Hello all. I have an interesting issue of 2 win xp machines (a laptop and a desktop) who I have set up in a wireless network for ages. They both can browse the net fine. What has happened that since yesterday is that the laptop doesnt want to talk to the desktop. It will not access any shared files nor will it allow the desktop to access any of its files. I have re run the network wizard on both machines, set netbios over tcp/ip on both machines but to no avail. File and printer sharing is enabled on both too. Windows firewall is disabled, I do also run AVAST antivirus (which I disabled and didnt fix issue.) What I find very puzzling is that the laptop is inconsistant in seeing the desktop - it also seems to be tempramental in connecting to the workgroup. The desktop lists the laptop under 'workgroup computers' but I cannot access it. Thoughts?

I should also note that the error I get is 'the network path is not found.'

I had this same problem a couple of days ago. I too thought i disabled the windows firewall because when using the network setup wizard it is mandatory to disable the windows firewall for file and printer sharing. But weirdly, even though i chose to disable it during the network setup wizard, i checked the connections again and i saw that my connection had windows firewall on again. When i disabled it, it worked fine. Go to my network place and go to view network connections. Double check if the adapter you're using has the windows firewall disabled. Hope this helps, otherwise i do not know what the problem can be. It might even just be your laptop has chosen another nearby wireless connection.

I found this too but no dice. I dont detect any other networks nearby

I had the same issue as well...it seems the culprit in my case was disabling the firewall/ISC service completely instead of just turning the firewall off. I believe it may have been a utility I like to use (Xp Antispy). So I turned the service capability back on, but kept the firewall off. I would suggest turning both firewalls on..and then turning them both back off, which if you have the same issue I had, may help. Hope it does!