sundance-communications.com/forum Forums VOIP Phones & IP PBX Networking XP networked to Win 7, What the heck am I missing?

I set up a network over a year ago with a custom Win 7 machine as a psuedo data server and 4 other win 7 machines to go with the 3 XP machines. i maaped network drives to the "server" on machines and have no issues connecting to the server win 7 or XP. I just tried to do the same for another customer but even though all win 7 machines can see the 3 XP machines, the XP can't see the Win 7. They are all in the same subnet, workgroup, etc. I looked through the previous customer's config but didn't see any glaring errors on my current set up. I'm sure it's something stupid that I'm overlooking but for the life of me I'm drawing a blank. BTW, all users have an account setup on the "server" matching their login info on the individual machines.

Not an expensive enough version of 7 or XP? You know, "HOME" vs "OFFICE".

All are Professional

Check Windows Firewall, it's on by default in 7.

Windows 7 uses a feature called "Homegroup" that basically automatically sets up all sharing between Windows 7 PC's. Does not work on XP machines, and I am guessing that is what is happening. I would make sure your firewall settings are correct, that Network Discovery is enabled on you Win 7 PC's and make sure "Homegroup" is not being used.

You can also make sure they can resolve the netbios names by pinging. If DNS isn't working properly, you can manually add them into C:\Windows\System32\drivers\etc\hosts
(no file extension on this file)

I found a permission issue and was able to connect to the server briefly.

I can ping all Win7 machines from the XP machines but the XP will lose connection to the Win7 "server" and it takes a reboot of the server for them to reconnect. I have netwwork sharing turned on and homegroup turned off. I have the private firewall turned off on the Win7 machine and simple network sharing turned off on the XP machines.

I deleted all old network places that pointed to the old XP server that crapped out and I disconnected all the mapped network drives associated with the old XP unit as well and still have the disconnect issues.

Win 7 supports higher encryption on network shares then win xp does. there is a setting about that in the network and sharing center.
This may be your issue.
Anything in the event logs on the xp or server machines?

This is what I found online and even though I was told it wouldn't make a difference...it did and I no longer have any connection issues and was able to back down the permissions for all users.

locate the first key:
HKLM\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Control\Session Manager\Memory Management\LargeSystemCache

03. By default this value is probably set to “0” and needs to be changed to “1”
04. Then locate the following key:
HKLM\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Services\LanmanServer\Parameters\Size

05. By default this value is probably also “0” and needs to be changed to “3”