Intermittently Cannot Browse Network Computers

[MrCrisell]

Hi,

Netgear DG834G Router
2 x Wireless Clients
3 x Wired Clients
All are running XP Pro.

Everything all works as it should do, each computer can browse the network (via the My Network Places / Microsoft Windows Network and then clicking the workgroup), each computer has net access, etc.

However, frequently all of a sudden trying to browse the network in the same way results in a long pause, which times out, thus unable to browse the network. However, I can access any machines shared folders by typing \\mal001\sharedname but this means I still cannot browse, and applications also can't browse - which is quite painful as I then cannot open and save documents to a nominated file share.

The only way I can get around it is to reboot the router and all the PC's until it's up and running again.

The Internet remains available at all times.

I've searched and search all sorts of forums, and having used Practically Networked in the past for tutorials etc I thought the community might be able to shed some light on this one for me.

Thanks in advance to anyone who might be able to help.

[MrCrisell]

Just to add to that, when trying to browse the network the message box that pops up when it times out reads:-

[Workgroup name] is not accessible. You might not have permission to use this network resource. Contact the administrator of this server to find out if you have access permissions.

The network path was not found.

Of couse, I can still access other machines shared folders with the \\mal001\foldername method in Windows Explorer.

[gheatly]

Oh my goodness. Same thing is happening to me. I am running a Windows 2003 domain controller on a network that serves as an Exchange server, DNS server, DHCP server, file server, etc. and I too intermittently connect and disconnect from the network (browsing the network only). When disconnected on an XP Professional machine I can still surf the Internet, connect my Outlook to the 2003 Exchange server and everything else network-wise, including ping the server by name, but can not browse the server. I can see the server under My Network Places but can not expand it to see its "shares". I seem to be able to re-connect manually by releasing and renewing my IP address but soon after (a minute or so and sometimes a bit longer) I get disconnected. One thing that I am able to do to force the disconnect at will is run certain applications and viola, I am disconnected. One is running Real Player and playing an Internet radio station. Another is starting up Microsoft Money and attempting to open a Money file that is on the server (located on a file share). Bandwidth issue?? Does a Windows network require minimum bandwidth for network browsing to operate properly?? If so, what is it and where can that be controlled in the OSes??

I too get:

[Domain name] is not accessible. You might not have permission to use this network resource. Contact the administrator of this server to find out if you have access permissions.

The network path was not found.

This is inaccurate because I have domain administrator rights (uber rights) and should be able to get to anything. Uggggh. I will post back when I find a resolution.

[SPBChris]

I am having the same problem in a 2003 server domain environment as well. Every new computer (XP Pro) added to the 19 computer location cannot browse, but can access, the network. My error message is the "Cannot browse [domain name] variety. It has also happened to one of the compters that has been on the network for years. They can all navigate directly to //computername/sharefolder, so it is not a permissions issue regarding file access. I had read somewhere to attempt enabling NetBIOS over TCP/IP in the WINS section of the Advanced TCP/IP Settings screen, and tried it on my computer that had been there for years. It worked for a day, then went back to the inability to browse.

[gheatly]

Okay. I solved my own problem and unfortunately did not take it further to figure out the cause. You know . . . support for many clients and computers gets in the way of doing due diligence. ;)

What solved it for me was disabling the Offline Files functionality. I really got addicted to the feature for laptop and roaming users plus using it as a mechanism to keeping important stuff up on the server (for capture in nightly backups) for desktop users that love to keep their critical files in My Documents instead of in their home directory on the server.

So, to disable Offline Folders in XP go to Start -> Settings -> Control Panel -> Folder Options -> Offline Files and uncheck Enable Offline Files. Give that a shot. Just be sure, if you used the Offline Files feature for a redirected My Documents folder, that you redirect My Documents back to the default.

Overall, I suspect there's been an update from Microsoft that we all downloaded that is the culprit here. I've seen this issue posted elsewhere and it seems to be all in August and September. Good luck!!

[SPBChris]

After doing some more research online, I found the Computer Browser service running on the workstations to be the culprit. My environment is a 2003 server environment with XP and 2000 workstations. XP and 2K automatically start their browser service and use that as the directory listing for the network, instead of requesting a listing from the server of the computer names. Because the workstation does not have the master browser list, it is not able to map out network properly.

Stop the Computer Browser service, and disable it from starting in the future. Wait about 5-10 minutes for all of your computers to appear in the "My Network Places" window. This fix does not require a restart.

Good luck!

--SPBChris

[GR81975]

Oh my goodness. Same thing is happening to me. I am running a Windows 2003 domain controller on a network that serves as an Exchange server, DNS server, DHCP server, file server, etc. and I too intermittently connect and disconnect from the network (browsing the network only). When disconnected on an XP Professional machine I can still surf the Internet, connect my Outlook to the 2003 Exchange server and everything else network-wise, including ping the server by name, but can not browse the server. I can see the server under My Network Places but can not expand it to see its "shares". I seem to be able to re-connect manually by releasing and renewing my IP address but soon after (a minute or so and sometimes a bit longer) I get disconnected. One thing that I am able to do to force the disconnect at will is run certain applications and viola, I am disconnected. One is running Real Player and playing an Internet radio station. Another is starting up Microsoft Money and attempting to open a Money file that is on the server (located on a file share). Bandwidth issue?? Does a Windows network require minimum bandwidth for network browsing to operate properly?? If so, what is it and where can that be controlled in the OSes??

I too get:

[Domain name] is not accessible. You might not have permission to use this network resource. Contact the administrator of this server to find out if you have access permissions.

The network path was not found.

This is inaccurate because I have domain administrator rights (uber rights) and should be able to get to anything. Uggggh. I will post back when I find a resolution.

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