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Preston Gralla

Seeing Through Windows

Final SP1 network woes: Fix them and win free books

11 comments

TAGS:networking, SP1, troubleshooting, Vista, wireless
IT TOPICS:Internet, Networking, Operating Systems, Software, Windows & Microsoft

The final version of Vista SP1 still won't work right on my home network. If you can find a fix for it, I'll give you copies of two of my books: Windows Vista in a Nutshell, and The Big Book of Windows Hacks.

The problems are similar to those I had with beta versions, when I issued a similar challenge. But there are some odd differences as well.

To get you grounded, here are the basic specs of my home network. I have a Linksys WRT54GX4 router, with several Vista and XP PCs connected to it. I've enabled file and folder sharing on them, so that I can browse from one PC to another, open and save files to each other's folders, and perform similar network-related tasks. I've turned on Network Discovery on the Windows Vista PCs.

I've installed SP1 on a Dell Inspiron E1505 laptop. When I connect from the laptop to the network wirelessly, I can see all the PCs on my network, but I can only browse to the XP ones, not the Vista one. So, for example, when I double-click the icon of a Vista PC on my network in my network folder, or from the Network Map, I get the error message "Windows cannot access (name of the PC I'm trying to access)". I can, however, browse the Internet. And from my non-SP1 Vista PC, which is connected to the network via Ethernet, I can browse to my Vista PC.

I can ping the other Vista machine from the SP1 machine, without any problems. And I can also take remote control of the other Vista PC, using Remote Desktop Connection. However, I can only take remote control of it if I make a Remote Desktop Connection using the machine's IP address rather than its name. Even before I installed SP1, though, I could only make Remote Desktop Connections using the machine's IP address rather than its name.

Making things even odder is that if I connect to the network from the SP1 PC via an Ethernet cable, everything works fine. I can see and browse to all the PCs on the network, including the other, non-SP1 Vista one.

Think you can fix it? If you can, you get free copies of Windows Vista in a Nutshell, and The Big Book of Windows Hacks.

I won't accept private emails. Answers have to be posted on this blog. And the fix has to completely solve the problem. Before getting started, you might want to see the answers people came up with when I had this problem in beta. None, of them, though, worked.

So put on your thinking cap. You could win some free books.

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Vista x64 no ping after installing SP1 - fix

Submitted by Erik on April 7, 2008 - 11:02 P.M.

Could not ping several site, while being able to ping others.

1. Enabled Administrator account

2. Logged out of user account and logged in as Administrator ( Eliminates the UAC issues ).

3. Ran : netsh winsock reset
Rebooted

4. Ran : netsh int ip reset resetlog.txt
Rebooted

5. Tested ping to verify functionality

6. Installed Vista x64 SP1

7. Tested ping - no issues

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LLDP

Submitted by Dean on March 18, 2008 - 4:17 P.M.

Hi, Can't you use Link Layer Discovery Protocol (LLDP)?
Because that's meant to sort that problem out.
Hope this helps, Dean

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Maybe your machine wasn't ready.

Submitted by j on February 13, 2008 - 5:04 P.M.

I just saw a story in this afternoon's news round up that seems to imply that if you haven't got yesterday's "Patch Tuesday" batch of updates, you're machine isn't "prepped" for SP1. (I'm still using XP, so I can't verify any of this.) Check out Microsoft pushes out Vista SP1 prerequisites on Patch Tuesday.

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Networking Issue

Submitted by Chad Meske on February 12, 2008 - 3:15 P.M.

I had this same problem; go to security center, select "Windows Firewall" from the options on the left, select "Change Settings", click the "Advanced" tab, then scroll down and put a checkmark in the box labeled "Windows Collaboration Computer Name Registration Service", then hit "Ok". Reboot and see if this solves your problem.

For those wondering why an author of Vista books is asking for help solving a problem, how do you think an author gathers information for his books? Just because an individual is knowledgeable doesn't make him/her omniscient.

Chad

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Not quite fixed

Submitted by Preston Gralla on February 12, 2008 - 9:41 P.M.

I followed this advice, and when I rebooted, the problem seemed to be fixed -- I was able to connect to the other Vista PC. But then, oddly enough, if I try to connect a second time, it breaks again --- I get the same error message. If I reboot I can connect, but only once. The second time around, I can't connect.

Weirder and weirder. Do you have any idea what might fix it?

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Not quite fixed

Submitted by Chad Meske on February 13, 2008 - 9:49 P.M.

Since the repair I gave you kind of worked for you, this sounds like a quirk unique to your your computer/install. It looks like the repair solved the problem; however, another one presented itself. I would recommend that you:

A. Check for any updates
B. Run a good registry repair tool.
C. Reinstall the SP1 package
D. Reinstall the entire OS, run all updates, then reinstall the SP1 package.

No matter what you do, you will have to enable the exception for Windows Collaboration Computer Name Registration Service again, as this was the proper fix.

Another thing; if you reinstall the OS, run the updates and reinstall SP1 before installing any programs.

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i have a similar

Submitted by Anonymous on February 12, 2008 - 7:43 A.M.

i have a similar problem.just installed vista sp1 on my vaio c1z laptop.I use it on my home network and my office, so i m using different routers but i get the same problem.I can view the laptop on both networks (and as a wmp media share) but when i double click on it i get a not accessible error/access denied.
The weird thing is that i opened a photoshop file from my desktop that was on the laptop from "recently opened menu" but i cant access it directly.
I also tried all the solutions on the beta post (except installing linux!)

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Your firewall settings for

Submitted by Anonymous on February 11, 2008 - 7:29 P.M.

Your firewall settings for the wireless connection are most likely the problem.
Have you checked your wireless profile settings? The trust settings for the wireless profile are most likely not set the same as your wired ethernet settings. Check all the firewall settings including those in Vista and any other firewalls that you are running. You can test this by turning them all off and seeing if you can see the other devices. Also the firewalls on your other devices must allow the wireless IP number permissions.

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What type of anti virus do

Submitted by Chad on February 11, 2008 - 1:44 P.M.

What type of anti virus do you have? Try disabling it and seeing if that fixes the problem.

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This one is easy, I can

Submitted by Anonymous on February 11, 2008 - 11:23 A.M.

This one is easy, I can solve it, the copy-speed issues, the WGA crap, and shoddy legacy support with six letters: Ubuntu.

But seriously... I don't think you're understanding the concept of a contest. You don't give the winner of a car race a Ford Focus... why are you giving the person that fixes a problem you can't fix copies of your Vista books? This sounds like a serious bug, and if you can't fix it, it must take some brain power... offer up a year-long subscription to O'Reilly Safari if you want to entice people.

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