Why does my Windows Query Fail?

 If your target machine is Sun Solaris or Redhat Linux, see:

Note: UpdateEXPERT Premium requires a Unix enabled license to support Unix targets. Please contact St. Bernard Software to enable Unix support.

The most common reasons for query failure are:

  1. A machine is down or rebooting (red exclamation point icon)

  2. The administrative credentials are wrong for the target, or have not been specified for the target (yellow exclamation point icon).

See the following links for information on a variety of issues that can prevent queries from succeeding.

Foreign Machine

Are you trying to query a Netware, Unix, Linux, OS-X, or 16 bit Windows machine? Check the platform if you have never successfully queried the machine before. Note: the icon "white circle with red X" is used to indicate an unknown host. See Machine and Network Icons.

Language Settings

Down, Rebooting or Ghost Machine

Ghost machines are names in the network pane that may have gone down or been powered off, but the name is still cached by WINS so it appears to be there if you enumerate. Use "ping" to see if the host actually responds. If not, you probably have a "stale" WINS cache entry, or the host is down or rebooting.

Administrator Rights

File and Printer Sharing Enabled (enables "shares" in general)

Required Services:

RPC Service (enables services below)

In the unlikely event that RPC (Remote Procedure Call) has actually been disabled, please contact support for further assistance ... you cannot simply turn on RPC once it has been turned off, and support will want to know about your specific environment. RPC is typically disabled on highly secured hosts.

Netlogon Service (enables login)

Server Service (enables specific shares )

Remote Registry Access Service (enables registry access)

Registry Access:

Full Control registry access for Win2k (Winreg key permissions)

Full Control registry access for XP (Winreg key permissions)

Full Control registry access for HKLM\Software\St. Bernard Software\UpdateEXPERT

Local Security Policy or OS hardening:

Win XP/2003 Remote Logon Policy (Guest vs. Classic)

Win XP/2003 Digitally Sign Communications Policy? (Enabled vs. Disabled)

NTLM Policy (Session security matching for Master/Leaf communications)

Win 2003 Master-Agent Default Credentials (to enable querying, UE v6.x Only)

XP/SP2 Systems reporting "Unknown OS" when queried (master browser issue)