I've lost the other computer on the network

[Ernie Lane]

I have a pretty standard home wireless network: desktop, with printer
and wireless router attached, and a notebook. I print from that
computer over the network, using printer/file sharing.

I've suddenly lost the ability to print from the notebook. Upon
researching the problem, I can't even find the desktop on the network.
In Windows Explorer, SharedDocs on the desktop shows up under My Network
Places. However, when I click on it, I don't get the directory, like I
used to. I get a prompt for user name and password, and I have no idea
what they are.

I doublechecked the desktop's name, and then searched for the computer
from the notebook. It didn't find anything.

Any ideas where I can turn?

 

[Guest]

The desktop PC must be booted on so the Notebook can access it.

 

[Ernie Lane]

The desktop PC must be booted on so the Notebook can access it.

If you mean turned on, it is.

I just ran the Network Setup Wizard on the notebook. After running it,
I opened the Printers folder and the shared printer was shown as
"opening," then it was "unable to connect." It's still shown as the
default printer, though.

 

[Jim]

I have a pretty standard home wireless network: desktop, with printer and
wireless router attached, and a notebook. I print from that computer over
the network, using printer/file sharing.

I've suddenly lost the ability to print from the notebook. Upon
researching the problem, I can't even find the desktop on the network. In
Windows Explorer, SharedDocs on the desktop shows up under My Network
Places. However, when I click on it, I don't get the directory, like I
used to. I get a prompt for user name and password, and I have no idea
what they are.

I doublechecked the desktop's name, and then searched for the computer
from the notebook. It didn't find anything.

Any ideas where I can turn?

What has changed since shortly before this problem surfaced? Did you try a
system
restore to before that time?

Can you ping each computer from the other one? If you cannot, then solve
this problem
before going any further. Not being able to ping a remote computer can be
caused by
a misconfigured firewall which does not pass ICMP packets. Not passing ICMP
packets can be the root cause of your problems.

What are the results from these commands on both computers:

net share
net use
net view

In particulare, net share lists the shared files and printers on the local
machine.
Net use shows the mapping to the shares on a remote machine.
Net view shows the computers on the local network.

To investigate your question about username/password, you must tell us
whether you
are using Guest or Classic authentication. If you don't understand this
question, consult
the website of Pchuck or MVP Jack.

Now, if you are using Guest authentication, then you enter the username and
password for
the Guest account on the remote computer. If you are using Classic
authentication, then you
enter your account name and password on the remote computer. If you have
set password
expiration, you will get the prompt you have mentioned. In essence, what
you are doing is
logging into the remote machine for the purpose of accessing its shared
resources.

Jim

 

[Ernie Lane]

What has changed since shortly before this problem surfaced? Did you try a
system
restore to before that time?

What had changed was that I had uninstalled Norton Antivirus 2004 --
which came with a full Windows reinstall I had to do -- and installed
Norton Antivirus 2007. The latter was fraught with all kinds of
problems, and something must have gotten corrupted. I restored to a few
days before I did that, and at least I can print now.

I would have thought the home network would be fully operational, but
no. Although I can print from the notebook, when I look in My Network
Places in Windows Explorer, her computer doesn't show up at all.
Specifically, I can't get at her SharedDocs folder. For that matter,
SharedDocs on my computer doesn't show up, either. I thought it used to.

My Network Places isn't in the Start menu (if that's what clicking the
Start button does) at all.

On the desktop, all the right folders are in its My Network Places. But
when I click on the notebook's SharedDocs folder from there, I get the
user name/password prompt.

To investigate your question about username/password, you must tell us
whether you
are using Guest or Classic authentication. If you don't understand this
question, consult
the website of Pchuck or MVP Jack.

What is the MVP Jack website?

As for which I use -- and I don't understand the question -- I really
don't use any authentication at all. Both computers were set up with
only one user, with administrator privileges. I haven't set up a user
name/password for either computer.