First, let me say that I am by no means an expert in this field. I will try to explain this as best I can. I've been running 2 computers on a wired network for several months with no problems. I only use the network for 2 things, Internet and shared use of a Microsoft Access program which I use for my small video business. A few days ago, when I attempted to open the Access program, it wouldn't open. It still opens fine on the other computer. The guy who set up my network is gone, can't locate him anywhere, and I really need this network to work. I've looked on the net for some tips, but I really don't understand most of it, and don't want to change something which will add to my problem. One site suggested running the command \\ipaddr from the start/run menu. I did this and it came up as "network path not found." If anyone out there has the time and patience to try to walk me through this, I'd greatly appreciate it. Thanks, in advance.

The problem may have come from either of the two computers. 1.Are you using a crossover cable to network the two workstations? or are you using a switch/router? 2. can you identify the ip addresses for each computer? 3. it may be possible also that there's a problem with your physical connection, if so, you can try this...Open My Network Places>View Network Connections...you should find a LAN icon there. If the network icon has a red X, stating that network cable is unplugged, try checking your physical connection. It would really help if you could provide some specific details about your current network status (whether your using router, modem, crossover cable for connecting 2 computers directly). And also some info about your computer's IP address, default gateway, etc.

You said the database won't open. What error do you get? Can you see the other computer from the problem machine? Life is more painless for those who are brainless.

I'm going to answer the questions from the last 2 replies as best I can. Here goes: I am using a Router to network the 2 stations. It has a "wan" input, and 4 "lan" inputs. I have my cable internet running from the wall, to the cable internet's modem box. Then I have an ethernet cable running from the cable modem to one of the lan inputs on my network router. Also running from the router are 2 ethernet cables, one going to each of the 2 computers on the network. Yes, I can see the IP address for both computers. They are both different numbers. I think I have an idea of what's going on here. A few weeks ago, the guy who set up the network came over to do some stuff. After he left, I noticed that there were 2 LAN icons in my taskbar, where before there was only one. One of them has a red X and says that a network cable is unplugged. The other is fine. I asked him about this and he told me not to worry about it. Here is how I believe he has the network set up. My two computers have different names (markh and chase1). He created a drive X on chase 1 which is where all of the actual data for the program is saved and opened from. The markh computer is the one that is not seeing drive x anymore. If I open My computer and click on drive x, it says "disconnected network drive." I think that these 2 different LAN connections are somehow involved in this problem. Here's a bit more info on the problems, could be redundant, but I'm trying to be as clear as possible. The "chase1" computer (which I believe hosts drive x) runs my Movies program just fine. However, didn't mention this before, it recently stopped being able to connect to the Internet. The "markh" computer is not seeing drive x any longer. When I attempt to open the program on markh, Microsoft Access opens and requests my user name/password for the program. After I enter them, a box pops up with "X:\movdat.mdb" in it. I then hit cancel and another box opens saying "can't find." The markh compuer does still connect to the Internet. The markh computer has 2 shortcut icons on the desktop to run the Movies program. The first one is called "Mov2k". This is the one that takes me to the log on screen in Access. It's target is the following: "C:\Program Files\Microsoft Office\Office\MSACCESS.exe" c:\movies\mov2k.mde /wrkgrp c:\movies\a97.mdw /user user. The second shortcut is called "MovDat." This feature is used for compacting the program's database. If I remember correctly, this whole problem started after I ran the "MovDat" feature. It's target is "C:\Program Files\Microsoft Office\Office\MSACCESS.exe" x:\movdat.mdb /wrkgrp c:\movies\a97.mdw /user mark OK, I've answered all questions as best I could. Please understand that you're dealing with someone who simply does not understand the mechanics of how networking works. I truly appreciate your assistance. I'll be by my computer most of the day. If you have more questions, please feel free to ask. My business partially relies on this network, so the quicker I can repair it, the better.

I think what your network technician did was create a mapped network drive in markh, the network drive x refers to a shared drive in chase1. You mentioned that markh can still connect to the internet, which means that there's no problem with markh's lancard and it's cable connection to the router. Which leaves us with chase1. There could be a problem in chase1's lancard, or chase1's network cable connection. First try checking the router's LED indicator for the chase1 connection. If there's no light displayed, try checking for loose connections between chase1 lancard and router. Try unplugging the RJ-45 connector from both sides and plug it again properly. Then check the LED indicator again. If this attempt fails, try using markh's cable connection to connect chase1 to the router. then check the LED indicator again. 1. if you still don't see any LED indication for the chase1 connection, the problem could be in your chase1 lancard 2. if the LED indicator indicates a connection, but still cannot establish communication between chase1 and markh, it's possible that the network configuration in chase1 has been reconfigured accidentally. Right now, we're simply trying to figure out which part of the system is causing this network trouble. Maybe you can try the suggestions i mentioned and tell us your findings. while you're at it, can you try and do this on both computers? click START>RUN type cmd ..... in console window, type ipconfig do this on both markh and chase1