Oh buggery

[MYstIC G]

Okies, bit of a bastard problem at the moment.

Got a few PC's networked in the office, been using simple file sharing on XP for ages without any problems. The computers basically have a few mapped drives all of which are shared folders on the Reception PC (Reception_EVO).

Replaced one of the machines at the beginning of the week and the new one (RHCGsDellC521) is running Vista.

Now everything is playing up a bit for no real reason. Problems include:

1. some machines get password prompts where they didn't before
2. the Vista machine refuses to acknowledge the existance of the Reception PC even though the drives were initially mapped the same as every other machine and were working fine (it's like they've chosen not to anymore)
3. the Printers are having a tendancy to disappear and re-appear, which is a real bitch when you're printing a 200+ page document!

The network layout is basically as shown in the pic below (sorry for ImageShack but I cba to access my personal webspace from here):


Basically what I'm looking for is:

1. As far as i'm aware, Vista doesn't do "Simple Sharing" is that correct?
2. If so, what's the simplest way of getting everything on a common footing (i.e. Reception PC still holding all the files but configured so everything has access)
3. Any suggestions as to what might be causing the problems that might avoid Item 2?

 

[Kryten]

Vista does *do* sharing but it's a right pain in the arse to make it work half sharp in the first place.
Normally once the network resources have been accessed, any passwords etc are all cached for future use and you shouldn't be prompted again - however I've noticed the same in Vista - these caches tend to be "forgotten"

I personally got around it with a little "centralising" - made sure anything with files on had the appropriate user account details on for the machines that should have access - for instace if MAIN_OFFICE_EVO (compaq evos?) had a user Joe Bloggs, I'd add Joe Bloggs as a user on any other machines that require access, and vice versa.
This is assuming there's no central server in the first place and the network is just limited/as small as you have in that diagram.
Also if you're using DHCP at all, try setting permanent IP addresses, and removing as much unnecessary gubbins from Vista's settings - stuff like QoS, IPv6 and I can't remember what else Vista installs (not in it currently).
Main purpose this would serve is to remove as much "confusion" from the Vista end as possible.

I'm going to assume you've already tried the more obvious things like removing firewalls and sharing limitations on the Vista machine. It's quite well known that Vista's file sharing with XP machines is a little unsavoury at times, but it *is* fixable. If none of the above helps someone will no doubt have some more suggestions - and failing that I can boot into Vista and check the settings im using on a similar setup network.

 

[Kryten]

Actually have woken up a little now I'm at work :

Add users to the Reception PC alone for all the other machines using the same login credentials (so if Bob Muggins is on PC1 and Sarah Jane is on PC2, make them accounts on the Reception box)

Is this all on wireless btw? if so, what wireless nic are you running in the Vista box?

 

[MYstIC G]

Cheers for the input Kryt, I figured I'd end up having to set up user accounts on the boxes (really didn't want to cos as you say no central box, but oh well).

The vista pc is hooked up directly (cabled) to the hub/router/tea maker (BT Business Hub) with the rest being wireless (I refused to cable the office for 5/6 PC's as it'd be a nightmare to do here).

If memory serves, can't I use the one user account? Say set up a "access" account on Reception that all the others can use to login with?

I'm so gonna start moaning that it's time to buy a bloody box to use as a server...

(PS: Yeah, they're compaq evo's. Not great, but they were only ever for wordprocessing and were cheap as fuck when we bought em. Surprised they've lasted the 5 years they have tbh.)

 

[Kryten]

The Evo's are nice little workhorses for offices tbh, using one as we speak

You could set up a single access user or even allow full guest access as long as your network is otherwise fully secured. Trouble being, said passwords are stored on each computer and as you already know, Vista has a habit of convenintly forgetting those - which in itself is probably a "feature" of security.

It's not really worth having a central server for a small office in experience, not unless you're serving all sorts like emails, databases etc, in which case it's normally gonna speed things up a little and keep everything in one place - one place which can easily be backed up, kept otherwise secure/safe (tape backup or otherwise, RAID etc).
Try setting the GUEST account up on the reception box and see how the others handle that to start with.

 

[MYstIC G]

Yeah, that's the route I'm going down at the moment. I've nuked the "simple" file sharing and am giving Guests the necessary permissions on the folders.

The one that's bugging me now is that it is impossible to "browse" Reception_Evo. You can access say \\RECEPTION_EVO\SHARE1 & \\RECEPTION_EVO\PRINTER1 but cannot access \\RECEPTION_EVO

Any ideas?

 

[Kryten]

Is that just from the Vista machine or the others as well?

 

[Kryten]

Might wait until I get home to try this on my Vista box - I suspect this is just a vista issue - as you well know, browsing to \\reception_evo should list all the shares on that machine regardless of permissions - it should only ask for permission information (user & pass) once you try to access that specific share.

 

[MYstIC G]

Nope, this isn't vista, it's any machine. However this thing was set up with a quirk (apologies I forgot to mention it before) which is that it's got 3 network adapters in it, 2 of which connect to a photocopier/scanner setup and have manually assigned IP addresses.

 

[Kryten]

That shouldn't really make any difference unless you've any services/apps installed that limit traffic as per the subnets/ip ranges used.
Going very very simple, are all the machines in the same workgroup?

 

[MYstIC G]

Yep, they're all in the incredibly inventive "Docklands" workgroup, cos that's where our office is.

 

[Kryten]

Bugger - in which case, I'm afraid I can't think of owt else :/

 

[MYstIC G]

Huzah!

HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\System\CurrentControlSet\Services\Netbt\Parameters

Delete "DchpNodeType" and "NodeType"

Problem solved, thanks to Windows XP and Windows 2003 Network Problem Solver

 

[Kryten]

Oooh, just had a brief browse through that site - may well be useful in future - bookmarked

 

[SheepCow]

Glad to hear it's fixed. With regards to Kryt's first couple of posts, in my experience Vista's networking is the same as or better than XPs. It tends to find things much faster and be far less flakey.

The easiest way to do networking is to make sure you have network discovery on and then ensure that the "Everyone" user has read permissions on the folders that are shared and that "Guest" is enabled. Then it "just works". Assuming you don't want to login (i.e. everyone on the network can access the shares without a PW).

 

[Kryten]

It's just very different to how we're all used to doing it which makes it more of a pain in the arse, especially when you're not familiar with having done it before.
The wireless is still very flakey in many respects - it's not so bad on my Netgear, I've noticed, but on products from cisco/linksys, dlink, asus and belkin the signal quality and speed seems to suffer somewhat - hopefully merely a different way of showing the data.