Windows XP networking - Can't see shared resources

Factual Questions
1

I hate networking. Now that I’ve got that out of the way…

I’ve got 4 PCs at home. Two desktops running XP Pro and networked with cables, one laptop running XP Pro (wireless), and a laptop running XP Home (wireless). They are all connected to a Linksys wireless router, which has a cable modem on the other side. They have always been able to see each other in the past, and each computer has shared resources available to all the others.

Last week I got a new hard drive for one of the desktops. Reinstalled windows, got everything set up. Tried to access a shared folder on another machine, and discovered that I could not see the rest of the network. And the other network computers can’t see the “new” machine, but they can see each other. All the PCs can access the internet OK, but the workgroup seems split into two pieces. When I try to “Show workgroup computers” in My Network Places on the problem PC, I get a long period of searching followed by this error message:

I can find a million solutions to this problem, even a few on the SDMB search, but none of them seem to apply to me. Let me enumerate the things that aren’t the problem:

[ul]
[li]Workgroup name - All the computers definitely share the same workgroup name. It’s the same name that worked before.[/li]
[li]Firewall - I’ve tried disabling the Windows firewall on the problem machine. Makes no difference[/li]
[li]IP assignment - The normal configuration of my network is that the two desktops have static IPs and the laptops use DHCP. This worked fine in the past. Now, I’ve tried static and dynamic IP assignment on the problem PC, with no change in behavior. The problem desktop is 192.168.1.100, the other is .101, and the laptops get assigned addresses in the range from .102 to .109[/li]
[li]**Subnet ** - My router is setup to use a Subnet mask of 255.255.255.128, and I use this as a workaroud to some Linksys lockup issues (seems to work well, btw). The computers on the network all have the same mask in their IP configuration. This configuration has not caused me any problem in the past, although once before I couldn’t get a computer to see the others on the network until I changed its mask from 255.255.255.0 to the one above. This is NOT the problem now, however.[/li]
[li]Protocols - All machines have Client for MS Networks, File and Print Sharing, and TCP/IP. No other protocols exist. This is how it was before, and it worked. In the past (Win9x) I used to get workgroups to behave by installing IPX/SPX. But I didn’t need it a week ago, so I don’t need it now.[/li]
[li]Hardware - Should be no problem here. I can ping any machine from any other. All PCs can reach the internet.[/li][/ul]

Finally, I should mention an error showed up once, ond only once, in the event log. It said:

It only happened once during all this troubleshooting, and never popped up again. It was not accompanied by any greater ability to browse the network. But it’s obviously a sign that at some point the computers were able to identify each other enough to argue about being master.

That’s all I can think of for now…any ideas?

2

Oh a couple other things:

NetBIOS over TCP/IP is enabled on all PCs.

I tried running the Home Networking Setup wizard, but it doesn’t do anything. Then again, it doesn’t seem like it changes any setting that I haven’t done (or can’t do) manually, so I think it’s pretty pointless.

3

Just one little bump for a frustrating problem.

4

Damn! I was sure this was going to be lack of NetBIOS.

how long after booting are you testing for interconnectivity? I’ve seen situations where XP machines on a peer network can take quite a few minutes to discover each other.

5

Just for fun, try CTRL-<Windows Key>-F to bring up “find computer”. Try to find other computers from the bad one and vice versa.

Have you tried enabling “simple file and print sharing” to see if that helps?

Also, there is a service (or several) that have to be running in XP to make this work. I can’t remember the name right now and I’m on a 2000 machine.

If you can ping between all the machines, it’s not an IP or connectivity problem.

If all else fails, you could download Ethereal (Google) and do some packet sniffing - not for the faint of heart.

6

You’ve probably read it, and I see you’ve tried many (but perhaps not all) of the solutions mentioned, but just in case: http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=kb;en-us;304040

7

Well, I solved my own problem. Windows Firewall doesn’t hinder file sharing (as long as File and Print Sharing is one of the exclusions, and it’s automattically added when you enable the service)…but a certain Norton program does.

In trying to eliminate variables, the one difference between old and new configuration that I failed to worry about was the fact that I simultaneously upgraded to Norton Antivirus 2005 (got my hands on a sale-priced copy). It’s no wonder why I didn’t think of this…after all, I got Antivirus, not Internet Security. But the new NAV has “Internet Worm Protection” which either supplants or coexists with the Windows Firewall. As far as I can tell, part of its functionality is to act as a sort of firewall on its own. Unfortunately, it’s obviously not smart enough to get out of the way of file sharing.

I’ve disabled it for now. I’d try to find a way to poke a LAN hole in it, but I don’t care to use it at all. The only reason it was enabled was that it was a sneaky program default, and slipped in under the radar. I had no way of knowing it was even active until I looked in the right place.

8

Certain viruses and worms copy themselves around on a peer network where full-access shares exist that have no full-access password (kind of dangerous situation anyway) - it may be that the Norton thing will allow the sharing to work if you have passwords (AFAIK, he worms/viruses aren’t smart enough to try to get past a password-protected share). Seems unlikely that the Norton thing would have that level of sophistication though - there must be some way of fixing this though - it can’t just be that the utility simply breaks part of the Windows Networking setup (well, it could be, but it would be incredibly dumb)