Expert: Kevin Webb - 6/19/2006

Question
When I ran the ping, I used the machine name.  Do routers assign a static IP?  I know that we do not have a static IP via our DSL connection.  I'll give your last suggestion a try and let you know what happens.

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Followup To

Question -
Sorry, I did leave out a couple things....Yes, I did turn off the windows firewall on the laptop.  I am not sure if the boxes have home or pro  - I will check when I get home. I did also use the wizard on both boxes all the way through.  Here's the steps I took:

1) from desktkop shared hard drives
2) from desktop shared printer
3) from desktop ran network wizard
4) from laptop shared hard drive
5) from laptop ran network wizard
6) from laptop connected to shared printer
7) from laptop tested new printer connection (successful)
8) from laptop mapped drives to desktop c: and d:
9) from desktop attempted to map drive to laptop c: - could not open branch on network places tree, but could see the computer name
10)ran ping from desktop to laptop and received a reply
11)gave up after 2 hours of fighting :)
12)did not receive an error message when trying to map drive other than "Unable to connect" - very vague, but I believe it was because I could not expant the branch beyond the name of the laptop.
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Followup To

Question -


When you say you pinged successfully, was this by computer name or IP?  Doesn't really mean much if it was by IP.  If you can ping by computer name then resolution is working.  In that case, if we assume the shares are done correctly, then there might be a larger issue.  Pinging by name and seeing the remote machine but not getting to any shares is not good and may indicate a wizard problem.  As I mentioned, running the wizard is about the last thing I'd ever do to a windows network.   This is knowledge few have however and MS puts the wizard there so logic would tell most people to run it.  Unfortunately if something goes wrong when running that wizard troubleshooting is virtually useless.  You can uninstall file sharing, reboot, then reinstall which might fix the problem.

Go to the Start menu and select the Control Panel.
In the Control Panel window, double-click on Network Connections.
Right-click on the Local Area Connection icon in the window that appears.
From the menu which appears, choose Properties (use the left mouse button to make your selection).
Under This connection uses the following items, highlight File and Printer Sharing for Microsoft Networks. Note: If File and Printer Sharing for Microsoft Networks is not listed, then file sharing was not set up on your computer. You may close any open windows and skip the rest of these instructions.
Click Uninstall.
When you are asked if you are sure you want to uninstall File and Printer Sharing for Microsoft Networks, click Yes.
Click OK or Close to close the Local Area Connection Properties window.
If you are asked to restart your computer, click Yes. If you are not asked to restart your computer, from the Start menu, choose Turn Off Computer. In the Turn off computer window, click the Restart button to restart your computer.

Then go through the same steps except install F&P.  

If you were pinging by IP try pinging by name.  If that fails then you have a resolution problem.  You can fight browser wars by turning all computers off.  then booting up one at a time.  the first booted computer "Should" make itself the master browser and when the other nodes come online they'll advertise and see that there is an existing master browser.  

You can also just use the IP when mapping a drive or using UNC.  \\192.168.1.2 from Start then Run box.  replacing whatever the IP is of the remote machine.

Answer
Static IP's aren't assigned by a DHCP server.  Static IP's would be assigned manually.  

If you pinged by name then resolution is working.  I'd need to know how your shares are setup, whether your using Simple file sharing (If so turn it off) and if not how your permissions are setup on the shared resources.   Sounds alot like there just aren't shares setup at all or if there are, then the permissions are not setup correctly.  Let me know.