Barbara wrote:
> I have my laptop and desktop on a wireless network. These are the only 2
> computers on the network. But when I go to map a network drive neither
> one is there. Any ideas? Maybe it's the firewall?

More likely the "browser" service is simply not communicating properly 
over the wireless link.  Most companies solve this issue by using a DHCP 
server on their networks that automatically adds host records to the DNS 
server for the network.

For home users, where the hardware firewall/router/NAT device doesn't 
offer DNS resolution for DHCP-configured machines, you'll want to setup 
the systems with static IP addresses (i.e. 192.168.x.y).  That will 
allow you to refer to each system by its IP address.

You can even add entries to the "hosts" file 
(C:\Windows\System32\Drivers\Etc folder) as a short-hand for the static 
IP addresses that you configure.

...

In order to figure out what your static IP settings need to be (assuming 
that you're using Windows XP):

1. Open up a Command Prompt window (Start, All Programs, Accessories, 
Command Prompt)
2. Type "ipconfig /all"
3. Write down your IP Address (probably 192.168.x.y), Subnet Mask 
(usually 255.255.255.0), Default Gateway (probably 192.168.x.1), and 
your DNS servers.
4. Go Start, Connect To, Show All Connections
5. Click on your Local Area Network (LAN) connection or the Wireless LAN 
connection and choose "Properties"
6. Highlight "Internet Protocol" and click "Properties"
7. Change the radio buttons to "Use the following IP address" and enter 
the values that you wrote down
8. Change the "Use the following DNS..." radio button and enter the DNS 
servers that you wrote down
9. Close the TCP/IP properties dialog (using the Ok button)
10. Close the connection properties dialog (using the "Ok" button)
11. Verify that you can still browse the web

Your other machine will now be able to access the one configured with a 
static IP address by putting "\\192.168.x.y" into the Windows Explorer 
address bar.

The downside of a static configuration on the laptop is that you will 
need to switch back to DHCP (dynamic configuration) if you want to 
access other networks.  It may be easier to leave the laptop as 
dynamically configured and always connect from the laptop to the desktop 
(rather then the other way around).

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