hi, hoping somebody might have an idea about this,
because I'm about out of them. Everything was fine for
around 6 months up until a power interruption last night.

2 XP PCs directly connected by a (twisted) network
cable. Both have LAN connections have TCP/IP (static
assigned ip's 192.168.0.1 and .2 and NETBIOS enabled),
Microsoft Networking, and File & Printer Sharing
installed. Both are in the same workgroup and have a
unique name. 'Computer Browser' service is started.
Both PCs have an identical set of user
accounts/passwords. No firewalls present on the LAN
connections.

If I browse 'my network places' and into the workgroup, I
can see both PC's (from either computer). If I try to
open the other computer, I get "(computername) is not
accessible. You might not have permission to use this
network resource. Path not found". If I try to ping the
other machine (by name or ip), it times out. Pinging the
local IP is fine. If i do a 'net view' at the command
prompt, it shows both PCs. Also, if I enable DHCP server
on one PC and dhcp-assigned IP on the other (as a test),
it recieves an IP address fine.

Why can't I ping &/or view file shares, but other network
connectivity seems to be working?? I've looked at
Q308007, Q318030, Q299357 and searched Google, but I'm
getting nowhere fast.

Any help greatly appreciated.

cheers,
myth-unit

I have exactly the same problem. It seems connected in time with one or more recent XP patches. I have even tried activating the XP firewall and explicitely enabled responses to pings - with no effect. Microsoft (and this board) seems to have no clue about this problem.

----- myth-unit wrote: -----

hi, hoping somebody might have an idea about this,
because I'm about out of them. Everything was fine for
around 6 months up until a power interruption last night.

2 XP PCs directly connected by a (twisted) network
cable. Both have LAN connections have TCP/IP (static
assigned ip's 192.168.0.1 and .2 and NETBIOS enabled),
Microsoft Networking, and File & Printer Sharing
installed. Both are in the same workgroup and have a
unique name. 'Computer Browser' service is started.
Both PCs have an identical set of user
accounts/passwords. No firewalls present on the LAN
connections.

If I browse 'my network places' and into the workgroup, I
can see both PC's (from either computer). If I try to
open the other computer, I get "(computername) is not
accessible. You might not have permission to use this
network resource. Path not found". If I try to ping the
other machine (by name or ip), it times out. Pinging the
local IP is fine. If i do a 'net view' at the command
prompt, it shows both PCs. Also, if I enable DHCP server
on one PC and dhcp-assigned IP on the other (as a test),
it recieves an IP address fine.

Why can't I ping &/or view file shares, but other network
connectivity seems to be working?? I've looked at
Q308007, Q318030, Q299357 and searched Google, but I'm
getting nowhere fast.

Any help greatly appreciated.

cheers,
myth-unit

d'oh... not the sort of answer i was hoping for.
I haven't installed any XP patches recently (last two
weeks anyway), so I'm not so sure about that as the cause
in my case. The last XP update of any sort I had would
have been the newer AMD CPU driver (often recommended to
fix some network connectivity issues in Age of
Mythology)... hmmm... I don't suppose you have done the
same thing there Mike?

>-----Original Message-----
>I have exactly the same problem. It seems connected in
time with one or more recent XP patches. I have even
tried activating the XP firewall and explicitely enabled
responses to pings - with no effect. Microsoft (and this
board) seems to have no clue about this problem.