Cannot find computer on home network.
II have a home network with a mix of wired and wireless PCs all running a different version of XP (Home, Professional and Media Center.) My desktop computer is an HP connected by Ethernet to a wireless modem/gateway. The second PC is a HP laptop with internal wirelss capability (801g), the third is an older desktop with an enternal PCI wireless card. All three PCs connect flawlessly to the internet. Both the laptop (XP Media Center) and the older PC (XP Pro) can connect to the desktop and share files and print. The two desktops can see each other and shares files and printers. Neither desktop can see the laptop. The laptop is using Zone Alarm Pro and Avast anti virus. I have turned off "Trusted Zone Security" for the laptop and also turned off Zone Alarm completely. Neither helps. Obviously File and Printer sharing are turned on on all three PCs. However, the laptop name does NOT appear in the network places or workgroup computers when accessed on itself but the desktop computers show in the workgroup computers. I must be missing something simple. If I ping it it is identified. Any thoughts would be appreciated. 1 person needs an answerI do too
October 28th, 2009 1:15am

Here are general network troubleshooting steps. Not everything may be applicable to your situation, so just take the bits that are. It may look daunting, but if you follow the steps at the links and suggestions below systematically and calmly, you will have no difficulty in setting up your sharing. For XP, start by running the Network Setup Wizard on all machines (see caveat in Item A below). Problems sharing files between computers on a network are generally caused by 1) a misconfigured firewall or overlooked firewall (including a stateful firewall in a VPN); or 2) inadvertently running two firewalls such as the built-in Windows Firewall and a third-party firewall; and/or 3) not having identical user accounts and passwords on all Workgroup machines; 4) trying to create shares where the operating system does not permit it. A. Configure firewalls on all machines to allow the Local Area Network (LAN) traffic as trusted. With Windows Firewall, this means allowing File/Printer Sharing on the Exceptions tab. Normally running the Network Setup Wizard on XP will take care of this for those machines.The only "gotcha" is that this will turn on the XPSP2 Windows Firewall. If you aren't running a third-party firewall or have an antivirus/security program with its own firewall component, then you're fine. With third-party firewalls,I usually configure the LAN allowance with an IP range. Ex. would be 192.168.1.0-192.168.1.254. Obviously you would substitute your correct subnet. Refer to any third party security program's Help or user forums for how to properly configure its firewall. Do not run more than one firewall. DO NOT TURN OFF FIREWALLS; CONFIGURE THEM CORRECTLY. You may need to uninstall - not just disable - Zone Alarm. B. For ease of organization, put all computers in the same Workgroup. This is done from the System applet in Control Panel, Computer Name tab. C. Create matching user accounts and passwords on all machines. You do not need to be logged into the same account on all machines and the passwords assigned to each user account can be different; the accounts/passwords just need to exist and match on all machines. DO NOT NEGLECT TO CREATE PASSWORDS, EVEN IF ONLY SIMPLE ONES . If you wish a machine to boot directly to the Desktop (into one particular user's account) for convenience, you can do this: XP - Configure Windows to Automatically Login (MVP Ramesh) - http://windowsxp.mvps.org/Autologon.htm D. If one or more of the computers is XP Pro or Media Center, turn off Simple File Sharing (Folder Options>View tab). E. Create shares as desired. XP Home does not permit sharing of users' home directories or Program Files, but you can share folders inside those directories. A better choice is to simply use the Shared Documents folder.MS-MVP - Elephant Boy Computers - Don't Panic!
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October 28th, 2009 4:25pm

Thanks for the response. I had tried all your suggestions but ONE and that was the one that solved it. ZoneAlarm Pro was the culprit. I had tried various settings and even turned it off. However, after uninstalling it the computer appeared on the network and all works fine. I installed ZoneAlarm (Free Edition) instead of Pro versionand all is well. Is this problem with ZoneAlarm Pro well documented or should I send them a report?Thanks againThanks again.
October 29th, 2009 10:14pm

I'm sorry but I have no idea whether this is a known issue with ZA Pro because I don't use it and don't recommend installing third-party firewalls for my clients. Here are some ZA contacts: ZoneAlarm forum : http://forums.zonelabs.org/zonelabs/ ZoneAlarm customer service within North America - 1-877-966-5221 Outside the United States - +1 415 633 4588MS-MVP - Elephant Boy Computers - Don't Panic!
Free Windows Admin Tool Kit Click here and download it now
October 29th, 2009 11:47pm

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