I have: PC called Homer attached to Wireless DSL router via ethernet cable Laptop called Bart connected to WiFi router (wirelessly) Both machines are part of a workgroup called WORKGROUP Both machines are running Windows Vista Ultimate Here's the problem. The PC can ping the laptop just fine, but when I try and ping the PC (HOMER) by name from Bart (laptop), I get: Ping request could not find host HOMER. Please check the name and try again. I can, however, ping HOMER with his IP address. Why can I not ping HOMER by name? I can Run \\HOMER\c$ and connect to HOMER's hard drive. I have mapped to a couple different hard drives on HOMER from Bart, no problem. Also, possibly a related issues. In Network and Sharing Center (on Bart), Network Discovery is set to Custom. When I go into that setting and click on "Turn on Network Discover", then click Apply, it reverts to having nothing selected and stays at "Custom." Are these related and how do I get these two things functioning as expected? Thanks, Jay

Hi Jay, Thank you for your post. As your computers are in a workgroup, there may be no DNS there, therefore Windows use NetBIOS Name for name resolving. For getting the IP address of the name, computer executes a broadcast on the network segment when there is no Windows Internet Name Service(WINS) server in the network. Based on my research, I would like to suggest the following: Check if NetBIOS over TCP/IP is enabled on the problematic computer: ========================================================== 1) Go to Control Panel - Network Connections. 2) Right-Click on the connection and click Properties. 3) Find Internet Protocol (TCP/IP) Version 4 in the list. 4) Click Properties, and then click Advanced. 5) On the Advanced TCP/IP settings windows, go to WINS tab and check if Enable NetBIOS over TCP/IP is selected. Meanwhile, as you said Network Discovery is set to Custom, to make the issue clear, please help me capture a screenshot for further research: Capture a screenshot ============== 1) Press the Print Screen key (PrtScn) on your keyboard. 2) Click the "Start" menu, type "mspaint" in the Search Bar and Press Enter. 3) In the Paint program, click the "Edit" menu, click "Paste", click the "File" menu, and click "Save". 4) The "Save As" dialogue box will appear. Type a file name in the "File name:" box, for example: "screenshot". 5) Make sure "JPEG (*.JPG;*.JPEG;*.JPE;*.JFIF)" is selected in the "Save as type" box, click Desktop on the left pane and then click "Save". Please use Windows Live SkyDrive (http://www.skydrive.live.com/) to upload the file and share its URL with me. Thanks.