Hello all. I've got a Vista laptop and an XP desktop connected to a wireless ADSL router (Comtrend). Previously, I was able to view both computers over the network, share files and play LAN games. As of this afternoon, it appears the LAN network has crapped the bed.

Both computers can still connect to the internet via the wireless router, however, they no longer see each other on the network and I'm unable to play Serious Sam 2 over the LAN anymore (bummer!).

Some things to note:
- Desktop is XP Pro running service patch 3
- Laptop is Vista Home running service patch 1
- Can ping the router from either machine
- SOMETIMES able to ping laptop from desktop and vice verse...sometimes NOT (weird?!)
- Vista machine is running Private Network (as is suggested by other resources)

Anyway, I've attempted to research solutions on the web for the past few hours, but haven't had any luck. Hope y'all can guide me through this network weirdness. Thanks in advance for any help or direction.

Cheers!

Have you double checked to see that the home network is still setup on each machine? That they're part of the same workgroup and all?

Hi aeinstein. I confirmed that both machines are in the same workgroup (WORKGROUP). Can you specify what to look for to ensure "the home network is still setup on each machine"? The Vista computer has Network Discovery and File Sharing options turned on in Network & Sharing Center. Not sure how to confirm on the XP computer. Are there services that I can check are running (or not running)? Both computers can see themselves when viewing network, but cannot see each other anymore.

Additional information that leads me to suspect the issue is with the XP machine: a friend brought his computer over and I was able to play a LAN game using my Vista laptop, but my XP desktop could not find the LAN game we had setup. Also tried to setup the LAN game using my XP desktop and neither my Vista machine or my friend's XP machine were able to find the game.

Thanks!

It sounds like the home network is setup, since both machines are in the same named workgroup. Let's check to see if there's anything blatantly awry with your configuration on the XP machine. Please pull up a console window (click Start, then Run, input "cmd" & hit enter), type in "ipconfig/all" and hit enter. Then left click on the little "C:\" icon in the upper left hand corner of the window, click Edit and then Select All. With everything selected do a ctrl-c to copy everything. With that in the clipboard go ahead and open up some text file, such as Notepad, and click into the body of the document and do a ctrl-v to paste the contents of the clipboard into this document. This is just a holder in case there's a mess up in posting the info here. When you post that same info here please remember to use the code tags. ttyl

PS: It wouldn't hurt to do the same thing with the Vista machine, but I've only had a Vista machine for a few weeks a couple of years ago, so I'm not familiar with how things need to be setup on that. The basics should be the same though.

Thanks aeinstein. I'll post both the XP and Vista ipconfig info asap. Though I'm not sure what code tags I should use. Please advise.

Have you tried START RUN and then typing \\network name to see if you can connect to the other machine. To find the network name of your machines click START RUN type cmd to get the command prompt and type net view

Guys, I've had an XP computer lose connection before and drive me crazy. Here's something to try. Goto Start, Run, and enter regedit. Being VERY careful about changing anything, go down thru the hierarchy HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE/SYSTEM/CurrentControlSet/Control/Lsa

There's an entry here named restrictanonymous - each time I've had a problem with an XP machine losing connection with the network, I've found this key set as value 1. It should be set at 0 (zero). When I've set it back, it instantly restores communication.

Worth trying. Be aware that this solution will grant access to any shared files on the network. If yours is a home network where you don't care who can see shared files, good enough. Interestingly, I have come to believe this key is set to 1 by software like Norton's when it wants to restrict access...therefore, any new computers that I purchase, I set up without Norton's and immediately get the Norton's removal tool and get rid of it forever...I hope.

zeroth

that works!

thanks very much for that elegant solution, I have been having this problem for ages and you just solved it!!

that's an important warning!!