Restart windows networking?

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How do you restart windows networking without rebooting the whole computer? On XP, wifi + filesharing = grrrrr…

Here’s what I’ve already tried:

–right clicking the wireless network icon and selecting repair

–the following commands at dos prompt:
net stop netman
net start netman

After both of these, my computer still reports the the workgroup is inaccessible, and the computer has no network presence.

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What my wife used to have to do (The task bar wireless network icon repair never worked for her with XP) is go to Start/ All Programs, find the app for the network router, click on it and have it it repair the connection. This sometimes had to be done more than once, and she sometimes had to fool around with things for a while. It was very frustrating. That’s what’s been so nice about Win 7. The networking just seems to work better. I did not even use my Linksys software, I used the Windows built in apps, which seemed to work seemlessly with the router.

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Yeah it definitely does work better in Win 7. On my Win 7 machine I have had virtually no problems with networking, but it’s just my older XP machines that are giving me a headache.

My router is an old Linksys WRT54G with the newest firmware. There is no pc-side application for it, and I doubt it is the cause of the trouble because none of the Vista, Win 7, or Linux machines on my network have chronic issues like this. Secondly, I live with roommates, so rebooting the router every time my computer gets messed up will likely irritate them if they are using the net at that time.

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“workgroup is inaccessible” is a little more fundamental than wireless network not working, it implies there is no network at all.

All your PCs should obtain an IP address from the Linksys router and register their name with the router. This allows them to connect by name regardless of the IP address. Obviously you need all PCs to have unique names.

You need to run some diags to work out what is wrong.
1. Open a Command Prompt and type ipconfig /all
You should get something like this.

Code:

Ethernet adapter Local Area Connection:

        Connection-specific DNS Suffix  . :
        Description . . . . . . . . . . . : Broadcom NetXtreme Gigabit Ethernet
        Physical Address. . . . . . . . . : 00-0B-5D-97-9C-00
        Dhcp Enabled. . . . . . . . . . . : Yes
        Autoconfiguration Enabled . . . . : Yes
        IP Address. . . . . . . . . . . . : 192.168.0.4
        Subnet Mask . . . . . . . . . . . : 255.255.255.0
        Default Gateway . . . . . . . . . : 192.168.0.1
        DHCP Server . . . . . . . . . . . : 192.168.0.1
        DNS Servers . . . . . . . . . . . : 192.168.0.1
        Lease Obtained. . . . . . . . . . : 15 May 2010 11:55:15
        Lease Expires . . . . . . . . . . : 18 May 2010 11:55:15

2. Try pinging the PC from itself by typing ping 127.0.0.1
3. Try to ping the XP PC from another PC by pinging the IP address of the XP machine, in the example above it would be: ping 192.168.0.4
4. Ping the other PC from the XP PC.

cheers, Paul

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Here’s the exact error message:

Fortune_hunters 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 list of servers for this workgroup is not currently available

Where Fortune_hunters is the workgroup name.

Code:

Microsoft Windows XP [Version 5.1.2600]
(C) Copyright 1985-2001 Microsoft Corp.

C:Documents and SettingsDrew>ipconfig /all

Windows IP Configuration

        Host Name . . . . . . . . . . . . : pandora
        Primary Dns Suffix  . . . . . . . :
        Node Type . . . . . . . . . . . . : Broadcast
        IP Routing Enabled. . . . . . . . : No
        WINS Proxy Enabled. . . . . . . . : No
        DNS Suffix Search List. . . . . . : hsd1.ca.comcast.net.

Ethernet adapter Local Area Connection:

        Media State . . . . . . . . . . . : Media disconnected
        Description . . . . . . . . . . . : Realtek RTL8139/810x Family Fast Ethernet NIC
        Physical Address. . . . . . . . . : 00-0F-B0-71-43-75

Ethernet adapter Wireless Network Connection:

        Connection-specific DNS Suffix  . : hsd1.ca.comcast.net.
        Description . . . . . . . . . . . : Broadcom 802.11b/g WLAN
        Physical Address. . . . . . . . . : 00-90-4B-F5-87-7C
        Dhcp Enabled. . . . . . . . . . . : Yes
        Autoconfiguration Enabled . . . . : Yes
        IP Address. . . . . . . . . . . . : 192.168.1.106
        Subnet Mask . . . . . . . . . . . : 255.255.255.0
        Default Gateway . . . . . . . . . : 192.168.1.1
        DHCP Server . . . . . . . . . . . : 192.168.1.1
        DNS Servers . . . . . . . . . . . : 208.67.222.222
                                            208.67.220.220
        Lease Obtained. . . . . . . . . . : Sunday, May 16, 2010 8:09:32 AM
        Lease Expires . . . . . . . . . . : Monday, May 17, 2010 8:09:32 AM

Ethernet adapter Bluetooth Network:

        Media State . . . . . . . . . . . : Media disconnected
        Description . . . . . . . . . . . : Bluetooth LAN Access Server Driver
        Physical Address. . . . . . . . . : 00-0C-55-44-13-F0

C:Documents and SettingsDrew>ping 127.0.0.1

Pinging 127.0.0.1 with 32 bytes of data:

Reply from 127.0.0.1: bytes=32 time<1ms TTL=128
Reply from 127.0.0.1: bytes=32 time<1ms TTL=128
Reply from 127.0.0.1: bytes=32 time<1ms TTL=128
Reply from 127.0.0.1: bytes=32 timeping 192.168.1.102

Pinging 192.168.1.102 [67.215.65.132] with 32 bytes of data:

Reply from 67.215.65.132: bytes=32 time=24ms TTL=54
Reply from 67.215.65.132: bytes=32 time=26ms TTL=54
Reply from 67.215.65.132: bytes=32 time=26ms TTL=54
Reply from 67.215.65.132: bytes=32 time=25ms TTL=54

Ping statistics for 67.215.65.132:
    Packets: Sent = 4, Received = 4, Lost = 0 (0% loss),
Approximate round trip times in milli-seconds:
    Minimum = 24ms, Maximum = 26ms, Average = 25ms

C:Documents and SettingsDrew>

Edit: Now here is something REALLY bizarre: The computer has a printer attached to it that is shared over the network. With the said error message present in My Network Places, and no network presence in My Network Places on other machines, other machines are still able to print from its printer. And when a document is sent to it printer, suddenly the the said error goes away and My Network Places shows other networked computers. Ghost in the machine?

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There are lots of reasons the list of server is unavailable, but this should not be an issue using the network. The list of servers is maintained by one of the computers and there is no guarantee that it provides the list when you require it.
Try looking in Event Viewer for messages relating to the Master Browser.

cheers, Paul

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The list of servers is maintained by one of the computers and there is no guarantee that it provides the list when you require it.

Yup sounds like a genuine unreliable Microsoft product to me. That explains why it is so flaky. How do I know which computer is maintaining the list, and if I happen to turn that computer off or restart it (all of the computers on my network are laptops except my SimpleNet linux file server), then how do I force another computer to pick up its role?

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Yup sounds like a genuine unreliable Microsoft product to me. That explains why it is so flaky. How do I know which computer is maintaining the list, and if I happen to turn that computer off or restart it (all of the computers on my network are laptops except my SimpleNet linux file server), then how do I force another computer to pick up its role?

Check to see that the Computer Browser service is set to automatic and is started on two of your computers (the Computer Browser service also depends on the Server and Workstation services running). Only one computer in a workgroup needs to have this service running. However, if that one machine is off at times, there should be another computer that runs Browser service as well. If all computers in a workgroup have the Computer Browser service running, when the one handling the list task is shut down, the other computers in the workgroup “elect” one of their number to take over the job. There is some debate as to whether the Computer Browser service is even needed in a home network workgroup environment; but it shouldn’t cause problems to enable it, just in case, particularly when it comes to XP.

Basically, all a user can do is run the service; there are no commands to designate a specific computer to take the role.

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The computer browser service is running and is set to automatic.

So basically you are saying there’s nothing that can be done to improve the reliability of the Windows network then? If that’s the case, is there a better solution for file and printer sharing over a local network?

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The computer browser service is running and is set to automatic.

So basically you are saying there’s nothing that can be done to improve the reliability of the Windows network then? If that’s the case, is there a better solution for file and printer sharing over a local network?

Have you checked your power management settings for the NICs and USB devices?

Joe

--Joe

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The computer browser service is running and is set to automatic.

So basically you are saying there’s nothing that can be done to improve the reliability of the Windows network then? If that’s the case, is there a better solution for file and printer sharing over a local network?

No, my last statement was not meant to imply any such thing. “Basically, all a user can do is run the service; there are no commands to designate a specific computer to take the role.” What I said here is that there is no user issued command to designate a particular computer as the Computer Browser for the workgroup, because that matter is automatically handled by the computers on which the Computer Browser service is running. There are many things that can be done to improve the reliability of a Windows network.

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Google the term “browse master”. The browse master is “elected” from all the computers on your network. If you have a laptop winning the election and then it goes offline, you will probably consistently have problems with your network neighborhood not showing up correctly. In your network, ideally the linux should win the election. There are settings you can make on any operating system (linux or windows) that makes it more or less likely that a specific computer will win the election. Google can tell you what to set and how to set it for whatever operating systems you are using..

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I would disable all Browser services and use DNS on the router. You won’t be able to list the machines, but they will be available from shortcuts.

cheers, Paul

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I think that Paul’s solution is a good one in the network situation you describe. If you were going to assure that the Linux box won the master browser election, you would need to make a setting change on each laptop or other computer that connected to your network. It sounds like your network is so fluid that this is not feasible.

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