net send wont work with xp

[greencheese49]

is there a simple reason that i get the following response when i attempt to net send, in windows xp, to a member of my network?

An error occurred while sending a message to XXXXX.

The message alias could not be found on the network.

More help is available by typing NET HELPMSG 2273.

The frustrating thing is that it used to work on the SAME windows configuration.
What the??

 

[SimonDavies]

Are you sending to the ipaddress or dns name? It sounds like a name resolution error.

Also have you recently installed SP2 onto the machine?

If so have a look at

http://support.microsoft.com/?kbid=839018

 

[ahmtech123]

Make sure the messenger service is running on both machines. You can check by going to START RUN type in SERVICES.MSC

Next try to send via ip:

From the CMD line:

NET SEND 192.168.1.50 "Hello this is a test"

That should work. If you are trying by host name. Attempt to ping the name first to see if you get a reply. SP2 Firewall may block this.

 

[bcastner]

For Net Send to work you need enabled on both sender and receiver:

. Netbios over TCP/IP
. Windows Messenger service enabled
. Firewall openings for Netbios

http://support.microsoft.com/?kbid=878468

http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=kb;en-us;Q298804

You might enjoy this freeware alternative:

http://pages.videotron.com/mmoose/

 

[jlshelton]

In my case, NET SEND worked fine with Win2k, but stopped working after I upgraded to WinXP.

NET SEND CAROL (carol is a Win2k computer down the hall) worked just fine before the upgrade. DNS and NET-BIOS are working fine, since:

NET VIEW \\CAROL correctly shows me resources on her computer. (And I can access her disks and printer.)

NET SEND JOHN (trying to send to myself) works correctly, so I know the messenger service is working.

NET SEND 192.168.0.101 (to Carol's IP address) results in the same error "general network error" - and the suggestion is that the hardware is bad, but clearly it is not.

bcastner suggests trying the mmoose freeware, but it claims to use NET SEND, so doesn't seem like it would work any better. Any other ideas?

 

[jpm121]

Did you verify that the messenger service is running? that's what listens for the messages, and by default it's turned off (I think since XP SP1, if not then for sure in XP SP2).

 

[jlshelton]

Yes, I did verify the messenger service is running. (And the test "NET SEND JOHN" should have verified it.) It is, as you say, turned off by default, at least in the WinXP pro SP2 distribution I received recently.