I ran into something at a small company that I haven't seen before. There are 5 XP Home computers in a workgroup. "Out of the blue" the contents of My Network Places has disappeared on a couple of machines and is disappearing on the others. If I try to add the shares back to each PC using the wizard I get stuck because I can't drill down past the workgroup name . . . there are no computers listed. All of these PCs have Windows firewall on and have for years. Nonetheless I turned it off, but to no avail. Each PC can ping the others on the network If I access a PC from Start>Run using the IP address it works. If I add network places using the unc path instead of browsing it works (though I don't know if they'll hold). NetBios is set to enable if the DHCP server isn't controlling NetBios. "Automatically search for network folders. ." is checked in the Folder Options>View menu Reboot did not fix I'm lost. How do workgroup PCs just fall out of touch and drop their shares? What's more, how do I fix it?? Thanks for the help and ideas. Matt

What is listed in the "My Network Places" when doing a rightclick on it and choose properties. Is this also empty?

No, the LAN connection is there. This is where I went in to check the NetBios setting, make sure the TCP/IP protocol wasn't uninstalled, and that Client for Microsoft Networks was installed.

Please check whether the following SERVICES are enabled: Gateway service Windows Firewall service You can disable the Windows Firewall in the Control Panel if needed, but in services it must be enabled and at best switch the starting option to automatic.

Will do . . . but a thought. Windows firewall has always run. Never had a problem with the shares. I shut it off temporarily using the control panel last night to test but nothing changed. If Windows Firewall/Internet Connection Service were disabled I wouldn't have been able to use the control panel applet so I'm confident I'm OK there. I'll check the Gateway service but it doesn't read like a necessary system service. What more can you tell me about it? Thanks for the help thus far. Po

Is the computer browser service running? And have you already checked the Event log for error messages?