Help - Cannot Browse Network/Workgroup!!

[byrne1]

I have a PC running Win 98 2nd Ed. 4.10.2222 A and I've made it a member of our workgroup. I've turned on file and printer sharing for the PC. But I cannot browse the network from this PC nor can I see this PC from any other PC in the workgroup. When I try to browse the network I get the following error message:

"Unable to browse network. The network is not available."

This PC (I'm working on it right now) is connected to our VPN and can obviously get out to the internet just fine. I can ping other PCs from the command prompt without any problems. One thing that seems strange to me is this - when I go into Explorer and expand Network Neighborhood, the only item that appears is Entire Network. Usually there is an item called Microsoft Network or something similar (I forget the exact term).

I've tried everything I know but to no avail. I hope that someone can shed some light on this matter. Thanks in advance for any help you may be able to provide.

 

[rockerfellerz]

what protocols are you using on the network? And what protocols (i.e. tcp/ip) are on the computer in question?
If you are using IP then is it configured properly? It should have an address that is on the same subnet as the rest
example: 192.168.2.1
192.168.2.2 etc.
subnet mask: 255.255.255.0
The gateway may need to be set as well....
More info about the network would be helpfull; is it server based or peer to peer?

If you're going through Hell...keep going... (Winston Churchill)
RocKeRFelLerZ

 

[byrne1]

All of the IP information - gateway, subnet mask, etc. - has been confirmed. The PC is on a peer to peer network of about 10 PCs.

 

[rockerfellerz]

Are all the pc's running 98? there is a limit on the number of pc's in a peer to peer if running xp home or pro.
can you ping the pc from another in the group?
also did you actually share some folders on the computer? even with file sharing turned on, you still have to share at least one folder or it won't be seen.

If you're going through Hell...keep going... (Winston Churchill)
RocKeRFelLerZ

 

[byrne1]

It's a mix of 98 and XP. I have another 98 machine in the office next door and it sees the entire network without any problems. I've compared the two machines and from what I've seen everything appears to be the same (TCP/IP settings are the same except, of course, the IP addresses).

I can ping the other machines just fine from the command prompt on the problem machine and my internet connection works OK as well (we go out through a Bell VPN) so I do not believe it has anything to do w/ my TCP/IP setup.

I'm wondering if I need to reinstall the OS??? I really hope that I don't have to do this!

 

[jay9333]

byrne1, I had the same problem the other day with a win98 pc I setup. I discovered, oddly enough, that if I plugged directly into one of our buildings wall ethernet jacks (instead of into the room's switch) the PC hopped on the network just fine. If you have a similar setup, maybe you could try that and see if that works. I know its a shot in the dark.

I had other win98 PC's on the switch in question, and they were going out to the internet fine. It was an autosensing Netgear switch, so it should've just picked up the win98 PC. But no matter what port I plugged the PC into, it still was a no go. I even made sure the eternet cable between the PC and switch was working fine. How fluky is that?

Anyway, I didn't have time to figure out why the PC wouldn't go through the switch... so I just got a long CAT-5 cable and by-passed the switch for that PC.

... sorry, but that's all I have to offer besides manually putting in the gateay, WINS, and DNS information into the TCP/IP properties.

jay9333

 

[billwalton]

I have had this exact problem. The way I solved it is this: first I ran the network setup wizard(xp) on the 98 machine. Then went to the xp box and set the logon to network permissions to "everyone" and rebooted both machines. Also, if you are running Norton Personal Firewall or XP ICF you will probably have to turn them off.
Hope this helps you get up and running.

Bill W
Walcom Computer Consultants