HELP! Lost connection overnight!

[CyberGenX 0]

I have 2 computers on a small network. Overnight without us making any changes a few things happened.

 

1. I lost my connections to mapped drives on my wife's machine

2. The guest accounts on both machines were suddenly enabled

3. NetBeui was missing, was there 2 days prior.

4. We can see each other but cannot login to shares on each others PC.

5. I cannot even login under her account or administrator.

 

I get the following prompt when I try. The user name is greyed OUT!!!!

 

 

When I set network passwords under WinXPs user accounts in control panel I get this

 

 

None of the passwords work!

 

 

Here is what I tried:

 

1. Turned off XP's Firewall

2. Turned off and then turned the shares back on

3. deleted accounts and recreated them

4. power cycled everything (PCs, Hubs, cable modem)

5. Windows Update

6. Tried logging into my computer as HER and connecting to HER machine

7. Scanned for viruses

8. Removed protocols and reinstalled.

9. Recreated shares and tried creating new shares.

10. Loaded shotgun full of buck shot....

 

 

Someone help, I rely on several drives on the other machine to work, i don't want to be pulling parts.

 

Both machines are on WinXP SP1. One is an Intel P4 the other an AMD XP 2500+ Both NICs are Intel. Switch is 10/100 and cable modem is feeding both static IPs.

[Vermyn 0]

You have a virus. Quite possibly MSBlast. If both guest accounts were suddenly enabled, I would definitely be suspicious. Did you have any firewall protection on this network before the problems began?

[clutch 1]

There probably isn't a virus involved, as many systems will prompt with the stupid guest account even if it isn't enabled (although a virus that removes NetBEUI couldn't be all that bad). So...

 

1. Never install NetBEUI, as it is pointless, extra overhead to begin with. You need TCP/IP to get around anyway, and there is no gain when using it anymore with a typical network from the last 5 years.

2. Make sure that you have NetBIOS over TCP/IP still enabled to resolve typical Windows system resources.

3. Are you using an NT Domain or Active Directory? Workgroups can be unstable at times with odd account confusion.

4. Do you have simple file sharing enabled (this won't make any difference when using a domain)?

[CyberGenX 0]

I scanned and found no viri. Simple sharing is enabled, i have accounts that match on both computers. Not using domains or active directory. I was using netbeui because the computers have static IPs that are not on the same range OR subnet and I couldn't get them to see each other with out it.

 

 

NOthing was changed

[Tomay 0]

Did you try to run windows in safe mode with networking?

 

If that don't help try to boot from windowsXP CD and try logging in to the recovery console. (it asks for the administrator password)

 

You could also try to repair the windows installation. (backup before you do, just in case)

[CyberGenX 0]

I got the same result in Safe Mode with Networking. I did a fresh install onto another drive, windows updates, SP1 etc. and GOT THE SAME RESULT!!!!!

 

Could my switch be causing this? It is a 10/100 switch, not a router.

 

I've work on computers and networks for 6 years now and have never seen this problem

[CyberGenX 0]

I get this when I try to access any of the shares on the opposite computer with fresh OS install.

 

 

 

 

the only login that works is GUEST!!! none of the others work, even non passworded accounts.

[clutch 1]

Check this out, with reference to "ForceGuest":

 

http://www.wown.info/j_helmig/wxpsimsh.htm

 

This is typical behavior for systems running Windows 2000/XP (hence why I didn't think it was a virus) and pretty annoying in general.