One Client cannot connect to one share

Question

I've got a client PC that CAN ping the server, but not connect to the share via 'My Computer' This happens with only one server, the Client can connect to shares on other servers. The Client will try for a moment, then say that the target is unavailable.
Security on this particular share is 'Everybody' has Read/Write/List. Other Clients can connect fine. I've verified Name resolution via NSLOOKUP and PING and both are successful.
I've tried both \computername\sharename and \ipaddress\sharename and neither work.

The Client is XP Pro SP3. The Server is WinNT SP6 (I know, I know, but it supports an legacy app that will not run under Win2K3/2k8, the server is running under a VM) I have 20 other XP Clients that CAN connect, and this Client can connect to at least 4 other servers, although I do not have any other WinNT servers to test, so I'm testing against 2K3/2K8 servers.

Any Ideas?

Answer 1

My troubleshooting process on this one would be:

• Verify that name-resolution is working.
  • Ping works! Great.
  • Does running 'nbtstat -c' after a connection attempt reveal the target host name? If not, netbios resolution is failing for some reason.
    • Verify that NetBIOS over TCP hasn't been turned off for some reason
    • If you have one, ensure that there is a WINS server configured for that workstation.
• Check event-logs
  • The Security log on the target machine should show the connection attempt. There may be useful information in there.
    • If there is no evidence of a connection attempt, then one probably wasn't initiated. This is suggestive that something networky is getting in the way. Having eliminated name resolution, time to look at firewalls or AV.
  • The System log on the source machine may be showing something interesting. Troubleshoot accordingly.
• Check Firewall logs
  • If possible, check firewall logs on both sides
• Check AV logs
  • These days AV can block connections. Who knew? Check the logs on the target machine.