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General discussion

"You might not have permission to use this network resource"

Jul 26, 2008 9:25AM PDT

Another one of these problems -- I've found a few of these threads, but my situation seems to be a little different.

Here's the deal. I have a small home wireless network with two Vista machines: a desktop (let's call it ZEN-DT) running Home Premium and a laptop (ZEN-LT) running Business. Both are running software firewalls and both's IPs are in the other's Trusted Zone.

For months I hadn't had any problems whatsoever accessing one from the other across the network. Then I began to have minor problems accessing the laptop from the desktop after I had to reinstall Vista on the desktop a little while ago. But now for some reason I can't access the laptop from the desktop AT ALL. (Though I can continue to access the desktop from the laptop.)

The desktop still seems to know about the laptop on the network. I go to Windows Explorer and I can see the laptop. But when I try to access it I get the "\\ZEN-LT is not accessible. You might not have permission..." etc. message.

The thing is, I can successfully ping ZEN-LT both by IP and by name. From the laptop, I've tried shutting off the firewall to the Trusted Zone entirely, but this didn't change anything.

I operate on both machines exclusively with an account with the same username and password. The Sharing and Discovery settings on both machines are all set for sharing (everything on but "Media Sharing"; I tried setting "Password protected sharing" both on and off and there was no difference) and the network is private.

Does anyone have any ideas what could be wrong? This is driving me nuts!

Discussion is locked

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You seem to have all the usuals under control.
Jul 27, 2008 1:21AM PDT

But what about the router? Any firewall there?

I know some that will dismiss it with a "it worked before."

-> Finally if nothing turns up, go get NETWORK MAGIC (even the free demo will do for this) and see how it deals with it.
Bob

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the router
Jul 27, 2008 4:38AM PDT

Yeah, there's a firewall on the router (a Linksys WRT54G). Assuming I can figure out how to access it again, what should I be looking for? And even if there is something funny about its settings, wouldn't a ping from the desktop to the laptop have failed?

NETWORK MAGIC -- what does this do? Sounds intriguing. Do you have to be a network whiz to use it?

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Network Magic
Jul 27, 2008 5:05AM PDT

Hey, this looks slick. I installed it on the desktop -- but it doesn't appear to see the laptop. What does it mean that Network Magic doesn't see the laptop, but that I can ping the laptop and see it from Windows Explorer?

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Not seeing things...
Jul 27, 2008 5:33AM PDT

That's normal if a firewall is working (anywhere from here to there) as well as when the other machine hasn't shared a printer or file...

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it's magic!
Jul 27, 2008 6:45AM PDT

I dropped Network Magic onto the laptop and, voila, everyone can see and access everyone again. Excelsior.

Thanks for the tip.
zenkovic

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(NT) Glad it worked.
Jul 27, 2008 6:48AM PDT