Topic: help needed regarding wierd lan / network issue

[Kid Carrson]

To the Group,

We run a basic home / small business LAN with 6 computers all using windows XP Pro, Service Pack 3.  We've usually had little to no problems, except for 1 computer, which has always been fine at receiving shared info, but I couldn't get it to share info.

I thought it had to do with basic sharing of files, and repeatedly tried that, all to no effect.

Then I noticed something very odd:  when I go to My Network Places, this particular computer does not show the other computers as Local Network, instead it shows all other computers (except for itself) as Internet. 

How can I change this mischaracterization of the other computers on the LAN?   All of my other computers correctly show all of the computers in the LAN as Local Network in My Network Places.  It's only when I look at My Network Places on the difficult computer that I have the abnormality - the misidentification of all other computers as Internet instead of part of the LAN.

Any insights / help would be appreciated.

Kid Carrson 

[Strat]

Have you tried a System Restore Point? It might be easier than trying to figure out this problem.

[Kid Carrson]

System restore is not really a possibility in this case.  My guess is that this problems has been going on for months and months.

Thanks for the thought though.

KC

[Strat]

Well, it's definately an odd one to me.

There are some things I would try just out of "What first comes to mind".

1) Reinstall the ethernet or wireless adapter in the device manager

EDIT: Run these in a command prompt window with admin rights.
2) Reset network settings to default
--a) netsh int ip reset c:\resetlog.txt
--b) netsh winsock reset catalog
--c) NETSH FIREWALL RESET
--d) reboot

As long as you have no specialized networking stuff, this should do no harm. It's just reset's Windows XP networking to default.  If you are worried, make a System Restore point before you do it.

Like I say, its an odd problem. These would be the first thing I try.

Strat

[Javora]

Have you tried setting one folder to share to see if the other computers can see it?  If this works then you could get around this issue by setting all the folders on that computer to share.  This sounds like a settings issue and not a driver issue, I think a driver issue would cause the problem computer to not be able to see the other computers on the network.  WinXP has always been a problem child in this area, it's one of the reasons why I was glad to see WinXP was finally replaced.  If you continue to have issues then I would suggest going here.  It's where I go when I can't find a computer related issue.  Hope this helps.

[Kid Carrson]

Thanks guys for the thoughts and links.  I've been buried in work the past few days, and I should get to try some of your suggestions this weekend.

Again, many thanks.  Hopefully I can figure this weird issue out with your help. 

Thanks.

KC