I have set up a VPN network between my Windows 7 home computer and my remote Windows Server 2003. This all works fine, the computers can ping each other and I can also access the server’s smb shares using it’s IP address (10.8.0.1) or even its NetBIOS name (i.e. \myServer\someShare). Both computers are part of the same workgroup WORKGROUP, however they just don’t show up in each other’s computer browser. Each computer will only list it’s own name in the browser.
Things I have tried so far:
- Enabled NetBIOS over TCP/IP for both computers in their respective connection settings.
- Disabled Windows Firewall on each computer for the respective network connection.
- Installed WINS service on the Windows 2003 server and added the address of the WINS server (10.8.0.1) to the list of WINS server address for both computers.
- Made sure that all relevant services (Computer Browser, Workgroup, Network Connections, Server, TCP/IP NetBIOS Helper, WINS, etc.) have been started and set to automatic.
When I view the active registrations for WINS on the server, there are 2 entries in there from the other computer (WorkStation and File Server). What strikes me as odd is that there are 2 entries for WORKGROUP, one as [00h] Workgroup and another as [1Eh] Normal Group Name. Could that be the problem or what else am I missing?
Here’s a screenshot of the WINS records (ABC-PC being the Windows 7 computer and WV21066 being the 2003 server).
Answer
Attribution
Source : Link , Question Author : PaulK , Answer Author : Community
