workgroup is not accessible

[SimonW]

I currently seem to be getting an annoying problem when trying to click on 'View workgroup computers' in XP SP2.

I get 'workgroup is not accessible...the list of servers for this workgroup is not currently available'. However if I click on a machine / folder share in the My Network Places main screen I always get access.

Sometimes (and at the moment I can't be sure why and when) the machine behaves correctly and everything can be browsed ok.

I'm running LnS 2.05p2, the enhanced ruleset and have imported the sharing.rie file. The machines communicate via a netgear router.

Probably nothing to do with LnS...anybody have any ideas I'd be grateful though as I've run out myself...

Thanks
Simon

[SimonW]

Quick update:
The problem is showing up on my main desktop PC, however it seems that if my other machine (laptop) is already on before powering on the desktop the problem goes away. If the desktop is powered on first then we get the problem.

Must be something to do with the router I guess.... ???

[SimonW]

Turns out it is a known problem with the network service installed by Microsoft Virtual PC 2004

Mods - Please delete thread
Thanks

[Frederic]

Thanks for the update.

This could be interesting to know for other users, so I will not delete the thread.

Frederic

[Supafastsc]

I've seen this happen with VM Ware and The older Connectix Version of Virtual PC too. The actual service that causes this is the Virtual PC Emulated Ethernet Switch.

Apparently, what happens is with the switch enabled on Netbios enabled networks the Virtual switch fails in properly routing the traffic from the VPC through through the physical PC's NIC. I suspect this has something to do with the way the virtual NIC driver tries to spoof it's own IP. Moreover,

I think the main problem is that the MAC from the ethernet doesn't really change and so the REAL router/DNS server that is assigning DHCP or WINS addresses and name resolution gets confused.

I've seen this happen on Domains where users have multiple NICs and to add to the problem, wireless on top of that and try and use all three at the same time.

Kevin Keenan
Network Admin/Desktop Support
D&M Holdings NA (RioAudio, ReplayTV, Escient, Marantz, McIntosh)