New computer on LAN only stays visible for a short time.

[Guest]

We have added a 6th computer to our office Workgroup LAN. All units are
running Windows XP Professional (SP1, except the 6th which has SP2). The
original 5 units operate normally on the network. The newest unit only stays
visible in View Workgroup Computers (or to the "net view" command) for a
matter of hours after rebooting that system. The shared folders on that unit
stay visible longer, sometimes for days, but eventually disappear as well.
The new computer and its shares can always be found and then accessed by
using Search. Hardware has been checked and rechecked for reliability with no
problems found. McAffee and windows XP firewalls have been disabled to no
effect on the problem. Any ideas on fixing this problem will be greatly
appreciated.

 

[Guest]

Almost certianly this is the notorious "Allow Windows to turn off this device
to save power" option for the LAN card.

(Obviously the amount of gas used for the engineer to drive to the site
and fix the problem wasn't included in the 'saving power' calculations <g>)

 

[Guest]

Ian,
Thanks for the suggestion, but no, the box to select turning off for power
saving for this device is not checked.