My new laptop running Windows 7 Professional and it is not easily recognizing other workgroup computers. When, and if, it does, it does not staying connected to other computers and a wireless printer on my workgroup. In this workgroup, I have a desktop that is running Windows XP Home. It is sharing its printer and external hard drive to all computers in the workgroup. When I first logged on, I was able to get the Windows 7 machine to see XP box long enough to map a drive and load the printer. After rebooting, Windows 7 did not recognize the drive map or the printer. I pinged the XP box and got Destination Host unreachable. The only thing I can ping is the router. Also, when I went to load the wireless printer (with Windows 7 drivers) it did not see the printer even though the printers connection light is on. Right now, I will sometimes reconnect after an exstended period or not connect at all. I have two Vista Business machines and one Windows 7 Home computers in my workgroup. These are not having any problems communicating. From those other machines, I can ping each other but they cannot ping the new box. It is acting like a setting in Professional has isolated itself and is not allowing connections. I have searched this problem and it seems to be common but I have not seen a post addressing the Professional program question. I have tried everything that the help files and forums stated (setting discovery, making sure all computer have the same workgroup name (WORKGROUP), disabling IPv6, disabling firewall on all, configuring firewall on all, enabling echo, uninstalling virus protection, etc.) with no result. Is there a setting in Professional that would prevent it from being visible? What can I do to get this resolved? Thanks for your help as this is driving me up the wall.

1. Ping gives information on the connectivity. Firewall should allow for ping. 2. There is difference between visibility and accessibility. This depends on open ports 137-139 and 445, respectively. 3. Security is within responsibility of local administrators of respective computers. 4. Windows 7 should settle the SMB version with another operating systems in network. Common SMB version for Windows 7 and Windows XP is 1. If Windows 7 cannot use SMB 1 automatically, you should "do it by force". 5. There are other reasons for not connecting properly, for example autotuning. 6. Use parameter persisten when mapping remote shared drives 7. If nothing helps then do forensic analysis with network monitor (either NM from Microsoft or open source Wireshark) HTH Regards Milos

Thank you for your replay: This morning, I turned on my Windows 7 Professional computer. The XP Home machine was on and the Windows 7 Home box was on and connected to the wireless router. When I joined it, I could see all of those machines and the router. I had access to the shared drives and printers on both machines. I turned on one of my Vista Business machine and saw it join the router. I still had connection, I had access to its drives, network map redrew and displayed all machines, and I could ping all machines from the 7 Pro box. I rebooted the 7 Pro machine to see what would happen and lost all connections. Turned off Vista and still have not been able to restore connectivity to the XP Home or 7 Home computers. That was several hours ago. (An additional note: the router is a Linksys EA4500 duel band that is three weeks old. The Windows website says it is compatible with Windows 7 64. The message on the network map is Responses from other devices on the network are delayed or there is an incompatible router on the network) Connectivity seems to be the problem. The firewall on the Windows 7 Pro machine is disabled and the supplied virus protection has been uninstalled. What else would isolate the 7 Pro machine? (It acts like a setting is check wrong)If the firewall is off, I am not sure if the ports are closed. How do I open ports without a firewall? I admin all the other computers. The XP Home, 7 Home, and 2 Vista Business machines work well with each other all the time as does the 7 Pro does to when it sees them.I am not sure how to force SMB 1. A search reveals several posts, methods and settings but no definitive "this is the proper setting". Is there an article that I can check to make sure I had the right setting?What other reasons are there? Is autotuning on Vista machines throwing the 7 Pro for the router? I thought parameter persisten was a default setting or am I thinking of something different? Does that affest the 7 Pro computer when I cannot contact the other computers?I downloaded and installed Microsoft Network Monitor 3.4.2350.0. I do not know what I should be looking for. Any documentation or suggestions would be appreciated. Thanks for your help.

Hi, You encounter a connectivity issue between Windows 7 and router. Please try the following steps. 1. Assign a static IP address for Windows 7. 2. Make sure the router is pingable on Windows 7. 3. If you still cannot ping it, try to update Router's firmware and your Network Adapter driver to latest version. Juke Chou TechNet Community Support

Thanks The router is the only thing I can ping consistently. I have not tried a static IP because I go to a variety of other organizations and work on their networks. I will try it and then shift each time if necessary Yesterday, I tried shutting everything down on the network. I then rebooted the 7 pro computers so that it would be the only thing on the router. I could ping the router but the Network map would not draw. Ater about an hour, it drew the connection and I turned on the other devices. They worked fine for the entire day. I shut down last night, rebooted this morning and I am back to square one. I cannot see (or ping) the other computers. I am trying to duplicate yesterday but have not gotten it to draw the map yet. I can still ping the router.Burt

Hi, Make sure the firewalls on the other computer you want to ping are closed. Windows uses the LLTD protocol to map computers and devices on a network. Sometimes, the network devices are not compatible with this protocol so that this feature does not work as expected, but I think this issue is an individual problem with your connectivity issue. First of all, we need to figure out why you cannot get constant access to the other computers. http://windows.microsoft.com/en-us/windows-vista/Troubleshoot-problems-with-computers-not-appearing-on-the-network-map Also, you may try a wired cable to connect to router on Windows 7. This will eliminate the wireless adapter's cause.Juke Chou TechNet Community Support

Hi, Make sure the firewalls on the other computer you want to ping are closed. Windows uses the LLTD protocol to map computers and devices on a network. Sometimes, the network devices are not compatible with this protocol so that this feature does not work as expected, but I think this issue is an individual problem with your connectivity issue. First of all, we need to figure out why you cannot get constant access to the other computers. http://windows.microsoft.com/en-us/windows-vista/Troubleshoot-problems-with-computers-not-appearing-on-the-network-map Also, you may try a wired cable to connect to router on Windows 7. This will eliminate the wireless adapter's cause.Juke Chou TechNet Community Support

Thanks for everyones help. After getting everything else set, the final piece was the router. The dual channel setting was directing the 7 Pro to one side while all the other computers were on the lower band. If the wireless printer was on and connected to the lower band when I booted, it would prevent me from seeing the computers on that band. (I assume that the printer is the incompatible router mentioned in the error message). Solution is to turn the printer off, turn on the 7 Pro computer and connect to the router, then turn the printer back on. All connections are made and the computers communicate across both channels.<o:p></o:p> Burt