[jmc]

My laptop decided to get cranky and unfixable, so I ran the restore and started fresh. It is running XP Home.

Right now, it connects to the wireless network fine, and will connect to the internet through the proxy I have set up (to make a long story short, I have to use a proxy because Internet Connection Sharing won't work with my network).

So this PC can see the laptop (but not its shared files), but the laptop cannot see any part of the network. It knows what workgroup it is in, but when I try to view the workgroup, it tells me it's not accessible and I don't have permission. The laptop cannot ping the PC (can ping the router), even though IE will connect to the Internet through the same IP addy. The PC can ping the laptop. IPCONFIG /ALL looks fine, has the correct

Where should I look to fix this? It's frustrating, because my problem before the restore is that the network was working perfectly, but the internet wasn't.

I've also tried using two different wireless connections - the internal one that comes with the laptop, and my pccard Linksys.

Any help is appreciated. I think I've been looking at the problem for too long, and am missing something obvious.

 

[Bob Cerelli]

Sound like there is already a lot going for you.

You might look at http://www.onecomputerguy.com/networking/xp_network.htm for how to nework XP

 

[jmc]

Bob: Already looked at your site, but sorry it didn't help. One additional bit of information: when all was working before, XP was asking for the username/password to connect to the primary computer. I've set up the user account identical to the previous one, but XP won't give me the prompt, just error messages.

There are 3 computers on my network, let's call them PC (which holds the proxy), laptop, and remote:
PC can ping laptop and remote. Laptop can ping remote but NOT PC. PC can NOT see laptops files (network path not found) but can see remote's files. Laptop can see remote's files but not PC's

PC is running Win 2K, laptop is XP Home, and remote is Win98SE.

Ok, it just got weirder. I went back to Network Places, and the shared directories for the PC are THERE! But Laptop still can't ping PC (times out). It can ping the router.

I've had enough for tonight. I'm on the other side of the pond, and it's quite late here. I think my brain fried :-\

 

[Bob Cerelli]

If you can't ping the other computer, are you absolutely sure you have all firewalls turned off or removed, including the one in XP?

Also, the default setting for XP Pro is to require a password for network access. Do you have the same accounts with passwords set up on both computers.

 

[jmc]

The XP firewall is definitely off. ZoneAlarm has been set to let the laptop through, and it worked before I reformatted/reinstalled (it wasn't part of the previous problem). I have XP Home, but I know about the passwords, it was asking before, but it isn't getting that far now. Now that it's morning and I'm awake, I'm thinking the ping problem is the firewall, since file sharing is now working, but ping isn't.