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XP Pro PC won't join workgroup


awake
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Have a network consisting of a XP home laptop, an XP home desktop and an XP Pro desktop. The XP Pro desktop has a wireless/wired broadband router modem (all in one job) which connects to the net ok. It also has a printer attached.

The other two (xp home) pc's wirelessly connect to the router and to the net ok as well. They even find & use the printer shared on the 'main' xp pro machine.

Trouble is, the xp pro machine refuses to join the workgroup. I've run the networking wizard on all machines and briefly had the xp pro machine getting into the workgroup and seeing the other pc's. But after a reboot it refused to join the workgroup again - failing with access denied errors.

The xp pro machine is connected ok, as it'll ping theother pc's ok (and vice versa).

I tried getting all three to talk with no s/ware firewalls involved but still no joy.

I'm thinking this has to be a peculiarity connecting xp pro and xp home pc's.

The xp pro machine has a fresh windows install, and all are running SP2.

Does anyone know of any funnies networking pro and home pc's ?

Thoughts and ideas appreciated ...

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I am sure you have done it, but just check you have the spelling 100% correct on all the PCs. It may be a missed letter or something that is causing you the problem.

I've got Pro, Home, 2k, ME, 98 machines all running in the same workgroup without any special tweaks. However, ZoneAlarm if anything is the cause of any problems.

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Has the XP Pro machine ever been on an Active Directory Domain?

It sounds like the XP Pro machine is expecting to logon to a domain, and that's what's giving you problems.

I think you already know how to do this, but please bear with me. (I hate those Wizard things sometimes).

Right click on My Computer on the XP Pro machine and select Properties. In the System Propterties window that opens, select the Computer Name tab:

post-1455-1106328170_thumb.jpg

On the Computer Name tab, select Change and in the Computer Name Changes window, click the radio button next to Workgroup and carefully type in the name of your workgroup.

post-1455-1106328323_thumb.jpg

Hope this helps. If not, please post. :)

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Thanks for your replies.

I have been through all the normal settings that can give problems like this.

Tried running the network setup wizard, and manually setting network & PC name in the 'my computer' properties.

Wierd thing is that the xp pro machine did connect to the workgroup ok at first. It was only after a reboot that it refused to talk.

Must admit I'm a little stumped with this one !

Any other thoughts, no matter how wild are appreciated !

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  • 1 month later...

Apologies for not replying scuzzman. I haven't looked at this problem since. But yes, they were pinging fine.

I doubt I'll get involved with this one anymore, so no need for anymore head-scratching on this post !

Many thanks for everyone's replies though.

BTW, do these posts need closing in any way, or do they kind of expire ?

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