I have a small home network set up. and am having problems with 1 of the computers seeing my workgroup. All three computers are connected through a linksys router. 2 of the computers are running WinXP Pro and have been networked together without any problem for several months now. The 3rd computer belongs to my girlfriend who just moved in and is running WinXP Home. It will connect to the internet through the router no problem. It will connect to the other computers for with a remote connection without any problems. It will not however connect to the workgroup for file or print sharing. I've tried ping it from the other computers using computer name and IP with no results. I've also tried ping the other computers from it using both name and IP also with no results. I have run the connection wizard many times, and made sure the workgroup name matches. Any help I can get or things I may need to check would be greatly appreciated. I'm hoping to avoid upgrading her computer to XP Pro but if that is my only option I will.

You don't need to upgrade to pro in your current network environment--save your money.
Try disabling the Windows Firewall &/or other 3rd party firewalls (zone alarm, symantec, mcafee, etc.).

www.digitalcorruption.net

she only has the built in windows firewall. I've made sure it is turned off and still no luck.

http://www.practicallynetworked.com/sharing/xp/addxp.htm

I checked everything the link above mentions and still no luck. I also tried to enable file sharing one of her folders and keep getting the following error: "An error occurred while trying to share My Documents. The Server service is not started. The shared resource was not created at this time." I have not been able to find anyway to enable the Server service. I'm assumeing this is also what is keeping her computer from showing up on the network. Any ideas.

has her computer enable the Microsoft TCP/IP protocol??

XP Home errors often relate to the simple file sharing system, which cannot be altered. However, since ping doesn't work, it suggests a deeper level of disconnection.

It's odd that it can access the Internet but cannot ping or be pinged.

That means TCP/IP and network card is working fine, but it's dropping/blocking certain packets.

THis wouldn't affect ping, but doublecheck that server service is not disabled. (Run>services.msc>right click, server>properties> "startup type")

then i can only suggest either:

1. malware
2. router is blocking INCOMING connections to that IP address.

"If we don't succeed, we run the risk of failure." - BILL CLINTON

Check the Firewall settings and make sure that ICMP packets aren't being filtered.

UNIX is an operating system, OS/2 is half an operating system, Windows is a shell, and DOS is a boot partition virus.

I ran Services.msc and discovered the Server was disabled (Thank you very much for that tip). Now I can ping the 2 XP Pro computers from the home and the 2 Pros can see the Home in the workgroup, But the Home can not ping the other 2 and can not see them. I know I'm probably missing something simple here, but can't think of what to check. Thank you very much for all your help so far. I'm getting close now.

Ok after going through all the services making sure I did have the Server and workstation enabled and double checking everything else. I discoverd she did have Zone Alarms Pro installed and running in some sort of stealth mode. I don't know if I just never noticed it in any of the system proccess or what was going on. She didn't know she had it, but I suddenly noticed the Zone Labs folding in program files and launched it to discover it was alarming from me trying to access the computer. Once I shut it down everything started working. A big Thank You to everyone for all the help.