xp pro messes up the network

Our peer-to-peer network (containing my Win2000Pro desktop
that shares the dsl internet connection and assigns IP
addresses to the other computers, seven 98SE desktops, one
ME laptop, and one XP home desktop) works great, until an
additional XP Pro laptop is connected. Then all of a
sudden, the computer listing in the network neighborhood
disappears from every computer. We can still get around
the network either via mapped drives or via searching for a
specific computer name. The XP pro laptop has no shared
files or folders. Why does it do this to our network?

On Thu, 8 Apr 2004 14:13:41 -0700, "u"
wrote:

Our peer-to-peer network (containing my Win2000Pro desktop
that shares the dsl internet connection and assigns IP
addresses to the other computers, seven 98SE desktops, one
ME laptop, and one XP home desktop) works great, until an
additional XP Pro laptop is connected. Then all of a
sudden, the computer listing in the network neighborhood
disappears from every computer. We can still get around
the network either via mapped drives or via searching for a
specific computer name. The XP pro laptop has no shared
files or folders. Why does it do this to our network?

Is there a firewall on the offending computer? Firewalls, if not properly
configured, will screw up the browser services, and file sharing. Configure the
firewall to allow file and printer sharing by opening the following ports: TCP
139, 445; UDP 137, 138, 445.

Cheers,
Chuck
Paranoia comes from experience - and is not necessarily a bad thing.