Workgroup computers missing and not available.

Question

I have a small office network with 12 computers, all running Windows XP Pro SP3. All computers have the same workgroup name, different computer names, static IP addresses and are setup for file and printer sharing. All computers connect to each other and the internet through a common network switch and router. My problem is that two of the computers can not be seen by the others and those two computers do not see any computers in the workgroup. I am able to ping all the computers using IP address from the two miss behaving ones as well as connecting to the internet, but I cannot connect to a peer using \computername. I have tried all, or most, of the suggestions in the Microsoft KB and forums but nothing has worked. In the back of my mind I think I have had this problem before and it’s solution was correcting a registry entry but I don’t remember which one and the ones mentioned in the KB have not corrected the problem. Hopefully someone else remembers the fix.

Answer 1

In my original post I should have mentioned that I already had the Firewall is off and NetBIOS over TCP/IP is setup.

Answer 2

Some things to check:

1. Configure any firewall program to allow access by other LAN computers.  Note that some antivirus programs have firewall components.
2. Look at the LAN connection properties and make sure that Client for Microsoft Networksand File and Printer Sharing for Microsoft Networks are checked.
3. Go to TCP/IP Properties > Advanced > WINS and select Enable NetBIOS over TCP/IP .
4. Open a command prompt window and run ipconfig /all .  Node Type should be set to Unknown , Broadcast , or Mixed .  If it says Peer-to-Peer :

• Run the registry editor
• Open this key: HLM\System\CurrentControlSet\Services\Netbt\Parameters
• Delete these values if present: NodeType, DhcpNodeType
• Reboot

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