Vista Laptop Network Issues

[DeathNote]

Alright, so I have a Vista Home Premium Laptop (x86, 32-bit) that has been working FINE up until today.

For some reason, it now wont let me connect to my desktop or anything else in the network. It connects to the network just fine, but wont see any of the computers in it.

I installed the vista network map thing on my desktop (which is XP Pro 32-bit) and the network map thing on vista sees it there.

They can both ping each other, and the router, and I have rebooted EVERYTHING (computers, switch, router) multiple times.

The laptop wont let me see ANYTHING else on my network, but my desktop will let me see everything on the network (including the laptop) but it wont let me connect to the laptop, its saying that its an invalid address.

It has NEVER done this since I got the laptop back in December.

 

Everything is on the same workgroup (workgroup) and there are only the windows firewall installed.

 

Any ideas??????

[dling]

Make sure you still have the hdd sharing enabled in the other computers.

[DeathNote]

If anyone else is having this issue. I found the answer.

It only took about 3 hours of seraching the web last night until about 2am, but I found it.

 

First,

Verify that this "fix" is correct in your registry (on Vista). It turns off the DHCP Broadcast Flag.

I think this is mostly an issue if you can not obtain a IP from your DHCP, but either way, I have this fix set on my Vista machine.

Registry Fix

 

Second,

Open command promt and run "ipconfig /all" (without quotes) and check to see what the "Node Type" is for your host (Vista and XP).

My Vista labtop was somehow set to Peer-To-Peer instead of Broadcast/Hybrid for a small LAN w/o a WINS. My XP Desktop was set to Unknown instead of Broadcast/Hybrid.

Becase I dont have a WINS on my network for Address Translation, if you leave Unknown on, it is treated as a Broadcast/Hybrid, so I left it set as Unknown, but you can change it.

Use this link to check what the setting you have means and verify if you need to change it and how to change your type of address translation.

Address Translation on a LAN

 

 

I cant tell if it makes a difference, but I installed the LLTD Responder on my XP Desktop. I think all it does it allows the XP machines to show up on the Full Network Map on Vista, but I dont know if it assisted in the viewing of my computers.

Either way, here is a link to the installer

LLTD Responder Installer

 

 

To think, one stupid little setting made it stop working. Vista just needed 1 Registry Value deleted, and on XP you might just need a number changed. Litterally ONE NUMBER!

Stupid Windows!