Peer to Peer Workgroup struggles

I have 3 PCs in a workgroup (2 desktops and a laptop) in my home office. 1 of the desktops is running 98. 1 of the desktops is running XP Home. The 3rd PC is a laptop running XP Home. All belong to a workgroup and I have setup both of the XP PCs using
the Home Network Setup wizard and also created a setup diskette and run on the 98 PC. Everything was running great until I used the Laptop as a walk-up kiosk at a convention recently. Upon returning to the home office, the laptop no longer shows the othe
r PCs in "My Network Places", however from the laptop, I can ping both PCs. I can also use UNC paths to get to the other two PCs from the laptop.

The other two PCs continue to run correctly with each other, but when attempting to access the laptop from "My Network Places", the error that is given is that the laptop is not accessible and that the network is not found. But, both of the PCs can Ping t
he laptop and can also access using UNC conventions.

Why won't the laptop show the other PCs in "My Network Places"? FYI - I am running Norton Internet Security on all of the PCs. This problem occurs even when Norton is disabled on all 3 PCs.

we have been seeing more and more people get this problem. Assuming this is
firewall and browser issue, try to use system restore feature. please post
back with the result.

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"Jeff" wrote in message
...
I have 3 PCs in a workgroup (2 desktops and a laptop) in my home office.
1 of the desktops is running 98. 1 of the desktops is running XP Home. The
3rd PC is a laptop running XP Home. All belong to a workgroup and I have
setup both of the XP PCs using the Home Network Setup wizard and also
created a setup diskette and run on the 98 PC. Everything was running great
until I used the Laptop as a walk-up kiosk at a convention recently. Upon
returning to the home office, the laptop no longer shows the other PCs in
"My Network Places", however from the laptop, I can ping both PCs. I can
also use UNC paths to get to the other two PCs from the laptop.

The other two PCs continue to run correctly with each other, but when
attempting to access the laptop from "My Network Places", the error that is
given is that the laptop is not accessible and that the network is not
found. But, both of the PCs can Ping the laptop and can also access using
UNC conventions.

Why won't the laptop show the other PCs in "My Network Places"? FYI - I
am running Norton Internet Security on all of the PCs. This problem occurs
even when Norton is disabled on all 3 PCs.

Robert,
Thanks for your help. Unfortunately as part of the process to check for and remove the recent mass mail virus W32.Novarg.A@mm, the symantec-recommended approach included temporarily disabling the system restore functionallity. The good news is that I did
n't have the virus on any of my 3 PCs. The bad news is that I don't have a system restore point to return to (as I understand it). You can see the symantec instructions I followed at http://securityresponse.symantec.com...32.novarg.a@mm
.removal.tool.html.
FYI - The problem I am having was occuring many days before I ran the symantec procedure.