Windows cannot discover any computer or device

I am running Vista Enterprise (final version) in a domain environment I have
turned on the Link-Layer Topology Discovery in local gp and domain gpo but I
still get the error "Windows cannot discover any computer or device" I can
browse in explorer to every machine on the network but it seems to want to
communciate with microsoft.com.

I also do not get a full connection to the internet in Network and Sharing
Center. I can see my domain and I can connect to the internet and other PC's
but when I try to repair the connection from domain to internet I get a
"Windows cannot communicate with www.microsoft.com (207.46.19.30) the ping
was successful but there was no response. I know this is because we are
behind a Firewall but surely MS has thought of this and has a way around this?

Hmm, puzzling! I don't have an exact answer, but perhaps there's something
here that might give you some clues.

Not sure about the "cannot discover any computers" or "do not get a full
connection to the internet in Network and Sharing", but none of (well, none
that I know of!) the Microsoft servers respond to "ping" requests, so the
lack of response to ping from www.microsoft.com doesn't necessarily tell you
anything.

Try another destination for ping, such as yahoo.com or google.com.

I turned on both those settings on my small domain at home (single LAN) for
my Vista workstations and the "Network map" now displays and shows all of
the Vista computers (before turning on these settings, I got the message
that the network map was suppressed by default in the domain). The actual
"map" only shows "Vista -> Gateway -> Internet", but the other computers
(including the Windows Server 2003 R2 Domain Controller) are listed at the
bottom as "The following discovered device(s) can not be placed in the
map.".

Have you verified that the GPO containing the settings is in fact applied to
the Vista computer(s) using the gpresult command or the Group Policy Results
wizard? I assume you have a check mark in the "Allow operation while in
domain" check box for both settings.

Also, check that the Network Discovery exception is enabled in the Windows
Firewall configuration is Enabled.

What do you mean by "do not get a full connection to the internet in Network
and Sharing"? The only time I've seen that sort of thing (e.g. limited
network connectivity) is when the computer could not get an IP address from
DHCP, but then I would expect you wouldn't have domain connectivity either.

My router has a built in firewall and does NAT as well, so perhaps the issue
is not related to the "firewall".
--
Bruce Sanderson MVP Printing
http://members.shaw.ca/bsanders

It is perfectly useless to know the right answer to the wrong question.



"c_hr1s" <chr1s@discussions.microsoft.com> wrote in message
news:014C6E9A-9FDE-4144-BEBD-20A1D51B8F8B@microsoft.com...
>I am running Vista Enterprise (final version) in a domain environment I
>have
> turned on the Link-Layer Topology Discovery in local gp and domain gpo but
> I
> still get the error "Windows cannot discover any computer or device" I can
> browse in explorer to every machine on the network but it seems to want to
> communciate with microsoft.com.
>
> I also do not get a full connection to the internet in Network and Sharing
> Center. I can see my domain and I can connect to the internet and other
> PC's
> but when I try to repair the connection from domain to internet I get a
> "Windows cannot communicate with www.microsoft.com (207.46.19.30) the ping
> was successful but there was no response. I know this is because we are
> behind a Firewall but surely MS has thought of this and has a way around
> this?

Hi Bruce

Thanks for your reply ok so here goes

I do have full domain connectivity, can see other pcs servers and can
connect. I can connect to internet do nslookups can ping yahoo, google and
msn but no response (expired in transit) which as you say is to be expected.
Just seems a really weird error message to receive!

All I'm actually looking to achieve is

My Computer ----------------Domain----- Gateway------Internet or some
recognition this is what is happening it is a shame Vista does not allow you
to do this yourself. At the moment when I open up Network and Sharing Center
all I see is

My Computer---------------Domain----------X----------Internet

It states underneath my domain that Access is Local Only

When I click on the cross between Domain and Internet to repair and diagnose
I get the can't get a ping response from microsoft.com error.

I have turned off my Vista Firewall but Network Discovery was turned on for
access and the PC is definitely getting the GPO applied

I just need to somehow let Vista know that to get to the internet it is
running through a proxy and and a Gateway. But for some reason it can't tell?
Any other ideas?

Kind Regards

Christian

"Bruce Sanderson" wrote:

> Hmm, puzzling! I don't have an exact answer, but perhaps there's something
> here that might give you some clues.
>
> Not sure about the "cannot discover any computers" or "do not get a full
> connection to the internet in Network and Sharing", but none of (well, none
> that I know of!) the Microsoft servers respond to "ping" requests, so the
> lack of response to ping from www.microsoft.com doesn't necessarily tell you
> anything.
>
> Try another destination for ping, such as yahoo.com or google.com.
>
> I turned on both those settings on my small domain at home (single LAN) for
> my Vista workstations and the "Network map" now displays and shows all of
> the Vista computers (before turning on these settings, I got the message
> that the network map was suppressed by default in the domain). The actual
> "map" only shows "Vista -> Gateway -> Internet", but the other computers
> (including the Windows Server 2003 R2 Domain Controller) are listed at the
> bottom as "The following discovered device(s) can not be placed in the
> map.".
>
> Have you verified that the GPO containing the settings is in fact applied to
> the Vista computer(s) using the gpresult command or the Group Policy Results
> wizard? I assume you have a check mark in the "Allow operation while in
> domain" check box for both settings.
>
> Also, check that the Network Discovery exception is enabled in the Windows
> Firewall configuration is Enabled.
>
> What do you mean by "do not get a full connection to the internet in Network
> and Sharing"? The only time I've seen that sort of thing (e.g. limited
> network connectivity) is when the computer could not get an IP address from
> DHCP, but then I would expect you wouldn't have domain connectivity either.
>
> My router has a built in firewall and does NAT as well, so perhaps the issue
> is not related to the "firewall".
> --
> Bruce Sanderson MVP Printing
> http://members.shaw.ca/bsanders
>
> It is perfectly useless to know the right answer to the wrong question.
>
>
>
> "c_hr1s" <chr1s@discussions.microsoft.com> wrote in message
> news:014C6E9A-9FDE-4144-BEBD-20A1D51B8F8B@microsoft.com...
> >I am running Vista Enterprise (final version) in a domain environment I
> >have
> > turned on the Link-Layer Topology Discovery in local gp and domain gpo but
> > I
> > still get the error "Windows cannot discover any computer or device" I can
> > browse in explorer to every machine on the network but it seems to want to
> > communciate with microsoft.com.
> >
> > I also do not get a full connection to the internet in Network and Sharing
> > Center. I can see my domain and I can connect to the internet and other
> > PC's
> > but when I try to repair the connection from domain to internet I get a
> > "Windows cannot communicate with www.microsoft.com (207.46.19.30) the ping
> > was successful but there was no response. I know this is because we are
> > behind a Firewall but surely MS has thought of this and has a way around
> > this?
>

Sorry, I'm not familiar with "proxy" servers etc. Here's something to try,
if you haven't already, in IE, click Tools, Internet Options, select the
Connections tab, click LAN settings. There's a spot there for configuring a
"proxy server".

If you are in a Windows Domain, presumably the DNS server (often on the same
server as the Domain Controller role) is doing the nslookups for you, so you
don't need "Internet connectivity" from the Vista workstation itself to do
that.

I'm going to be out of town and most likely newsgroup incomunicado for about
10 days.
--
Bruce Sanderson MVP Printing
http://members.shaw.ca/bsanders

It is perfectly useless to know the right answer to the wrong question.



"c_hr1s" <chr1s@discussions.microsoft.com> wrote in message
news97CB8D9-33C7-489B-974C-09FCFB59EE6F@microsoft.com...
> Hi Bruce
>
> Thanks for your reply ok so here goes
>
> I do have full domain connectivity, can see other pcs servers and can
> connect. I can connect to internet do nslookups can ping yahoo, google and
> msn but no response (expired in transit) which as you say is to be
> expected.
> Just seems a really weird error message to receive!
>
> All I'm actually looking to achieve is
>
> My Computer ----------------Domain----- Gateway------Internet or some
> recognition this is what is happening it is a shame Vista does not allow
> you
> to do this yourself. At the moment when I open up Network and Sharing
> Center
> all I see is
>
> My Computer---------------Domain----------X----------Internet
>
> It states underneath my domain that Access is Local Only
>
> When I click on the cross between Domain and Internet to repair and
> diagnose
> I get the can't get a ping response from microsoft.com error.
>
> I have turned off my Vista Firewall but Network Discovery was turned on
> for
> access and the PC is definitely getting the GPO applied
>
> I just need to somehow let Vista know that to get to the internet it is
> running through a proxy and and a Gateway. But for some reason it can't
> tell?
> Any other ideas?
>
> Kind Regards
>
> Christian
>
> "Bruce Sanderson" wrote:
>
>> Hmm, puzzling! I don't have an exact answer, but perhaps there's
>> something
>> here that might give you some clues.
>>
>> Not sure about the "cannot discover any computers" or "do not get a full
>> connection to the internet in Network and Sharing", but none of (well,
>> none
>> that I know of!) the Microsoft servers respond to "ping" requests, so the
>> lack of response to ping from www.microsoft.com doesn't necessarily tell
>> you
>> anything.
>>
>> Try another destination for ping, such as yahoo.com or google.com.
>>
>> I turned on both those settings on my small domain at home (single LAN)
>> for
>> my Vista workstations and the "Network map" now displays and shows all of
>> the Vista computers (before turning on these settings, I got the message
>> that the network map was suppressed by default in the domain). The
>> actual
>> "map" only shows "Vista -> Gateway -> Internet", but the other computers
>> (including the Windows Server 2003 R2 Domain Controller) are listed at
>> the
>> bottom as "The following discovered device(s) can not be placed in the
>> map.".
>>
>> Have you verified that the GPO containing the settings is in fact applied
>> to
>> the Vista computer(s) using the gpresult command or the Group Policy
>> Results
>> wizard? I assume you have a check mark in the "Allow operation while in
>> domain" check box for both settings.
>>
>> Also, check that the Network Discovery exception is enabled in the
>> Windows
>> Firewall configuration is Enabled.
>>
>> What do you mean by "do not get a full connection to the internet in
>> Network
>> and Sharing"? The only time I've seen that sort of thing (e.g. limited
>> network connectivity) is when the computer could not get an IP address
>> from
>> DHCP, but then I would expect you wouldn't have domain connectivity
>> either.
>>
>> My router has a built in firewall and does NAT as well, so perhaps the
>> issue
>> is not related to the "firewall".
>> --
>> Bruce Sanderson MVP Printing
>> http://members.shaw.ca/bsanders
>>
>> It is perfectly useless to know the right answer to the wrong question.
>>
>>
>>
>> "c_hr1s" <chr1s@discussions.microsoft.com> wrote in message
>> news:014C6E9A-9FDE-4144-BEBD-20A1D51B8F8B@microsoft.com...
>> >I am running Vista Enterprise (final version) in a domain environment I
>> >have
>> > turned on the Link-Layer Topology Discovery in local gp and domain gpo
>> > but
>> > I
>> > still get the error "Windows cannot discover any computer or device" I
>> > can
>> > browse in explorer to every machine on the network but it seems to want
>> > to
>> > communciate with microsoft.com.
>> >
>> > I also do not get a full connection to the internet in Network and
>> > Sharing
>> > Center. I can see my domain and I can connect to the internet and
>> > other
>> > PC's
>> > but when I try to repair the connection from domain to internet I get a
>> > "Windows cannot communicate with www.microsoft.com (207.46.19.30) the
>> > ping
>> > was successful but there was no response. I know this is because we are
>> > behind a Firewall but surely MS has thought of this and has a way
>> > around
>> > this?
>>

[pgn674]

Hey, future dwellers. If you've found this thread because you're getting the "Cannot communicate with www.microsoft.com" error, I finally found something for me that worked. Microsoft's KB937168 describes a Winsock bug after configuring Internet Connection Sharing, and gives a hotfix for it. You have to request it, since it's not production quality yet I guess, but they'll send you a link to it if you ask like the article describes. This worked for me, and it might work for you, too.

Thank you for sharing your experience with us.

--
Bob Lin, MS-MVP, MCSE & CNE
Networking, Internet, Routing, VPN Troubleshooting on
http://www.ChicagoTech.net
How to Setup Windows, Network, VPN & Remote Access on
http://www.HowToNetworking.com
"pgn674" <pgn674.37tgc2@no-mx.forums.vistaheads.com> wrote in message
newsgn674.37tgc2@no-mx.forums.vistaheads.com...
>
> Hey, future dwellers. If you've found this thread because you're getting
> the "Cannot communicate with www.microsoft.com" error, I finally found
> something for me that worked. Microsoft's 'KB937168'
> (http://support.microsoft.com/kb/937168) describes a Winsock bug after
> configuring Internet Connection Sharing, and gives a hotfix for it. You
> have to request it, since it's not production quality yet I guess, but
> they'll send you a link to it if you ask like the article describes.
> This worked for me, and it might work for you, too.
>
>
> --
> pgn674
> Posted via http://www.vistaheads.com
>