Can't see network computers, Can't connect by name, Can connect by IP address - Works fine on another network -Major Conundrum

[imthebigchief]

I'm a computer tech. My client has finally decided to give up his dying XP laptop, and to use a newer Win 7 laptop at his office. I have done lots of networking, I have spent hours searching the net and these forums, I have tried dozens of fixes, and I'm completely stumped. I've also spent about 12 hours at my client's office, in addition to time spent at my home/shop. I can't possibly bill my client for all this time (he could buy 2 or 3 new computers), but I'm determined to fix this problem, even though I'm now working on my own time.

Background stuff:

The laptop in question is a Dell Inspiron 1564, running a fully updated version of Win 7 X64 Home Premium. This laptop has a Dell Wireless 1397 WLAN Mini-Card and a Realtek PCIe FE Family Controller, both of which have the latest drivers. The network is set to Work Network, rather than home or public. Homegroup is off.

Problem:

The laptop can't see any other computers on the network. It also can't connect to any network shares via the share name - \\SharePC\ShareName. It can, however, connect to the other computers via IP address and can connect to the shares that way. The network is a workgroup, rather than a domain. This occurs, whether it is connected via the wireless network adapter, or via the wired network adapter.

There is nothing complicated about the network or router setup. I can bring my laptop (Also Win 7 Home Premium X64) to his office and I can see all the computers on the network, even when I'm not in the same workgroup. The other computers in his office can all see the problem laptop. If I bring his laptop to my home/shop, it can immediately see my 2 computers, even though it is not in the same workgroup as my workgroup. All of which is very odd.

If it was a problem with the network at his office, then why can my laptop do what his can't? If it's a problem with the laptop, why does this only happen at his office and not also at my place?

Things I've tried:

Uninstalling and reinstalling the network adapters.
Changing the computer name.
Changing the router.
Adding a USB wireless adapter, and disabling the built in adapters.
Uninstalling all excess hidden networking devices from device manager.
Disabling IPV6 from the adapters
Flushing the DNS more than a busy toilet in a stadium.
Resetting Winsock
Running all Tweaking.com repairs.
Running SFC (totally clean)
CCleaner for temp files and the registry
Clearing the CSC cache with a Microsoft Fixit.
Editing the registry TCPIP settings in HKLM-System-CCS-TCIP-Parameters
Running TDSS Killer, Malwarebytes, and Superantispyware (all clean)
And lots more that I can't think of at the moment.

I have seen networking problems in the past where the adapter chipset and a router were not compatible (very rare), but as I said I have replaced the router and also tried a USB adapter. I suppose I could take my router to his office, since I know that it works on my network, and if that is the consensus on here, I'll try that, but I'd say that it's very much a longshot that it could happen with 2 different routers and 3 different adapters.

Unless someone can help with this, the only other thing I can think to do is to backup his stuff, and attempt to recover the system from the recovery partition, and start over from scratch, but considering all that I've tried, and the fact that it works fine at my place, I don't have much hope that will fix the problem either.

Thanks for your attention!

 

[koffeeshop77]

pick the one you want to use, say wireless, and turn the other adapter off.
and in win7 you do not have to manully asign IP adress, windows will figur it out on its own.
if you are useing a domain, u can assigne the domain in the i expore or in one of the config tabs in the adptersettings.
and make sure everything is off, such stuff as public network all that stuff, make sure it shares failes and recives files and is looking for new pcs no mater what.
and turn of win7 crappy fire wall.

 

[koffeeshop77]

remove tweaking.com its crapware you can do it on your own better than that program.

 

[koffeeshop77]

most important thing is disabel one of the adpters till you fix it or you keep fliflopping back and forth , and if they both conect then nothing works.

 

[imthebigchief]

pick the one you want to use, say wireless, and turn the other adapter off.
and in win7 you do not have to manully asign IP adress, windows will figur it out on its own.
if you are useing a domain, u can assigne the domain in the i expore or in one of the config tabs in the adptersettings.
and make sure everything is off, such stuff as public network all that stuff, make sure it shares failes and recives files and is looking for new pcs no mater what.
and turn of win7 crappy fire wall.

That's all been done, some of which I mentioned in the original post, though I failed to mention that I have consistently been only trying it with one adapter enabled. As for Tweaking.com, it was one of the last resort things I tried - just thought I'd mention it.

 

[koffeeshop77]

nevermind!!!! his router isnt setup ! up need to put his router in LAN - DHCP Server mode.

DHCP (Dynamic Host Configuration Protocol) is a protocol for the automatic configuration used on IP networks. The DHCP server can assign each client an IP address and informs the client of the of DNS server IP and default gateway IP

thats why it works every where else and not in his place. there is no "central" locatoion handling and manging all of the ip's if you dont have that on then it dont work.

in xp days you would have a switch and everyone had to enter and manage their own ip now the router does it for you but if its of then you get screwed running around wondering what to do. modern tech 😉

 

[koffeeshop77]

192.168.1.1 and find that setting!

 

[imthebigchief]

nevermind!!!! his router isnt setup ! up need to put his router in LAN - DHCP Server mode.

DHCP (Dynamic Host Configuration Protocol) is a protocol for the automatic configuration used on IP networks. The DHCP server can assign each client an IP address and informs the client of the of DNS server IP and default gateway IP

thats why it works every where else and not in his place. there is no "central" locatoion handling and manging all of the ip's if you dont have that on then it dont work.

in xp days you would have a switch and everyone had to enter and manage their own ip now the router does it for you but if its of then you get screwed running around wondering what to do. modern tech 😉

It is setup that way - both routers that I've tried. The only computer in his place with a static IP is the server. All others are dynamic, and pull from the router. His pulls an IP fine, and can connect to the internet perfectly, and can connect to all other computers via IP address. Looking at the DHCP routing table in the router(s) shows the laptop and it's given IP address.

 

[koffeeshop77]

his server cant have a static ip,

they making the router use a static mac addres for the router rather than a static ip.

all pc need to be set the same or you basicly throw a wrench in there.

or you can set static and put the modem> server> share inet with router--to reouter and then all pcs behind the router would be the same but it sota makes the server useless..

the server is the porblem with its staic address, have you tried setting ther server to the DMZ and then the rest reagular?cause then that would be the only one with the stick ip.

i really think you are focusing too much on the win7 pc not working when realy everything that is set, needs to set through the router not though the "pc" itself

router acts as switch, firewall, wireless, and filter all the same time there has to be something crossing, how big of network we talking?

 

[koffeeshop77]

server is misconfigered, if you set the LTop static IP then you can share files , i take it you want to share files with the server , which also shares files with everyone else, and boom shared folder but if you have your win7 manage nomore shared folder, cause ip is not fixed.
sooo you need a static ip set by you, andyou need to set your gateway which is the router, and then have all the there pc, do the same , and make sure there are no con flicts, so you have all pcs static, they all share, and they all have internet as well cause they all have the gate way 192.168.1.1 or whateaver, and they all see the sever. and its fix your conundrum.

 

[imthebigchief]

his server cant have a static ip,

they making the router use a static mac addres for the router rather than a static ip.

all pc need to be set the same or you basicly throw a wrench in there.

or you can set static and put the modem> server> share inet with router--to reouter and then all pcs behind the router would be the same but it sota makes the server useless..

the server is the porblem with its staic address, have you tried setting ther server to the DMZ and then the rest reagular?cause then that would be the only one with the stick ip.

i really think you are focusing too much on the win7 pc not working when realy everything that is set, needs to set through the router not though the "pc" itself

router acts as switch, firewall, wireless, and filter all the same time there has to be something crossing, how big of network we talking?

His server only has a static IP, which is set on the server itself in the TCPIP settings. There is nothing set in the router for that. The static IP was only set on the server well into this process, so that I could make sure that it was not any of the issues you are describing, and that I could confirm that I can connect via IP address, but not by share name. All of this happens even if the server is off. It is not an just an issue about connecting to a server. It can't see any computers on the network. It is happening on 2 different routers. It happens only on this laptop, which has the exact same settings as my laptop and all the other computers in the place. It is a small network, and as I said, it is not a domain, nor is there anything complicated about it.

Thanks for trying to help, but I've thought of all of that. This seems to be some kind of caching or incompatibility issue on this one particular laptop, related to this one particular network,

 

[koffeeshop77]

its all or nothing cant have o static and the rest not so you go all in or allout
ip is coputer addres
the 255.255.....
then inet gatway =router0192.168
then you diable dhcp in lan cause you no longer need it caus you did it on you own you router is bsicly just a wireles switch now.

 

[koffeeshop77]

pardon the spelling im trired and i typ all day at my job. i just dont fell like hittin the correct keys , but belive me i use to setup lans and convetions i know what im talking about and wish i was there to help you. nite hope you figure it out

 

[imthebigchief]

pardon the spelling im trired and i typ all day at my job. i just dont fell like hittin the correct keys , but belive me i use to setup lans and convetions i know what im talking about and wish i was there to help you. nite hope you figure it out

Again, thanks for trying to help, but in this case you are incorrect. I've done this hundreds of times. Let me again say that this was happening before I assigned the IP, and with, or without, the static IP. And, let me again say that this is only happening one machine, and that it is not about connecting to a server. It is a peer-to-peer network, and this issue affects the ability to connect to any computer on the network, regardless of whether the server is on, or off, or if I throw the server out in the highway.

The router is handling all DHCP. A router can assign up to 254 different addresses within a subnet, but generally routers are set to only give out 50 or 100 addresses, and the others are free. I very often set static IPs on network resources, which are outside the boundaries of the router assignment pool. The reason for this is that if the router must be reset, or if the power fails for a long period of time, then when the router comes back, it assigns different IP addresses to the shares. This is particularly useful for printers.

Have you ever set up a network printer via IP address, rather than as a shared printer on a particular machine?

The way this works is you tell the router to assign a certain pool of numbers to the devices on the network. If you wish to know how this works, I will explain: In this particular network, the router's address is 192.168.2.1. I have told it to act as the DHCP server, and for it to assign addresses between 192.168.2.100 and 192.168.2.199. That is all it will assign, however that is not all that is available for use. Anything from 192.168.2.2 and 192.168.2.254 will work. I set the server to be 192.168.2.99. This way the router can't assign another computer that address, after a power outage, reset, restart, etc... - and it does not matter which machine is started first, or last, after the power outage. This is especially useful when networking printers via IP address. Just set them outside the range of the router's DHCP assignment pool, and they won't get assigned a new number upon reset, and no other device will accidentally assigned the same number as the printer, if it is restarted first, thus preventing the dreaded IP address conflict.

I don't claim to be a networking genius, but this is not my first attempt at setting up a network. I have been working with computers as a living for almost 20 years.

I do appreciate your attempts to help.

 

[bill001g]

Your basic network setup is fine if it works by IP. Your problem is related to name resolution. Now I forget exactly how windows does this because I tend to run actual windows server and a domain....mostly just because I can.

When you do workgroup stuff I am pretty sure it is dependent on broadcast packets being sent out so machines can find each other. This is why it does not work by name if you have multiple subnets.

I would look to see if your firewall is blocking broadcast packets.

 

[imthebigchief]

Your basic network setup is fine if it works by IP. Your problem is related to name resolution. Now I forget exactly how windows does this because I tend to run actual windows server and a domain....mostly just because I can.

When you do workgroup stuff I am pretty sure it is dependent on broadcast packets being sent out so machines can find each other. This is why it does not work by name if you have multiple subnets.

I would look to see if your firewall is blocking broadcast packets.

That would be great, except for the fact that it can see computers on other networks (mine at my place, using a similar setup). Also, it happens with the firewall off.

The one thing I haven't mentioned, and which is a potential wild card in this whole scenario, is that this machine is using Vipre antivirus. I am not really familiar with this program and all of its subtleties. It is not supposed to be an "Internet Security" program, and not supposed to contain firewall components, but I suppose it could have some of that stuff. I do believe it is some sort of cache issue, which, I guess, could possibly be related to Vipre. I have disabled the Vipre several times, but maybe it is not disabling everything. Also, since it is a Dell, it could also be something left over from an uninstall of McAfee, or Norton, or whatever came on the machine, prior to Vipre being installed, but I have cleaned it as much as I know how. I will probably try to remove the Vipre, before I resort to something like a full system restore from the factory recovery partition, and see if that helps.

 

[imthebigchief]

If anyone is following along, I have now removed Vipre. I also ran Norton Removal Tool and McAfee Product Removal. I did some manual cleaning of the Program Data and User\AppData folders, and the registry. I'm still stuck in the same place. I don't know of anything else I can do, other to try a complete system restore.

Anybody have any other ideas, before I go to such extreme measures?

 

[koffeeshop77]

try to boot up windows from a usb before u take extrem mesuars, see if the usb windows works eg : win8 win10 or something that is almost as good as a fresh install but wont harm your hdd cuase it will use the ram and usb to run. if it works with the usb then its the win7 system and i would suggest a fresh reinstall if it dont then its the network.

http://onhax.net/windows-10-all-editions-direct-download

here is a good place to look, has all the tools you need incl windows and how to put on a usb^^ (watch the links some of them are malware, be careful where you click dont click the big download buttons scroll down till you see the small one. ) win 10 will have the most pre installed drivers and pro version will give you the extra edge es far as networking goes, i keep one of these usb win10's in my pocket every where i go comes in handy. )

 

[imthebigchief]

try to boot up windows from a usb before u take extrem mesuars, see if the usb windows works eg : win8 win10 or something that is almost as good as a fresh install but wont harm your hdd cuase it will use the ram and usb to run. if it works with the usb then its the win7 system and i would suggest a fresh reinstall if it dont then its the network.

http://onhax.net/windows-10-all-editions-direct-download

here is a good place to look, has all the tools you need incl windows and how to put on a usb^^ (watch the links some of them are malware, be careful where you click dont click the big download buttons scroll down till you see the small one. ) win 10 will have the most pre installed drivers and pro version will give you the extra edge es far as networking goes, i keep one of these usb win10's in my pocket every where i go comes in handy. )

That's one thing I hadn't thought of, though I should have. I always have a bootable flash drive in my pocket. I've got one with my own custom PE disk, Hiren's, UBCD, Ubuntu, MS Memory Diag, Kaspersky, and Win 7 X64 and X86 repair images.

Thanks for the suggestion!

 

[koffeeshop77]

keep me posted on this! its like a episode of ER geek style lol.

 

[imthebigchief]

I've left it alone for the weekend, but I didn't wipe it yet. I'm going to try the boot disk stuff, and see what happens.

I'm at the point of Luke trying to eat 50 eggs, and I'm starting to "Get mad at them damn eggs".

Maybe some of the older people will get the reference.

 

[imthebigchief]

Got back on this project today, and I tried the USB boot thing. I can see all the network computers when booted in Ubuntu and also when booted into a Win XP PE disk. It definately something in the Win 7 settings or cache. I really don't know what else to try, other than trying to recover the system from the recovery partition.

Anybody have any other suggestions before I wipe this thing?

 

[koffeeshop77]

back it up first then wipe.

 

[imthebigchief]

I will always do that, and it's not a big problem. He doesn't have much extra software to worry about it. He does have about 120 GB of stuff to back up, but I've got plenty of stuff to handle that. It just chaps my ass to have to it. About 70 % of what I do is removing Malware from computers, and I pride myself on never having to reinstall the OS. I can always clean it, without loss of data or program functionality. I'm almost the same with Windows system problems. This will be the only computer I have needed to reinstall in several years. I could have finished this project over week ago, if I just wanted to reinstall the OS. Part of why I do so well at my job, is that I take everything personally, and I can't stand to be beaten by a machine. This attitude has helped me throughout my career, but it has also be a detriment in situations like this. Fortunately, this client has not been in a hurry to do this. I'm currently building him a new server, and we are waiting on the parts to arrive, so I had time to mess with this frustrating problem.

I'd rather have the most intrusive malware than failed Windows updates or deep down Windows system problems!

 

[koffeeshop77]

well at this point windows or no winows if i were the customer id be pissed, i would rather have a fresh windows and problem solved than, be waiting 1.5 weeks for my computer to get hooked up to a network, viruses and malware i give a day and over night if the pc is like super slow,after that back up everything, through a fresh install on it(not one of thos laptop recoveries cause customer could do that him self) and run all his files on a sandbox through my pc to eradicate malware and virus and check disk, the whole thing takes an hour. cause i got 2 PC's working parallel and 3 days tops customer has his hardware back, working. with software installed so that nextime he does some shit like visit a porn site, i wont have to clean up after him. but my time would not be worth all the time you invested. and even if you wipe it you still havent found the culpret. i wish you the best man.