WINS has stopped working from Windows 7 to Windows XP

johnmeyer said:

Gosh, I just "necro'd" a thread from years ago in order to post about this exact problem. I did that because, last night, I think I solved it. Here is what I posted in that other thread. Hopefully it will fix your problems. However, you do have a slightly different problem because it sounds like you can get to the XP computers by typing "192.168.1.44" (or similar) by NOT by typing "\\polywellwin7-64". However, try the following and see if it helps.

1. Turn off IPv6 IP protocol in adapter settings. If you have both wireless and wired (on a laptop), do them both. This is, by far, the most important change. (Obviously you need to keep IPv4).

2. Change WORKGROUP name to WORK and then, after it has "taken," change it back to WORKGROUP. This is an ancient bug in Windows, going back to Win98. Doing this forces Windows to rebuild all the references to WORKGROUP.

3. Do NOT create a Homegroup, and if one was created, then make the change to leave it. (I actually don't know why MS created the Homegroup concept.)

4. File sharing connections: change from 128-bit to "40- or 56-bit encryption." This is mandatory.

5. Change the network from Home to Work. This is probably the least important change, and I'm not sure it is needed, so do this one last.

You'll need to re-boot in order for these changes to take effect and, hopefully, cure the problem.

Hi John

Thank you very much for your reply.

I have tried everything you have suggested but unfortunately it has not worked.

samuria said:

When you look for pcs on the network widows doesntsearch for them it asks the master browser for the list if the MB hasnt got it in its database its not found. As a pc comes on line it can take 10+mins for it to register. This scanner often kicks things into life and shows the master browser NetBScanner - NetBIOS scanner

Hi Samuria

Thank you very much for your reply.

I have downloaded NetBScanner and it successfully shows all of the computer names on the network including the XP machines. However, I am still not able to access the XP machines via their computer names. There are two master browsers on the network, my computer and one of the XP machines. My impression is that some aspect of WINS has gone wrong.

timxtg said:

My impression is that some aspect of WINS has gone wrong.

How to manually recreate a wins database

iko22 said:

How to manually recreate a wins database

Hi Everyone

Thank you, Iko22, very much for the link.

I have Managed to solve this problem. It turns out I had the wrong subnet mask. I had 255.255.0.0. I have now corrected it to 255.255.255.0 and I can now access the XP machines via their computer names.

Thank you everyone for your replies.

EDIT: I would be very grateful if other people who have this problem would let me know if this solution solves it.