I have 2 Windows XP computers in my home network:
Laptop running XP Pro (wireless)
Desktop running XP Home

Up until last week, I was able to access the hard drive and HP Printer
on the Desktop from my laptop, but suddenly, it no longer works. I can
"see" my desktop from the laptop, but when I try to access the hard
drive, I get a message saying that the desktop computer is not
accessible and that I might not have permission to access it. There is
also a message that the network path was not found. And when trying to
print from the laptop, it lets me select the HP printer, but I get an
error when I actually try to print.

The only change I made was that when using my laptop from work, we
recently moved to a new business network that required me to add a DNS
name to the 'Primary DNS for this computer' field under Computer name.
In addition, the box 'Change primary DNS suffix when domain member ship
changes' is checked.

I am almost certain that this is what has messed up my home network,
but I don't know what to do to fix it. I am certainly not a networking
guru, so the solution may be simple, but I need some help in finding
it. Thanks in advance for any assistance.

Here is some more information:
I can successfully ping the laptop from my desktop and vice versa,
using the IP addresses assigned by the router. So that tells me there
is connectivity between the 2 PC's.

Then, on a hunch, I went into Map Network Drive on the laptop and
instead of trying to browse to the shared drive on the desktop, I
simply entered \\192.168.1.102\sharename and when I clicked Finish, I
was able to access the C drive. This is acceptable, but I still would
like to understand why I can't get the file sharing to work by browsing
the network. In addition, I don't know how to use the circumvention
above to allow me to access the printer.

I really would appreciate some help on this.

Do you have NetBios over tcp/ip enbled?
The problem is mainly with tcp/ip so try
http://support.microsoft.com/?kbid=299357

additional http://support.microsoft.com/default...b;en-us;315978


Hristo
http://hristo.no-ip.info

"Tom Gordon" <(E-Mail Removed)> wrote in message
news:(E-Mail Removed)...
> Here is some more information:
> I can successfully ping the laptop from my desktop and vice versa,
> using the IP addresses assigned by the router. So that tells me there
> is connectivity between the 2 PC's.
>
> Then, on a hunch, I went into Map Network Drive on the laptop and
> instead of trying to browse to the shared drive on the desktop, I
> simply entered \\192.168.1.102\sharename and when I clicked Finish, I
> was able to access the C drive. This is acceptable, but I still would
> like to understand why I can't get the file sharing to work by browsing
> the network. In addition, I don't know how to use the circumvention
> above to allow me to access the printer.
>
> I really would appreciate some help on this.
>

Hristo:
Thanks for the suggestions.

I do not have Netbios over TCP/IP explicitly enabled; I have the
default option selected. I "think" this means that whether NetBT is
enabled depends on what the DHCP server provides. I don't know how to
find out the answer to that.

I went through the second Microsoft Knowledge Base articleon
troubleshooting home networking issues. As I said earlier, I am able to
ping the computers using the IP addresses, but when I tried to ping
using the Computername, it did not work Unfortunately, the KB article
did not suggest a solution for this problem. This seems to be at the
heart of my problem, i.e. the computers do not seem to know each
other's names. What could cause this? Is this the root cause of my
problem?

I briefly turned off Zonealarm on both computers to try to see if this
was a firewall issue, but it didn't seem to make any difference. I have
always been a little confused as to exactly what type of entries I
should have in the Firewall definitions in ZoneAlarm:
1. A subnet entry like 192.168.1
2. A network entry like 192.168.1.0/255.255.255.0
3. An IP range entry like 192.168.1.100-192.168.1.103
or some combination of the above?

I don't use ZA so I'm not sure about settings.
Try adding computernames is lmhost file -> it is used to resolve names in
netbios or hosts ->DNS resolving.
Try to connect both computers with crossover cable to eleiminate router and
try again.

Hristo
http://hristo.no-ip.info

"Tom Gordon" <(E-Mail Removed)> wrote in message
news:(E-Mail Removed)...
> Hristo:
> Thanks for the suggestions.
>
> I do not have Netbios over TCP/IP explicitly enabled; I have the
> default option selected. I "think" this means that whether NetBT is
> enabled depends on what the DHCP server provides. I don't know how to
> find out the answer to that.
>
> I went through the second Microsoft Knowledge Base articleon
> troubleshooting home networking issues. As I said earlier, I am able to
> ping the computers using the IP addresses, but when I tried to ping
> using the Computername, it did not work Unfortunately, the KB article
> did not suggest a solution for this problem. This seems to be at the
> heart of my problem, i.e. the computers do not seem to know each
> other's names. What could cause this? Is this the root cause of my
> problem?
>
> I briefly turned off Zonealarm on both computers to try to see if this
> was a firewall issue, but it didn't seem to make any difference. I have
> always been a little confused as to exactly what type of entries I
> should have in the Firewall definitions in ZoneAlarm:
> 1. A subnet entry like 192.168.1
> 2. A network entry like 192.168.1.0/255.255.255.0
> 3. An IP range entry like 192.168.1.100-192.168.1.103
> or some combination of the above?
>