workgroup name and that would confound the Browser. And me.

All's well that ends well. Thanks.


--

Char Jackson