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1

Post New Requests Here / Re: IDEA: Diagnose problems in windows file sharing on LAN

« on: August 15, 2012, 04:20 PM »

Sorry, Ath, I didn't answer your question straight away -- all 3 machines are running XP Pro, SP 3.
I have not updated drivers, because ping works properly, and they can all access the internet OK.
Windows update is running on the two machines that have the problems with each other.

2

Post New Requests Here / IDEA: Diagnose problems in windows file sharing on LAN

« on: August 14, 2012, 11:26 AM »

I have searched widely for a tool to diagnose why windows file sharing sometimes stops working.
I know how to use PING to check basic connectivity to a local host.
I know how to use NET USE to see mapped drives and NET VIEW to see hosts visible on the LAN.
Then I use Search->Computer to see what shares I can see.
Then I try to open a share like SharedDocs on the other computer.
I have found "howto" documents on the web about how to set up windows file sharing, which take quite a while to work through, sometimes without solving the problem.
I have tried the troubleshooter in the Windows help, but it said we had duplicate computer names on our LAN, but we don't.
I think many people would find this helpful:
- a tool to run through the steps I have listed above, and any other useful ones, reporting results. Then when anything fails, look at the packets on the network to diagnose why it failed.
- on the local computer, for each share, analyse the interaction of "share permissions" and "NTFS permissions" and list what each category of user (including "guest") can do on that share.
- offer suggestions on how to resolve the issues.

Hope this takes someone's interest,
   Jim