Windows XP Workgroup issues

Since not everyone has a domain controller with AD at home, using Workgroup for file and print sharing is pretty common.

So what happens when a user of a newly rebuilt computer goes home, and is not able to browse workgroup? For those of us who are not using to using Workgroups, the answer is hard to pinpoint, but easy to fix.

The user reported that she can not see other computers in her workgroup. Her firewall was off, and the other computers are working fine in the workgroup. She can ping the other computers. She can also browse the other computers' resources by IP (eg, \\192.168.0.2). So what's missing?

I suspected that it had to do with NetBIOS name resolution. IPConfig shows a node type P (Peer to Peer). I didn't think that was correct, because P means you need a WINS server to perform NetBIOS resolution.

So what's going on? Turns out, it is because it was connected to an network that sets DHCP Option 46. If a computer connects to a network that sets DHCP Option 46 (WINS Node Type), and then connects to a network that does not change that option, it will stay a the previously set node type. In this case the node type was P. So you can manually change it to B for broadcast, which works well in a small workgroup environment.

HKLM\System\CurrentControlSet\Services\NetBt\Parameters\DHCPNodeType = 1 (for broadcast)

HP OfficeJet 7200 / 7400 network problem

First, I dislike all-in-ones. The concept is good, but they never do exactly what you want. Second, HP has really undesireable AIO drivers. It tries to be too smart, do too much, and end up delivering much less then you expect. Also, do they have to make 10 programs run at startup!?

OK, here's an observation. I've worked with both HP OfficeJet 7200 and 7400, and have noticed a particular problem. They either don't like to work with the 3com IntelliJack NJ90, or they don't like to work at 100 Mbps / Full Duplex. On both machies, at 100 Full, would fail to print or scan. Go to 10 / Full, and it's ok.