Panther Windows network browsing was working, now has problems

B

btoth

Person that uses a Mac
I did a fresh install of Panther on my PowerBook G4 and was able to browse my Windows machines just fine (except for my Win2003 server for some reason). Recently though, about half the shared folders on my WindowsXP machine are displayed as aliases, which connect fine, and normal folder icons, which just act like empty folders on the Mac end. Though, if I do a Connect To Server... and mount the files, I can access them just fine. What would cause only half of my shared files to work on the Mac? Also, another observation: before I was having these problems, the Network icon on the Finder window sidebar would display a little eject button, now it doesn't. I don't know if the two problems are related or not.

Thank you for any help.
 
Just as an update, when I'm at work, the network icon in the Finder window sidebar does have an eject button next to it and all the shared folders show up as network aliases instead of usual Mac-style folders. Yet, at home, there's no eject button and half my Window's shared folders just display as empty Mac folders. The whole thing is weird.
 
So network browsing works for some people? Last I heard noone could browse. Is there maybe and issue that the store-bought release fixed? I'm still on 7b85, maybe I should DL the new one. Maybe I shouldn't phrase everything as a question?
 
network browsing works for me, as long as it b/w osx and other UNIXs. osx to windows is non existent. I can browse to the windows shares, but I can't actually see anything. I just use konqueror to view my windows shares now.
 
I've got the retail version now, and I can browse the windows shares, plus network printing works! Hooray! Now if only it wouldn't freeze the imac whenever I switch users... :confused:
 
Yeah, I have all the Apple software updates installed. It's just weird and I wonder if the problem lies with the system just not refreshing the network folders. On my network I have my desktop running XP Pro, a Win2000 and one Win2003 Server machine. The Win2000 machine connects perfectly. My XP Pro machine shows half the shares as aliases that I can connect fine to, the rest are shown as folders that are empty and some of the folders correspond to Windows shares that no longer exist. The Win2003 Server machine I can't connect to at all, it gives me some login error of -5000-something, I don't know what that's about, and it's too bad because that's my webserver machine.

At work I can connect just fine to the Win98 machine, but not the XP Home machine, it gives me the same error that my Win2003 machine does.

If I use the Connect To Server... menu, I can mount the sharepoints on my XP Pro machine just fine. It would seem that if one way works, they should both work.
 
Well, today I gave my XP machine a new workgroup and now the network shares are functioning again. And as far as my one folder that was called 'Program Installers' on my XP machine that the Mac couldn't see for some reason... I gave it a new share name of 'Installers' and it works just fine now. Does SMB have a name length limit?
 
Have just updated to 10.3.2 and some problems still persists. It seems that I have problems browsing to some window shares, but if I try to connect thru Connect to Server... using smb://servername/ I can mount any share. If I user smb://ip address/ I can connect to some and not to others.
 
sorenbrix said:
Have just updated to 10.3.2 and some problems still persists. It seems that I have problems browsing to some window shares, but if I try to connect thru Connect to Server... using smb://servername/ I can mount any share. If I user smb://ip address/ I can connect to some and not to others.
Click to expand...

What version of Windows are you trying to connect to? Mine is working fine at the moment, maybe I can give you some ideas.
 
btoth said:
What version of Windows are you trying to connect to? Mine is working fine at the moment, maybe I can give you some ideas.
Click to expand...

It's a mix of NT4 & 2000, but it seems that the servers I have trouble browsing to, is servers that have an extensive amount of shares. Approx 30-40 shares. Other servers with only a few shares, 4-6 works fine. And that is what puzzels me.

But as I mentioned before, I can connect to any share I want to using Connect to Server... in the Finders Go menu.
 
sorenbrix said:
Have just updated to 10.3.2 and some problems still persists. It seems that I have problems browsing to some window shares, but if I try to connect thru Connect to Server... using smb://servername/ I can mount any share. If I user smb://ip address/ I can connect to some and not to others.
Click to expand...

I have verified with my Department MS Windows network (with several workgroups and without domains) that update 10.3.2 solved most problems concerning the browsing of windows computers (the access thru Connect to Server was already working fine, even with OS X release 10.3.1)

However my OS X Mac can only browse (and it can only be browsed by) PC computers belonging to the same TCP/IP subnetwork (we have three of them with separate gateways in our Department). This is different from the PCs running NetBEUI protocol that can browse all the computers in the local network. I could argue that only PCs running TCP/IP protocol can be browsed by (and can browse) the Mac, but I did not tested it yet.

I also verified the following malfunction: if the sharing of a folder is activated in the browsed PC, after the connection was established, the added folder does not appear in the window when clicking on the computer icon.
Moreover, for the computers belonging to the same workgroup of the Mac, the PC computer alias appearing in the Local folder is independent of the alias of the same computer in the folder named as the workgroup. (for example if clicked after the activation of the sharing, it correctly shows the shared folder and its content, while the alias in the Local folder continues to be empty)

This might be a serious problem because for example I have no idea how for example to "disconnect" (and then reconnect) the validated computers. Even removing the corresponding line in Keychain Access seems to be ignored: their shared folders appear to be permanently mounted in the (hidden) directory /private/var/automount/workgroup/nodename.

Now I will try rebooting the Mac (but anyway it would seem to me a quite unconfortable procedure ...).
 
sorenbrix said:
But as I mentioned before, I can connect to any share I want to using Connect to Server... in the Finders Go menu.
Click to expand...

Using the Go->Connect to Server... works fine. The browse network option is very hit 'n' miss for me .. but then, it never _has_worked, has it?
 
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