I'm at a loss. I have a Windows network (4 PC's plus 3 Macs). My Windows PCs all see each other and the Macs and successfully connect. One of my MBP (13") sees all Windows PCs and Macs. The other MBP (17") sees all but ONE of the Windows PCs (and the one it won't connect to is the only one that is critical -- of course). I get the error "Connection Failed: The server "name" may not exist or it is unavailable..." I have tried everything I've found on the 'net as far as troubleshooting. All the settings on the Windows PC are good (no Firewall) and, as I said, everything else on the network can connect to it. I've tried deleting all the plist files related to the Airport, nothing. I even tried directly connecting via Ethernet (that made things worse -- I couldn't connect with ANY of the computers). I am resorting to sneakernet to copy files between these two computers and I'm losing it. Any help? TIA. JMFlint
Are the MBPs one the same MACOS version? I've heard that to cause problems (some freak bug in MacOS). Maybe you could try to set up a FTP server on the evading PC (I can't be sure as to which WinOS you're using on those, so maybe this is helpful) and see if that works? LAN should provide fairly good speeds. Sorry if this sounds simple, but I don't really know what you've tried exactly already. You could also try to rename the PC. Windows has this weird habbit of not working in LAN connections correctly. Especially I've found that to be a carrachteristic of windows XP.
If I've understood your problem correctly * you have 4 Windows PCs and 3 Macs on the same wireless network * the PCs all see each other and you can share files between them * two of the Macs can see the PCs and read the file shares * one of the Macs, the 17inch one, can see 3 of the 4 Windows PCs, but not the last one, which is the most critical one. * the 17inch Mac can read & write files to the other 3 PCs and with the other 2 Macs * the 17inch Mac can get to the internet/web without a problem If any of that is incorrectly summarized, please let me know. If you aren't 100% sure of any of these items, please double-check and post your results, they could help us pinpoint where the problem lies. Question: can you get files on and off that Mac from the PC? If so, that may be a way around the issue. Now, some things I would check or try, to help troubleshoot this issue: * Verify that the PC with the critical files is using the same Workgroup name as the other 3 PCs. o For Windows XP: Start -> My Computer (right-click and choose Properties) o Switch to the Computer Name tab o Check the name of the Workgroup listed. o If it's not the same as the other 3 PCs, change it to match (click the Change button and follow the prompts). * See if you can ping the PC from the 17-inch Mac o On the PC, find out the IP address it's using + Right-click My Network Places on the desktop and choose Properties + Right-click your wireless adapter and choose Status + Switch to the Support tab + Look for the item named "IP Address" o On the Mac: Open the Applications Folder -> Utilities -> Terminal o Type in ping -c 2 IP_Address_of_PC and hit Enter. o You should see something like this, if all is well. If not, please post with your results. $ ping -c 2 192.168.0.1 PING 192.168.0.1 (192.168.0.1): 56 data bytes 64 bytes from 192.168.0.1: icmp_seq=0 ttl=64 time=4.623 ms 64 bytes from 192.168.0.1: icmp_seq=1 ttl=64 time=2.587 ms --- 192.168.0.1 ping statistics --- 2 packets transmitted, 2 packets received, 0.0% packet loss round-trip min/avg/max/stddev = 2.587/3.605/4.623/1.018 ms * Try to view the share manually from the Mac o On the Go menu, choose Connect to server... o Click the Browse button o Try to find the PC with the critical files in the list. o If it's listed, double-click it, to see what's available on the PC. o Note any message in the dark gray, above the list section of the window. * Please post back here with your results. That should tell us at which level the connectivity issue lies.
