odd Network behaviour since SP2

[Geoff Briedé]

Hello all,

I've noticed a rather odd thing Windows is doing now that it wasn't doing
before service pack 2: When I boot up one of the seven computers on my
network they show up under the workgroup nice and quickly - all correct and
properly.

After about half an hour (or thereabouts) they drop out of the list - the
computers are still there, I mean I can access them and the mapped drives
still function - but there is no icon under the workgroup's name (in the
left Explorer tree view) or in the folder itself on the right if I highlight
on the left the workgroup name. It's annoying, but not particularly
debilitating - but if I want to have a look at the drives list on one of the
"invisible" workstations, I have to type \\pcName in an address bar, and
wait 20 or 30 seconds for the drives to show up.

The behaviour is so ubiquitous across the network that is seems to be a
planned thing, but I can't think why MS would do such a thing. I wish they
hadn't bothered, too.

Any ideas for ending this annoying new behaviour?

Regards,

- Geoff

[Interrogative]

"Geoff Briedé" > wrote in message
...
> Hello all,
>
> I've noticed a rather odd thing Windows is doing now that it wasn't doing
> before service pack 2: When I boot up one of the seven computers on my
> network they show up under the workgroup nice and quickly - all correct
> and properly.
>
> After about half an hour (or thereabouts) they drop out of the list - the
> computers are still there, I mean I can access them and the mapped drives
> still function - but there is no icon under the workgroup's name (in the
> left Explorer tree view) or in the folder itself on the right if I
> highlight on the left the workgroup name. It's annoying, but not
> particularly debilitating - but if I want to have a look at the drives
> list on one of the "invisible" workstations, I have to type \\pcName in an
> address bar, and wait 20 or 30 seconds for the drives to show up.
>
> The behaviour is so ubiquitous across the network that is seems to be a
> planned thing, but I can't think why MS would do such a thing. I wish
> they hadn't bothered, too.
>
> Any ideas for ending this annoying new behaviour?
>

Check the properties on all NICs. You may well have it allowed to power
down. Remove that ability if so and try again.

[Geoff Briedé]

>Interrogative wrote:

>Check the properties on all NICs. You may well have it allowed to power
>down. Remove that ability if so and try again.

No, that's not it - I already thought of that one.

Thanks, though....

- Geoff

[Geoff Briedé]

Any other ideas?

.... he asked hopefully,

- Geoff

[Mark Curtis]

I have exactly the same problem. What cured it was to assign an IP address
and sub-net mask manually rather than use automatic. I have a mixture of
Home and Professional XP's. i tried all of the suggestions in this news
group before comming upon this. Hope it works for you.

"Geoff Briedé" > wrote in message
...
> Hello all,
>
> I've noticed a rather odd thing Windows is doing now that it wasn't doing
> before service pack 2: When I boot up one of the seven computers on my
> network they show up under the workgroup nice and quickly - all correct
> and properly.
>
> After about half an hour (or thereabouts) they drop out of the list - the
> computers are still there, I mean I can access them and the mapped drives
> still function - but there is no icon under the workgroup's name (in the
> left Explorer tree view) or in the folder itself on the right if I
> highlight on the left the workgroup name. It's annoying, but not
> particularly debilitating - but if I want to have a look at the drives
> list on one of the "invisible" workstations, I have to type \\pcName in an
> address bar, and wait 20 or 30 seconds for the drives to show up.
>
> The behaviour is so ubiquitous across the network that is seems to be a
> planned thing, but I can't think why MS would do such a thing. I wish
> they hadn't bothered, too.
>
> Any ideas for ending this annoying new behaviour?
>
> Regards,
>
> - Geoff
>