Windows System Management Software

General

Many computers show a red cross: why?

From time to time, many computers or servers have a red cross over their icon in the right pane or left pane.

What does this red cross mean?

How can I solve this?

This red cross means - more or less - the Microsoft Network Neighborhood is unable to reach this remote machine.

Due to the fact that our tool relies on Microsoft Network Neighborhood in order to display the status of your computers and servers, this red cross informs you about this problem.

Here are some conditions where the red crosses may appear:

• The remote machine is hidden in the MS Networking (the Hidden parameter used by the LanmanServer service has been set in the registry),
• Network  discovery (starting with Windows Vista) turned off on this machine,
• File and Printer Sharing service not installed or not bind to the NIC of this machine,
• "Computer Browser" service not started on your domain controller,
• NetBIOS names resolution issue,
  
• NetBT layer deactivated (NetBIOS over TCP) in the NIC parameters,
  
• Central WINS database damaged or containing erroneous records,
  
• The LMHOSTS file is missfilled,
  
• Some NetBIOS filtering exists between your administrative box and this remote PC (firewall or router to access a remote site for instance),
  
• Etc.

In order to solve this problem, please check any and all of the above possibilities.

If you still face this problem, please send an e-mail to the support team ( support@pointdev.com ) with as many details and informations as possible. We'll answer you ASAP.