Can't see XP Machine in Windows 7

Jopplehead said:

Thanks much Ken but I respectfully don't think that is the problem. I mean... I CAN ping the PC name on an XP machine that is connect to my other XP machine... No porblems... However... Windows 7 machine will not unless the IP is pinged first. And also the PC does not show in explorer even after a ping in windows 7 machine unless I actually use the IP in the address bar first and then use pc name in the address bar. Then it shows up ONLY for the extent that that browser instance is open. Once I close that Explorer window and open a new one... The PC is GONE from network in explorer

No problem just responding to ping question if you want to go in a different way win 7 does networking differently than xp. Do you have a home workgroup set up? If so the xp machine is probably not in it. let me know

Ken

Something else I found out on my own because I was in a similar situation.

1) I had to completely remove the firewall program from the W7 machine because I had an old version installed which was part of my problem. Even when I had turned everything off, it still had some services in the background running which was still blocking some connections.
After I got the network discovery working right, I reinstalled with the latest version and everything was working properly there...

2) W7 handles "finding" other networked PCs and devices differently than XP does. In XP the other PCs show up instantly because it remembers those paths. If any are not there anymore or new ones are added, it takes 10-20 seconds for those to appear/disappear.
With W7, they had the discovery renew each and every time it is opened. On my wireless laptop, I found if I just choose Start > Network and let it sit, nothing happens and I do not see the Network shares, but I do see the local computer. If I just click anywhere in the white area but not on an icon, it starts "discovering" (the green bar moves across at the top) and within a minute, all of my XP shares are found.
It does work properly on my desktop and starts the discovery automatically.

Yea, I meant nothing ignorant it's just I am trying to think out the process and I am unable to understand it. I am so angry about this because usually I can just google and find someone else that has the problem I have and solve it. This problem has occured with others and most have either a slightly different issue then mine OR they too never get theres worked out. I hear you telling me that windows 7 has a different way of accessing the network. Are you telling me that Windows 7 needs a table of DNS names in the router where as an XP machine does not? I don't even know how to go about putting a table like that in my router. I have a WRT54GS with dd-wrt installed and do not know how to set that up. I am only trying to run a workgroup network. I have no PC's except 2 XP machines and 1 Laptop which has windows 7 on it. The ONLY thing I hate about windows vista and 7 is the fact that they won't correctly access my XP machine. I think you both are correct it is DNS. I want to know why Windows 7 will not resolve the DNS name. It's like it's not really looking for the DNS name unless it is REALLY forced to.

Its more of a case of the way W7 handles network and shares discovery. It is not the router or anything else, it is just W7 takes an extra few minutes to "probe" all the computers and devices on the Network before it finds them. When you close the Window, it forgets this and has to probe each time the network share windows is opened.
In my case, I have a Linksys WMLS11B web music player that sits in the living room and connects via wireless. Both my desktop and laptop see it immediately, but it takes an extra minute or two for it to find the XP shared folders on my network (I have 3 PCs with various shared folders).
I also have a Linksys WRT54GT using DD-WRT but I also have UPnP turned off which I wonder if that may have something to do with the longer discovery time.

Another thing I found when I was doing some Vista testing was that it requires the LLTD-responder, and W7 also requires this on the XP machines.
http://www.microsoft.com/Downloads/d...displaylang=en


another thing I found is that W7 has IPv6 enabled by default so the increased discovery time may also be related to it looking for both IPv4 and IPv6 shares...

What's the share specifics of the XP folder you're sharing?

Thanks soooo much for everyones help. It's very nice to see so many people willing to go out of there way to help me :)

screwballl said:

Another thing I found when I was doing some Vista testing was that it requires the LLTD-responder, and W7 also requires this on the XP machines.
Download details: Link Layer Topology Discovery (LLTD) Responder (KB922120)


another thing I found is that W7 has IPv6 enabled by default so the increased discovery time may also be related to it looking for both IPv4 and IPv6 shares...

OK, I have IPv6 already disabled on the laptop. Found the tip from someone else on a forum. I have LLTD on my XP machine but is LLTD not a default set up in Windows 7?? If this is the case it may be why it is not working. I assumed that I only needed to install lltd on my XP machine.

At "copernicus":

I have simple file sharing on. I have not set specific rules, just turned on file sharing and let XP set all the rules.

LLTD should also show in the network connection properties for W7 as it is included and a Windows service (although it is harder to find in W7 than XP). You will have to make sure it is enabled in W7 before the XP machines are found.

wish I had more to help with but thats all I got for now...

I have never needed to use the host file, besides blocking ad sites.

The TCP/IP NetBIOS helper service is the service that helps translate hostnames to IP addresses in Windows XP/Vista/7.

It's based on NetBIOS broadcasts, not DNS.

OK here's what I have tried. I re-wrote the Hosts file to include the PC name... That just made it to where if I manually typed the PC name in the address bar it would temp see it. No real fix. Thanks though.. It was an I dea I was thinking too, but just did not work. As for the LLTD service, I see that it is installed and running in both the XP machine AND the W7 machine. It's listed in the properties of all wifi devices and checked on both machines.

Still no luck. Trying to figure out what to try next