peer to peer networking issue Vista

[Thumper]

I have 2 Vista boxes (PC1 and PC2) with sharing properly enabled. I am
logging on with the same user account name and password on both. From PC 1 I
have persistent mapped drives to 2 external drives on PC 2. I able to access
these shares for a *few* days and they go off-line (Red X) unreachable. I am
also unable to reach any regular file shares on PC 2 from PC 1. There is
also a printer that is shared off PC 2 that I am unable to reach.

Here is the kicker: I am able to browse the net fine from PC 1 so networking
is working in a way. I have already reloaded PC 1 thinking there was a
corrupt file causing this and within a few days I was back in the same shape.
Unable to reach shares or printer on PC 2 from PC 1 .
Both machines use wireless NICs so I am going to try and use a different NIC
in Box 1 and see what happens.

Other suggestions???

What the heck is going on????

 

[RalfG]

I found that scenario was fairly common when using wireless connections even
with WinXP. Your NICs periodically renegotiate their connections, one or
another may sometimes connect to other people's unsecured routers or access
point and your LAN connections get screwed up. Intermittent RF interference
from other sources can also cause problems.

 

[Thumper]

I could buy into something like this if networking was totally dead when this
problem occurs. I have no problem browsing the Internet from PC1. Only peer
to peer is dead....

 

[Jack \(MVP-Networking\).]

Hi
Can you use the Internet when they go off-line (Red X)?
Jack (MVP-Networking).

 

[RalfG]

That wasn't an uncommon situation either. Quite often the first hint that
anything was wrong in the network was an inability to access shares, because
both WiFi connected PCs could still access the internet. Mind you, as I
think about it these connection problems were more common when I had 3rd
party firewalls installed. There would always come a point when the firewall
started blocking LAN ports for no apparent reason. It might be related to
the firewall detecting a WiFi reconnection to the router as a new network
connection and misconfiguring it for WAN instead of LAN. The defaults being
to block netbios on a direct connection to the internet (WAN/ hotspots) but
allow it for LAN connections.

 

[Thumper]

When they go-offline Internet browsing is fine.

I have fixed it tonight (I wish I knew how). I started modifying settings
and it worked. Damnit. I wish I knew what setting fixed it.

I will say I *cannot* ping either machine by netbios name from a command
prompt.

The Windows firewall is disabled on both machines. Being desperate I have
even disabled WEP.

Any suggestions. I still believe something will go awry again.

T