Recurring network problem

I'm using the MN 700 router with wireless connection to my
laptop and hard-wired connection to my desktop PC. From
the laptop PC, I'm trying to use my desktop PC's abundant
storage space as well as share the printer that's attached
to the desktop PC. Unfortunately this connection keeps
failing for unknown reasons. I keep rebooting the PC's
and eventually the laptop will be able to connect to the
desktop pc. Most of the time, it gets an error saying
that the drive is not available, or that access is
denied. Neither PC has any difficulty accessing the
internet, and the desktop PC hasn't had any connection
difficulty with accessing files on the Laptop.

I've played with firewall settings, etc but am never sure
what has happened that makes it finally catch when it
fails so frequently.

About the only other anomoly that I've noticed is that the
Broadband Network Utility's "Management Tool" menu option
is also frequently unavailable. It takes opening the
network utility a bunch of times to get the Management
Tool to open.

Does anyone have experience with this problem or have
suggestions?

Thank you

If you're running any type of "skinning" program, you could see the problem
with the management tool. Even certain graphics drivers cause issues with
it. If you're running Windows XP, I suggest using the build-in Wireless
Zero Configuration (see Help and Support) and dump the software from the
BNU. It can be uninstalled without harming anything in Control Panel/Add or
Remove Programs.

Other than the XP SP2 Windows Firewall, are you running any type of
third-party software anti-virus/firewall on the system you can't access? If
you've got something like ZoneAlarm running, it may block access from other
LAN machines unless specifically told to allow them access.
--
Chris H.
Microsoft Windows MVP/Tablet PC
Tablet Creations - http://nicecreations.us/
Associate Expert
Expert Zone - www.microsoft.com/windowsxp/expertzone

"Wayne" <(E-Mail Removed)> wrote in message
news:033801c48e2b$43ce2da0$(E-Mail Removed)...
> I'm using the MN 700 router with wireless connection to my
> laptop and hard-wired connection to my desktop PC. From
> the laptop PC, I'm trying to use my desktop PC's abundant
> storage space as well as share the printer that's attached
> to the desktop PC. Unfortunately this connection keeps
> failing for unknown reasons. I keep rebooting the PC's
> and eventually the laptop will be able to connect to the
> desktop pc. Most of the time, it gets an error saying
> that the drive is not available, or that access is
> denied. Neither PC has any difficulty accessing the
> internet, and the desktop PC hasn't had any connection
> difficulty with accessing files on the Laptop.
>
> I've played with firewall settings, etc but am never sure
> what has happened that makes it finally catch when it
> fails so frequently.
>
> About the only other anomoly that I've noticed is that the
> Broadband Network Utility's "Management Tool" menu option
> is also frequently unavailable. It takes opening the
> network utility a bunch of times to get the Management
> Tool to open.
>
> Does anyone have experience with this problem or have
> suggestions?
>
> Thank you
>

I did support for a company that had similar programs. It was an office
full of engineers that spent most of their time at remote offices and only
came in to the main office - which had a Windows 2000 Server - once a week,
usually Friday.

Many of them had XP Home - which cannot logon to a domain - on their
laptops. If you have an XP Home box you can still access the network shares
on a 200x Server or other XP box if you have the same usernames and
passwords on both the XP machine(s) and\or the server.

The actual problem they were having is that they were shutting the laptops
down whilst on the network and using them at the remote offices for a week.
For whatever reason, when they would come back in to the office on Friday
they would still have the network drives in Explorer but XP would have lost
the cached credentials for them. They'd either get "Access Denied" or
"Device Already In Use" errors. To fix this, I made each of them a batch
file that looked something like this:

net use m: /d
net use n: /d
net use p: /d
net use m: \\server\path [password] /user:USERNAME
net use n: \\server\path [password] /user:USERNAME
net use p: \\server\path [password] /user:USERNAME

This deletes the network drive(s) and adds them back using their domain (or
other XP box) credentials. I put a shortcut to the batch on their desktop
and told them to run it once they booted the machine. I also advised them
to take care as passwords in cleartext is a HUGE security risk, but it was
the best I could do until the new fiscal year when they could get XP Pro
licenses. See if this helps you.



"Wayne" <(E-Mail Removed)> wrote in message
news:033801c48e2b$43ce2da0$(E-Mail Removed)...

[original post clipped]