XP home network stopped working

[Nih]

I need some help as I have run out of ideas. I have a simple XP Home network
consisting of a desktop with 2 harddrives and a laptop with both wired and
wireless connections. I have had 2 changes to my network lately and I can't
figure out which one (or both) caused the problem. 1. I recently reformatted
the desktop and reinstalled XP, when I did this I chose a new name for my
computer. 2. I installed comodo firewall and avast a/v on the laptop, was
not happy with them and uninstalled both, i now run AVG a/v and the windows
firewall on both machines.

The Problem:
I ran the network setup wizard on both machines with MSHOME as the
workgroup. I can access the laptop via the desktop through "view workgroup
computers" without a problem. On the laptop I mapped over to the desktop's
second harddrive so I can store photos, etc there. This mapping disconnects
after a while and if I ping the desktop the mapping will work again for a
while then repeats the cycle. I can browse to the desktop by putting the
name into Explorer. Also on the laptop I cannot see the 2 computers in "view
workgroup computers", I either get an error saying "the network path was not
found" or "the list of servers for this workgroup is not currently available"

What I have done so far:
I have run the network wizard several times

I dloaded the resource kit, opened command shell and typed ntrights +r
SeNetworkLogonRight -u Guest
ntrights -r SeDenyNetworkLogonRight -u Guest
ntrights +r SeNetworkLogonRight -g Everyone
ntrights -r SeDenyNetworkLogonRight -g Everyone

Restrictanonymous is set to 0 on both machines

I disabled the computer browser service on the laptop

Both are running XP Home sp2, I am focusing on the laptop more because the
errors occur when trying to browse to the desktop, should I be focusing on
the desktop instead? I just want to be able to share the second drive and
print to the desktop's printer but the mapping keeps failing on me then a
ping will bring it back for a while.

Thanks for your help

 

[smlunatick]

I need some help as I have run out of ideas.  I have a simple XP Home network
consisting of a desktop with 2 harddrives and a laptop with both wired and
wireless connections.  I have had 2 changes to my network lately and I can't
figure out which one (or both) caused the problem.  1. I recently reformatted
the desktop and reinstalled XP, when I did this I chose a new name for my
computer.  2. I installed comodo firewall and avast a/v on the laptop, was
not happy with them and uninstalled both, i now run AVG a/v and the windows
firewall on both machines.

The Problem:
I ran the network setup wizard on both machines with MSHOME as the
workgroup.  I can access the laptop via the desktop through "view workgroup
computers" without a problem.  On the laptop I mapped over to the desktop's
second harddrive so I can store photos, etc there.  This mapping disconnects
after a while and if I ping the desktop the mapping will work again for a
while then repeats the cycle.  I can browse to the desktop by putting the
name into Explorer.  Also on the laptop I cannot see the 2 computers in "view
workgroup computers", I either get an error saying "the network path was not
found" or "the list of servers for this workgroup is not currently available"

What I have done so far:
I have run the network wizard several times

I dloaded the resource kit, opened command shell and typed ntrights +r
SeNetworkLogonRight -u Guest
ntrights -r SeDenyNetworkLogonRight -u Guest
ntrights +r SeNetworkLogonRight -g Everyone
ntrights -r SeDenyNetworkLogonRight -g Everyone

Restrictanonymous is set to 0 on both machines

I disabled the computer browser service on the laptop

Both are running XP Home sp2, I am focusing on the laptop more because the
errors occur when trying to browse to the desktop, should I be focusing on
the desktop instead?  I just want to be able to share the second drive and
print to the desktop's printer but the mapping keeps failing on me then a
ping will bring it back for a while.

Thanks for your help

Comodo firewall might not have completely uninstalled correctly. This
installs itself into XP's WMI and might affect it more.

 

[Nih]

Comodo firewall might not have completely uninstalled correctly. This
installs itself into XP's WMI and might affect it more.

Do you have any suggestions on how to clean up after comodo? There is a
windows uninstall cleanup utiility, i wonder if that will find any pieces
left over.

 

[Nih]

What confuses me is I try to connect to the mapped drive and can't then I go
and ping the other computer. The other computer responds and the mapped
drive becomes accessible....for a while anyway.

What would pinging "wake up" on my network?

 

[Kev]

Hi

I'm having a different network problem, but recently had a Torjan or worm
called cutwail.gen!B, anway i found two cleaners for registry and removing
software that are really good.

One is the uninstaller available at
http://www.download.com/Revo-Uninstaller/3000-2096_4-10687648.html?tag=lst-1
called Revo Uninstaller. Select what you want to unistall and it cleans the
registry too. There is also a tools option which will let you rund some MS
tools too.

The there is CCleaner available at
http://www.download.com/CCleaner/3000-2144_4-10315544.html?tag=lst-1 run the
MS disk cleaner in accessories first, just to speed things up, then run this.
Run the cleaner for both the tabs at the top, ie hit analyze, then the same
for the registry. I just accept what it says and its done my system no harm
but plenty of good.

OK this wont fix your network problem, but wont hurt it either espacialy if
there are traces of the virus, whatever, left around.

Once you get everything good, take an image of your drive using something
like Paragon drive copy, then if anything goes truely amiss again, you can go
back so easily.

Good luck, off to try and fix my issue now.