*Resolved* Issue browsing to Windows 7 PCs on domain
We currently are testing 3 Windows 7 Professional PCs in our network. We are able to browse to WinXP, Win2k3, and Win2k8 machines from these PCs just fine. However, when we attempt to browse to the Windows 7 PCs (from any of these operating systems, including the other Windows 7 PCs) we aren't able to. We either get an authentication box (we actually only get this from the other Win7 PCs, but nothing we type in works), or it says the resource can't be found. We've turned on all settings including Network Discovery on all 3 PCs. I've tried filling in the authentication box with just about every account I know, so that is getting nowhere. We've also tried disabling all security on all 3 PCs (AV, firewall, anti-spyware, etc), to no avail. This is a major issue which is crippling our migration efforts. Any suggestions are appreciated.
June 16th, 2010 7:24pm

Are the Win 7 machine actually on the domain? Is the c$ share active? Are the machine in the correct AD groups? Are the user accounts your originating from in the proper groups in AD and locally on the Win 7 machines?
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June 16th, 2010 8:16pm

Yes, they are all on the domain - and in the same OU in AD. They belong to the same group as any other PC in our organization. Yes, the c$ share is active. I don't understand what you mean by "proper groups" in AD, but they are spread over several different OUs, and each one is in several different security groups. The bottom line here is that no active directory account works in the authentication box. We have also tried setting up identical local user accounts on the 3 PCs, to no avail.
June 16th, 2010 9:11pm

Did you check if firewall is turned on on those machines? Under Remote settings make sure "Don't allow connections to this computer" is not checked.
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June 16th, 2010 9:26pm

We've tried it both with the firewall off and on. Under Remote settings where? If you mean under the system properties, that affects RDP, not browsing. Either way, I am allowing RDP connections. Something that is really beginning to frustrate me is that whether the firewall is off or on, I get a Failure Audit in the Security logs, with event ID 5157. It is saying The Windows Filtering Platform has blocked a connection, and it listing the source IP as the PC trying to browse to mine, and mine as the destination.
June 16th, 2010 9:44pm

Hi, Does the issue occur on each Windows 7 machine or certain one? To troubleshoot the issue, I suggest you perform the following steps. 1. Write down certain Windows 7’s IP address. Click Start button and click Run, type \\IP address, and then press enter. Can you access the Windows 7 machine now? If it works, the issue can be related to DNS. You may check Hosts file. Please refer the following article. Modify the Hosts file In the hosts file, ignore all the lines that start with *, and pay attention to other lines. Please only keep the line "localhost 127.0.0.1", delete others. Otherwise, please move on the next steps. 2. Restart the machine in Safe Mode with Networking and access the network machine again. 3. Assure the following services are started: Computer Browser, Server, Workstation 4. Modify relevant settings on Windows 7 machine. a. Click Start and open Control Panel. b. Open "Network and Sharing Center" and click "Advanced sharing settings". c. Expand the current network profile (such as "Home or Work"), and then select the following options: "Turn on Network Discovery", "Turn on file and printer sharing", "Turn on sharing so anyone with network access can read and write files in the Public folders", "Turn off password protected sharing" If the issue persists, please capture the error message when accessing the Windows 7 machine and upload it here for research. Hope this helps. Novak
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June 17th, 2010 5:40am

It happens on all three of them. The issue happens with IP and hostname, and our HOSTS files are clean. We tried running two of the PCs in safe mode with networking, with no luck. We still get the errors in the security log (We also tried just running one in safe mode). All three of those services are started. The settings on all three machines match what you put above, except the "Turn off password protected sharing." We don't have that setting, and it is my understanding that it is not available on PCs which are joined to a domain.
June 17th, 2010 7:22pm

I've learned that the issue is related to group policy...I haven't figured out exactly which setting is causing it, but I will ping when I've found it. Thanks for all of your time. *Edit* I found the setting that was causing it - Computer Configuration > Policies > Administrative Templates > Network > Network Connections > Windows Firewall > Domain Profile > Windows Firewall: Allow inbound file and printer sharing exceptions The policy itself wasn't causing the issue, but we had an error in the parameters. All of the exceptions should have read 1.2.3.4, but one of them read 1.2.34 - this broke everything. Apparently Windows 7 has much less tolerance for errors in GPO/firewall than XP did.
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June 18th, 2010 1:49am

Hi, Thank you for your update on this case. Since the issue is caused by group policy, I suggest you disable all of them and then enable them one by one to narrow down the cause. Thanks, Novak
June 21st, 2010 8:52am

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