An "Invisible" PC On My Network

Networking is voodoo to me, so maybe one of you wizards on this forum can help me solve a problem.

I used to have a 3Com HomeConnect HPNA (phoneline) network setup with 3 PCs all sharing the same DSL line, etc.

Then yesterday I installed a new XP machine with a Netgear HPNA (phoneline) router as the main host of the network. With minimal changes in the setup of my other PCs (PC#1 was renamed to PC#2, etc.), the installation worked fine and in fact, thanks to the router (I think), my DSL speeds are if anything even faster and now equal those of a T-1 line.

Anyway, my problem now is that the PC that was *formerly* the main host PC running Internet Connection Sharing -- i.e., the machine I used to call PC#1 but have now renamed PC#2 -- is not "visible" to the new XP machine (PC#1) with router attached. It doesn't show up in "My Network Places," even though I can ping it and even though it can also access the DSL line.

Also weird is the fact that although PC#1 cannot "see" PC#2, PC#2 *CAN* "see" PC#1 just fine.

I should mention that I've tried renaming PC#2 back to #1 (and then assigning a different name to my new host PC), but that didn't work. What's more, the problem seems confined just to PC#2 -- in other words, while PC#1 can't see PC#2, it can see PC#3, and PC#3 can see both PC#1 and PC#2.

It's only PC#2 -- the machine that used to run ICS and that used to be the main host PC -- that isn't visible to PC#1.

Am I making sense here?

If so, does anyone have any suggestions for making PC#2 "visible" to PC#1?

Thanks!

David

 

Try adding a user account to XP that exactly matches the logon & password for the 'invis' 9x system.

And did you remove all the ICS stuff?

 

I always seem to be making the same post (LOL)

HOSTS and LMHOSTS files not to be there - without a server your PCs are broadcasting name resolution packets all the time which

a) slow down the network in general

b) are not hugely reliable thus causing the sort of problems you are witnessing

 

Problem solved!

And the solution turned out (as usual) to be very simple: I merely turned *off* file and print sharing on PC#2 (the invisible PC), then rebooted, then turned it *on* again.

And bingo -- now it's visible!