Windows XP Workgroup Not Accessible

I have long used a workgroup on my home network to easily share files and transfer files among machines. I recently began having problems after changing the network configuration to one wired machine and the rest on the network to wireless. This would not have been an issue except that the one wired machine had a firewall blocking communication with the workgroup.

After reading about the microsoft computer browser service at http://support.microsoft.com/kb/188001
and working through the suggestions at http://winhlp.com/WxNetwork.htm#Workgroup_is_not_accessible
, I resolved the problems. I modified the firewall to allow windows file sharing with NETBIOS on ports 137-139. Now the desktop with the wired connection can assume the role of master browser and workgroup irregularities have disappeared.

In the process, I found one of the laptops with both a wired and wireless adapter, needed to have the workgroup configured by the network wizard for both adapters at the same time. My clue about this was that MSHOME kept showing up in the network neighborhood in addition to my existing workgroup name. Another glitch with the laptop was healed after noticing one of the network adaptors did not allow file and print sharing. In the future, I will ensure both the wired and wireless adapters allow file and print sharing.

I learned about useful windows commands for networking like 'net view' that I'll discuss in my next blog.