'Newbie' XP Home Network Problem

[JoAnne]

Thursday, December 28 2006, @ 7:32 AM (-0800 GMT)

Gentlemen / Ladies,

I have (had) a home office network composed of 3 PCs running Win 98.
If only ONE was 'powered up,' if I looked at 'Network Neighborhood,' I
would only see one network PC listed. If I powered up a 2nd PC, it
would also be shown. I would never 'see' any networked PC that was not
'ON.' This is GOOD.

I've added a 4th PC, an XP Home machine. Altho it was easy to get it
to use my existing network, it shows ALL my PC's when I look at ' My
Network Places,' the XP replacement for 'Network Neighborhood,' and it
shows them ALL the time, whether they are powered 'ON' or 'OFF.' This
is BAD. I cannot look at the XP 'My Network Places' and see which
machines are 'ON' and which are actually 'OFF.' If I click on a
machine, and it's not 'ON,' after 5 or 6 seconds of delay, I get a
screen error box with a 'red X' saying that machine is 'not
accessible.'

The above scenario with XP is VERY annoying. Given that XP has so many
NICE features, many more than 98, why can't I get 'My Network Places'
to ONLY show machines on my network that are 'ON' and not ALL
machines?

Thank you,

JoAnne
WebMistress: http://www.AntiVirusYellowPages.com/

 

[JoAnne]

Friday, December 29 2006, @ 9:14 AM (-0800 GMT)

Hi Joe,

Thank you! Your comments made me start thinking. I have now SOLVED the
problem on my XP Home machine. Perhaps what I did will solve your
problem too? Read what I did and try it on yours, huh?

Step #1
Right-click on 'My Network Places' on desktop and left-click
'Explore.'

Step #2
On my machine I get a 'My Netweork Places' page on-screen that lists
out ALL the folders that exist on my desktop, about 20 or so.

Step #3
Just below the small 'My Network Places' icon in the list on the left
side of the page, and indented, is an icon named 'Entire Network' and
THEN about a dozen or so small folder icons; each represents a shared
folder on the 4 PC's in my network.

Step #4
If I click on the + sign on the left of the 'Entire Network' icon, it
opens and shows an indented icon named 'Microsoft Windows Network.' If
I click on the + sign for it, I see an indented icon with the name of
my network 'group' in it. Now, if I click on THAT icon I see a list of
PC's in my network that are powered ON; ONLY those powered ON are
listed !! Now, in my case, I have 3 of my 4 PC's actually 'ON,' so I
see those 3 listed. Each PC icon has a + sign on the left. If I cliack
on one, after a delay, it 'opens' and shows me a list of the folders
on that PC that are shared.

Step #5
Now, having seen all this, I surmised that my problem, and possibly
yours, is due to that fact that I, and maybe you, have 'dual' listings
for our networ(s) ?? To verify this, I went back to the very
beginning.

Step #6
At the start, the small 'My Network Places' icon has a list on the
left side of the page, A large number of folder icons were shown; each
one corresponded to a shared folder on 1 of my 4 office PC's. I went
down the line, right-clicking on each, and clicked on 'Delete' to
remove the folder. Now, at the end, all I have is what I WANT ONLY
on-screen.

I now have a display similar to what I had on my Windows 98 networked
system, but one requiring an extra click or two than I was used to on
98. The important point tho is that, if I 'drill down' thru the
'Microsoft Windows Network, I now get a list of ONLY those PC's in my
network that are actually powered ON, which is exactly what I want.
<g>

I'm so PROUD of myself! <giggle> but could not have done it w/o your
input!

Thank you Joe,

JoAnne
WebMistress: http://www.AntiVirusYellowPages.com/