home network

[Guest]

have just spent hours setting up a home network between my pc and laptop
followed the very clear instuctions step by step several times. although each
computer acknowledged an ethernet connection each computer only showed its
own shared files finally just gave up to watch tv have just come back to
close down the computers for the night only to see to my utter amazement that
the connection was now live!! Is this normal that there should be such a
lapse of time before the connection is made as there is no warning at the end
of the network wizard? i ask this for future reference so that i don't waste
hours thinking it hasn't worked!

can someone please clarify many thanks john

 

[Richard G. Harper]

On a home network it can take up to 15 minutes for the network to "settle
down" after you start up or reboot a computer, before you can browse the
network. But if you use the Network Places folder to create shortcuts to
your shared resources on both computers these shortcuts will work
immediately.

 

[Doug Sherman [MVP]]

If you are talking about browsing as distinguished from file and printer
sharing, then - yes - for various reasons it may take a long time before you
can 'see' other computers. This is not necessarily related to whether or
not you can share files by clicking Start/Run \\<computername> or
\\<IPaddress>. Browsing is not, nor is it intended to be, an
up-to-the-second representation of the shared resources available on your
network. In fact, browsing is perhaps the least effective way to connect to
shared resources:

http://support.microsoft.com/kb/188001/en-us

Doug Sherman
MCSE, MCSA, MCP+I, MVP