"View workgroup computers" Error

I've done that. It didn't fix mine. It's ok. Like I've been saying for the last three months, I'm sure they'll fix it sometime.

 

i have had the same problem you report. i feel that stueycaster, is correct in pinpointing the source of the issue, & that shutting computer browser service to off on ess machine, should temporarily, solve this. however need to verify this, yet.

 

The problem is I have three licenses (one for each PC, 2 XP, ! Vista) and i wish to run ESS on all three. Should computer browser be turned of for all three? Would networking work then? The PCs are being used a lot, maybe during a lull I can reinstall ESS 621 again and play around some.
Happy New Year!

 

You'd have to run EAV or Nod32 on one of them. The one that's not going to handle any sensitive data like bank numbers. Then leave that one on all the time or at least be sure it is on whenever you need to access the network. Leave Computer Browser enabled on that one. Then It will always be Master Browser.

It won't work with ESS on all three. The firewall seems to disable the Computer Browser Service. You can run EAV or Nod32 on an ESS license.

This isn't ideal but it should work til ESET fixes the problem.

Thank Patch and Jacqui for the info about the Computer Browser Service.

 

I have the problem back again after installing ESS on the rest of the PCs in my network. No matter what I do, nothing will work, even the suggestion re master browser.

 

That would guarantee Browser services were never available, so no. What you want is Browser services running on at least one computer able to act as a functional master browser (the voting should then ensure exactly one is the master browser). A computer running nod32 instead of ESS is an option ATM. My windows 2000 machines running ESS also work for me.

The master browser service lets you browse the network.
You do not need it if you just want to access network resources.

Got to "My Network places", select "Add a new network place"
If browser services are up ATM then browse to the network resource / computer you want future access to.
If browser services are not functioning, just type in the full path name.

From then on just use the created network shortcut, which will work independent of browser services.

BTW
I wonder if the fact not all users have problems is the different protocols used in legacy systems without a domain name controller.

Edit
If you want to know which computers are / are not properly functioning master browsers on you network then load browstat http://nitecruzr.blogspot.com/2005/05/browstat-utility-from-microsoft.html on your computers and run "browstat status" from a cmd window when the browser services are / are not functioning.
The master browser will depend on which computers were online when the election last occurred (which you can control by switching computers off).
You can then force the election to a favourable outcome by switching off browser services on those computers it doesn't work on (provided you end up with browser services enabled and working on at least one powered up computer).

 

no domain controllers, where i have experienced this problem.

 

I have been having the same problem on and off for a couple of weeks at least. Uninstall / reinstall of ESS seems to temporally resolve the issue. I am unable to browse the workgroup in Network Places (XP Pro SP2) and also receive an error message about failed drive mappings when I log in.

Steve.

 

I re-established all the shares on each PC in my network and, although I can't view the computers, each PC can now see and access all the shares so this suits me fine as the share access was all that was accessible through the PCs showing up in the network anyway. I can probably live with this.

 

But if we are paying should we have to live with a bug that ESET have known about for some time. I can't help think that they have just given up on the problem.
Some feedback from ESET on the work put in by Patch and Jacqui on the browser line would at least give us some hope.

 

Agreed, Some feedback from ESET would be nice. I've started three different threads about this. I've been complaining about this since Sep. 24. Marcos dropped in and asked a few questions. Other than that I haven't heard a thing. I'm getting sick of waiting.

The only thing that keeps me holding on is the fact that other than this ESS is working great for me. The workaround that I mentioned in previous posts is working fine. But then my network has only two computers. Also there is all the bad stuff I've read about other products. You should pop into the forums of the other guys. People have lots of problems with their stuff too. One that struck me was this guy complaining to Kaspersky about the fact that their scanner took twice as long as the scanner in Nod32.

Look at the number of views on this thread. Over the past three months there have been 8,275 views on all three of the threads I started. Too many people know about their screwup for them to ignore. Besides, selling a faulty firewall and then not trying to fix it is pretty unethical. They'll fix it. They have to.

 

When I started the network today, 2 of the PCs could see each other in Network Places but not the third PC and only one of those PCs could see any shares on the third PC. The third PC could not see any PCs in Network Places but could see only one share on one other PC. It really is weird.
My network uses 192.168.0.0 so can anyone tell me why ESS has IP:127.0.0.1 as the trusted zone address with a subnet of 192.168.0.0.
I deleted the reference to 127.0.0.1, added an address range of 192.168.0.0 to 192.168.0.50. Then I ran the network setup wizard again, restarted the PC and after restarting, ESS popped up a box asking for selection on Network access (file sharing or no access). I selected file sharing and now all PCs can seel all other PCs in Network Places. I don't know if it will still be fixed when the network is started tomorrow but here's hoping.
I did note that in the trusted zone in ESS it has added back the IP:127.0.0.1

 

Ditto. On the one hand, ESET do rather have a tendency to treat the problems that customers report less urgently than they merit. Also some of the technical feedback and analytical work that some of the more technically savvy contributors to this forum do often appears to be greeted with indifference by ESET.
On the other hand they do have a history of producing high quality reliable products and you have to hope that that will be the case with ESS.
I guess ESET's company motto is 'IN OUR OWN TIME' !

 

On my computer "My Network Places" seems to lose some of the shares too. I think it loses the ones that I don't use often. That's why I need for the "View workgroup computers" link to work properly.

This should help. Of course I can't guarantee anything. Your computer is set up differently than mine.

 

I believe you will find 127.0.0.1 is a way for the computer to refer to itself. So it is needed for local communication within each computer.

I suggest running "browstat status" as described earlier. It made random failures much less random for me.

For example I found one of my machines was not allowing Anonymous access, which is what each computer tries to do when accessing the master browser. Fixed in regedit
[HKLM \System \CurrentControlSet \Control \Lsa]
server must have a restrictanonymous value of "0

Look also at node type, which must not be type 2 peer-peer
[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Services\NetBT\Parameters\DHCP Node Type]
Value Node Type
1 Broadcast.
2 Peer-Peer.
4 Mixed.
8 Hybrid.

Use of NetBIOS Over TCP/IP (NetBT) needs to be consistent between machines otherwise only some machines will see the Master browser See http://nitecruzr.blogspot.com/2006/07/advanced-windows-networking-using.html
Check Network connections --> Local area network connection --> Properties --> Internet Protocol (TCP/IP) --> Properties --> WINS

The important point being, while we know ESET have a problem with "View workgroup computer", the protocol Microsoft use is not particularly robust, so you may have some additional issues with your network.

BTW
I suspect it is the permutations of "NetBT" & "Direct hosted SMB" occurring in mixed environments that causes the ESS browser bug.

 

Having the same problem . Any news of a solution from ESET?

 

I am still hoping for a solution. My license expires December 2008. Even a short message that they are working to solve it or that they cannot solve it would be better, I could then move on to an other security suite.

 

I am beginning to think that only being able to view shares is the way Eset designed the program. The wording relating to local networks always seems to refer to shared resources rather than computers. I previously said I could get by with just seeing shared resources but the problem is, it is erratic and not all shares are accessible at any one time.

 

Isn't it time somebody working for ESET said something authoritative on the matter?

 

Through out this thread Marcos has asked numerous questions of users concerning this issue and while I might have over looked some answers to his questions by users, I do not see much feedback to his questions.

I'll list them below and if users with this problem would assist by answering some or all of his questions it might help with this matter.

* "If possible, could you try installing a different network card to see if it's releated somehow to its drivers? Maybe a partial interference occurs when ESS drivers are installed, but that's just a hunch."

* "I've been in touch with stueycaster, but I wonder if someone else could confirm or deny that the problem goes away after disabling all IDS rules"

* "Do all of you use a 1GB NIC and switching it to 100mps mode helps?"

* "what OS are you running? (32 or 64-bit?)
- has someone observed this problem also with EAV?

* "- Is the Trusted zone configured properly and all computers in your LAN are members of it?
- Does the problem perist no matter whether interactive or automatic mode is selected?
- Does disabling the firewall completely make a difference?
- Have you enabled logging of all blocked connections and no blocked connection appeared in the firewall log?
- Do you have another firewall installed?"

 

Stueycaster mentioned that after disabling the Computer browser service it worked fine. Maybe you could try the same and let us know about the result. Is one computer running ESS and the other EAV or what configuration do you use?

 

Just not true Bubba. There has been a lot of specific feedback to Marcos' questions. I suggest you look again

 

Yes, there has been some feedback from users but in particular I was looking at the 3 posts you have made since joining but see no feedback. If Eset is expected to work thru this issue, they then need as much user input that they can get in order to attempt to duplicate this matter. Of course I am assuming from your first post yesterday you have this issue and would hope you wouldn't mind offering as much info as you can according to the questions asked by Marcos.

Bubba

 

My computer has ESS and my wife's computer has EAV. On my computer I went into Administrative Tools/services.msc. Under "Computer Browser" I set "Startup Type" to disabled and "service status " I clicked stop. I made no changes on her computer. Since then I haven't had a single problem with the view workgroup link.

I don't have access to another LAN card.

I can check out the other questions tomorrow evening when my wife is at work. She's using her computer now.

I haven't checked out anything else in quite a while. Since I applied the Computer Browser thing it's been working right.

 

I too OCCASIONALLY get the View Workgroup computers error. I had been doing a power down, and just hoped it worked when I turned the machine back on. Sometimes it did, sometimes not.

Now what I have done, is I ran the Network ID wizard. I have NEVER run this before as I always setup my network manually. Anyways I tried the Netword ID Wizard out of curiousity while I had the error.

After the process and a reboot, everything has worked fine for the last 3 days.

If I lose my Workgroup again, I'll make a post.