Network problem

L

LarryMcJ

Registered
Network problem

I've Googled this to death and all I find are other frustrated folks with the same problem...never an answer that works.

I have Mac (OS X 10.4) on a home network with five other Windows PCs. I can browse four of the five computers just from from the Mac, but one I can not.

If I try to open it I get the ubiquitous message: The alias "Laptop" could not be opened because the original item could not be found. (Obviously, the Mac found it or it wouldn't be listed as an alias in the first place.)

I can't delete that alias, or do anything with it as it then says that I (administrator) don't have sufficient privileges to do so. I've tried renaming the machine it can't see (Laptop1, Laptop2, etc.) and all it does is create more aliase in Finder that won't connect to the Laptop and I can't remove any of them.

I've also tried disconnecting the Laptop from the network completely, restarting both it and the Mac...but these aliases just won't go away.

1. How do I get rid of these aliases?
2. How can I get my Mac to see the Laptop?

Many thanks!!

LarryMcJ
 
Just in case someone else has similar problems in the future, here are the solutions:

The phantom alias icons turned out to be just residual DHCP clients in my Linksys router that for some reason wouldn't auto-delete when a new computer name was given to the laptop. I finally did a hard reset of the router and the issue was solved.

The inability of my Mac to access the Windows Vista laptop was an obscure advanced setting in the Microsoft OneCare firewall. I had to turn off Password Protection of Sharing for the Mac to be able to access the share, even though it saw it just fine. The other Windows machines on the network didn't have this problem.

Even after nearly two decades of networking experience, I find it's usually the simple things that cause me the most problems. Lesson learned here is on a home or otherwise peer network you're very safe behind the router, so be sure to open up all possible access points and turn off any password protection between machines when you setup the network and you'll avoid many problems.

Thanks for such a great Mac support forum here!

LarryMcJ
 
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