(I looked for a sticky on the procedure for posting for help, but may have overlooked it. I'll quickly edit this post if there is something I left out or I've posted in the wrong place) I have 4 computers on a home network. Computer A- wired connection; Windows XP SP2 Computer B- wired connection; Windows XP SP2 Computer C- wireless connection; Windows Vista SP1 Computer X- wireless connection; Windows XP SP2 I use a Verizon Fios Wireless Router. I have created a workgroup to network all of the computers together. I joined it by both running the network wizard on all the computers and also by changing the workgroup name through the Properties of My Computer (I did this second method on my second attempt to resolve my problem). The situation on computers A, B, C: All 4 computers are visible under "My Network Places". I can go into the shared files and do everything that I want to do. Move files in and out, copy files, etc. There is no issue with any file sharing on these 3 computers. This includes access of the shared files of computer X!!! The situation on computer X: Under My Network Places-->Entire Network--->Microsoft Windows Network... Nowhere in any of these folders do any of computers A,B,C appear. In the command prompt of computer X, I can successfully ping Computers A,B,C by both using the IP and the computer name. (I can also successfully ping computer X from the other 3 computers). However, neither in the command prompt or in "My Network Places" can I access the shared files of computer A,B,C. It says that no network provider accepted the given path. When I right-click My Computer, I am unable to map a network drive since \\computername\sharefoldername always comes up invalid on computer X. When I use the Network Setup Wizard and select the workgroup name of the other 3 computers, everything appears to work. HOWEVER, I do have to select "Ignore disconnected network hardware" as it says my LAN card is disconnected. On computer X I have installed a Ralink Wireless PCI Card that runs fine through my router. I also note that I did download that Windows XP update (LTTP? something like that- the name escapes me) that allows my Windows Vista computer (Computer C) to see it on the network. ***I did NOT have to install this update on Computers A or B in order to see them on Computer C. ---> Computer X was the only one of the Windows XP computers that required that update to show up *** Summary: I've tried other workgroups as well. Including workgroups that only contain Computer X and one other computer. Same problem. Computer X's files are accessed and shared with no problem by the other 3. Computer X can also ping the other three computers. however, I cannot access the other computers shared files nor even have computers show up on Computer X. I also have disabled Computer X's Window's firewall while doing this. Computers A,B,C are all running AVAST. Computer X is not. I don't know if this is relevant, but I've made it so Computer C and Computer X both have the same exact user names and passwords. Also note that I am using an "admin" account on all 4 computers to work on the network. So Computer X is acting passively. It's allowing its files to be accessed but can't do the same. Any help would be greatly appreciated. Thanks.

Add an entry to the hosts file on ComputerX using the IP and name if ComputerA Example: 192.168.0.100 ComputerA Then click start, run and type \\computerA or \\192.168.0.100 The shares should appear. If it works, add the other PCs to the hosts file. If it doesn't work, run ipconfig /all on computerX and post the output.

I was able to fix my problem once I found a website that had a checklist for the "Services" that should be running when operating a network. This is what I found: All of the services except Computer Browser and Work Station were running. Computer Browser's startup was set to "Automatic" but it was not running. Work Station was sent to "Disabled." I first tried to start up the Computer Browser service, but that failed. But then I enabled Work Station, started that, and then Computer Browser also fired up. Now I am able to see the other computers in the workgroup. I never had to try your method, but thank you for the prompt and helpful response!

Ok, I'm glad to hear it's working.

FYI guapo but if you can ping by ip and name a hosts file would make no difference. You only use a hosts file if you can't resolve the computers name like if there is no dns server available. Imagine the power of knowing how to internet search http://www.lib.berkeley.edu/Teachin...

Ok, then let me ask you about a hosts file in relation to another problem. Someone in another forum had a network with all .local servers. The problem was long login times from client machines. He was playing with DNS settings in an attempt to solve the problem. After he entered and IP address and a corresponding server name to the hosts file, the login times increased tremendously. I'm curious as to why it helped. Do you have any thoughts on that?

Do you mean decreased? I would be surprised if it increased the time. That would indicated bad entries. The hosts file is cached upon boot up. So resolution is done locally in memory [fast!] vs going to a server which takes time. You could replace local dns resolution with hosts files and it would be much faster. Problem comes in concerning maintaining those hosts files. We see posts all the time where in the end it was a old forgotten out-of-date hosts file that was messing things up and not misconfigured dns. Imagine the power of knowing how to internet search http://www.lib.berkeley.edu/Teachin...