Unable to view network shares in windows XP

Paul Boz

For some reason I'm unable to view network shares with my windows XP laptop. I have a shared drive that I can get to from two other machines. In addition, when I use the SoftPerfect Network Scanner to detect any shares I don't see any at all. I can ping the system but I can't view its shares.

I don't have any firewalls running (including the XP firewall) and I have admin privileges. I verified that it's not a network configuration because I took the machine to work and tried to view shares in the testing lab and was again unsuccessful.

Can anyone clue me into why I can't view network shares from this machine?

dynamik

Is NetBIOS disabled? Can you access the shares via IP or FQDN?

Mishra

Is your server/workstation service running?

NetAdmin2436

Is File and Printer Sharing is installed in the Local Area Connection properties?

Do you have any antivirus suites running on your computer? (like norton)

Paul Boz

dynamik wrote: »

Is NetBIOS disabled? Can you access the shares via IP or FQDN?

I have netbios enabled within the Advanced field of TCP/IP properties. I can not get to the share by IP or name.

Mishra wrote: »

Is your server/workstation service running?

I just stopped and started it to verify that it is running.

NetAdmin2436 wrote: »

Is File and Printer Sharing is installed in the Local Area Connection properties?

Do you have any antivirus suites running on your computer? (like norton)

Yes it is enabled. No I don't have any AV or firewall software running.

royal

Is it in the same workgroup? Do the Administrator passwords match? If it's in a workgroup and both computers have the same account but different passwords, it will fail. Also, make sure the computer browser and TCP/IP NetBIOS helper services are started. Also make sure that all Automatic Services are started.

brad-

could share permissions be an issue?

Paul Boz

royal wrote: »

Is it in the same workgroup? Do the Administrator passwords match? If it's in a workgroup and both computers have the same account but different passwords, it will fail. Also, make sure the computer browser and TCP/IP NetBIOS helper services are started. Also make sure that all Automatic Services are started.

The computer isn't a member of a work group. This is my work machine that I use to go on-site with. It is my pen testing computer. My co worker is sitting right next to me and can view the client's shares and I can not. As far as I can tell we have the same config. Besides, I'm not even being prompted with an authentication box.

I booted into safemode with networking and still couldn't get any shares so I think software is out (AV/Firewall/etc).

Any more suggestions?

brad- wrote: »

could share permissions be an issue?

On my local machine or on the network shares? The network shares are publicly browsable by anyone with a network IP (like my co worker).

royal

Try doing a repair on the NIC. If that doesn't work, do an uninstall on the NIC via the device manager but don't remove the drivers. Then Scan for New Hardware. If that doesn't work, try upgrading to the newest driver. If that doesn't work, try resetting TCP/IP with the following: How to reset Internet Protocol (TCP/IP) in Windows XP. You can also try using Netmon and/or Wireshark.

shednik

Does anything come up if you try to view the shares in computer management? Have you tried logging into your co-workers pc to see if the problem follows you?

Paul Boz

When I try to repair the connection I get the following error:



I turned off netbios, tried to repair it again, got the same problem, re-enabled netbios, got the same problem again.

I have uninstalled the NIC completely and re-installed it and the problem persists. I suspect that this is my problem, but I don't know how to solve it. Anyone?

snadam

having seen your error message, you tried re-installing the TCP/IP stack? I think royal had the link to do that.

dynamik

Try the following at a command prompt: netsh int ip reset

Edit: Whoops, did you edit that post Royal? I didn't see you posted that already

royal

As I said, try re-installing TCP/IP and upgrading the driver. Also, in addition to resetting TCP/IP, try resetting Winsock using the following command:
netsh winsock reset catalog

Paul Boz

I used a handy dandy WINSOCK repair tool (which does what you suggested) and I have resolved the problem.

I am a happy man, thanks TE

royal

Paul Boz wrote: »

I used a handy dandy WINSOCK repair tool (which does what you suggested) and I have resolved the problem.

I am a happy man, thanks TE

Cool. Glad the Winsock thing fixed it.

mr2nut

I was just gonna say, sounds like a TCP/IP failure and that Winsock fixer will sort it out. I find that this kind of thing falls down to DNS issues and if all else fails, put some static settings in the lmhost and host files.