I just returned from a business trip to China. My laptop would not reconnect to the mapped network drives that it had before on my office network. It sees all the Windows 7 computers but it won't see any of the Windows XP computers or the NAS server, which is Windows Storage Server 2003. I kept getting the error messages "network path not found" and "the device name is already in use". I verified that the same fixed IP address that it had before on the wired NIC was still there. I have gone through the Windows 7 network settings and verified that network discovery is enabled, file and printer sharing are turned on, password protected sharing is turned off. All just like it was before. I also went to gpedit.msc and made the recommended changes to the local security policies, to no avail. I can ping the XP and Server 2003 computers all day long, it just won't see the hostnames or share names. The other Windows 7 computers on my network (there are 7 of them) can still see the XP and Server 2003 machines, so I know it's just this one computer. Something has changed that I can't find. Maybe one of the Chinese hotel networks did something? I disconnected the mapped drives, and I was able to reconnect them using the IP addresses. (like this:\\192.168.152.51\sharename) BUT: it still won't show the XP machines in the Network window. I briefly saw an error message saying something about "can see hostname but cannot find sharename" or something like that, but I could not get it to reappear. What has changed?

Are there any small finger traces on keyboard :-) ? 1. Try to delete the cache and try to release....(DNS, Netbios over TCP/IP, DHCP) ipconfig /flushdns nbtstat -RR ipconfig /release ipconfog /renew ipconfig /registerdns 2. When you try to connect to resources and give quickly netstat -an, are there any syn_sent? 3. For sharing port 445 is needed, while for seeing, legacy ports 137-139 play the role (again you will see it in output from netstat -an) 4. If nothing helps, then network monitor is appropriate tool to pinpoint the cause of troubles (either network monitor from Microsoft of Wireshark would make the job) Regards Milos

OK, I did all that but nothing changed. After the netstat -an, I did not see any syn_sent. Port 445 is "listening". Ports 137-139 do not appear.

Hi, I find this document for you. It's applies to Windows Vista but same to Windows 7. http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/cc749119(WS.10).aspx Wish it is helpful. Kim Zhou TechNet Community Support

All of the XP machines are SP3, which includes the link layer topology responder. That does not help. As I stated very clearly, the other Windows 7 machines on my network can see the XP and 2003 machines just fine.

I found the reason... We use Symantec Endpoint Protection, Small Business Edition. Somehow, the ports 137-139 had gotten closed in the firewall. When I re-opened them, the Windows 7 laptop was able to see all the computers again. I have no idea how they got closed, but at least I know what to look for next time. Thank you all for your replies.