David, that was a good call - 'Computer Browser' was turned off on the 'base' three machines, but not on the 'guest' pc.  

I've been routinely disabling this function as part of a package of tweaks that I apply to domestic XP machines.

As soon as I re-enabled it, the problem went away.  I'll have to amend my tweak list accordingly.

Ian Porter
Computer Guys Inc.
Arrowtown
New Zealand
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  ----- Original Message ----- 
  From: David Gillett 
  To: [log in to unmask] 
  Sent: Friday, October 17, 2003 8:40 PM
  Subject: Re: [PCSOFT] Network flaky - new virus?


    Is there any chance you've had the "Computer Browser" service turned off
  on allthree machines, but left on on the fourth?  Most machines don't need
  it if they're standalone or on a big network, but the service has to be
  running somewhere for Network Neighborhood to get populated....

  David Gillett


  On 16 Oct 2003 at 23:38, Ian wrote:

  > Thanks for the suggestion Mike.  Oddly, this wacky situation wherein my three machines could ping each other, link to the router and connect to the internet, but not see each other's files, righted itself about 10 minutes ago.
  >
  > I've no idea what caused it to work again, but I'd just patched in a fourth machine that I'm building, and this action seemed to be the catalyst that corrected the problem.

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