I have a question for you guys which you might be able to answer..... Say you have a network of PCS all running Windows XP (with Service pack 3 on all of them) and you also have a SHARP network printer which is assigned an IP address via DCHP from a router (192.168.1.10) - and this all works well with no problems. (none of the PCS have static IP address's either) Then you decide to upgrade Windows XP to Windows 7 Professional using an upgrade package from PC world (however you can't upgrade straight from XP to Win7 unless you do a clean installation straight to Win7, or, upgrade XP to Win Vista first, and then install Win7 ontop of Vista). I am having problems getting windows7 to see other PCS on the network, and, the network printer. Win XP machines can all see on the network the Win7 machine, however the Win7 is unable to see the other XP machines, or the network printer. If I try pinging the network printer (192.168.1.10) from Win7 it times out. (so is unable to locate). I then attached a laptop runing Vista, and the Win 7 machine is able to see the Vista machine and access the folders, and the vista machine is also able to access the Win 7 machine with no problems. Conclusion: Win7 machine is getting an IP address from the DHCP from router. Win7 machine can not see XP machines or network printer. Win7 machine can not ping XP machines or network printer. Win7 machine can see Vista machine. Vista machine can see Win7 machine. XP machines can see the Win7 machine. The Win7 machine worked fine on XP before the upgrade. The machines are all about 4/5 years old but all the drivers have been installed on the Win 7 machine. Any ideas as to how to solve this problem or what this problem might be?? Cheers.

It sounds like your Win 7 and Vista machines are on a different IP network than the others. Are you sure the Win7 machine is getting it's address from your router? If so, it should be able to ping the router (if the router responds to ping requests). Have you tried disabling the Win7 firewall before pinging?