Lost Network Computer?

For the last 18 months I’ve had a Home Network of 2 PC’s 1 Laptop %26amp; 1 Desktop with assorted drives mapped So I can access files %26amp; check my E-Mail’s which ever Computer I’m on.


On Friday I switched both on the kids decided they wanted to use the Desktop for homework etc so I used my Laptop I opened Outlook no E-Mail (my main pst is on the desktop PC) it said the path name is invalid so I checked My Computer, none of my mapped folders on my Desktop would open.





I went to My Computer it shows it shows them as Disconnected Network Drives if I try and open them I get an Error Message “An error has occurred reconnecting X to \\Chris\Windows Network path not found. If I check View Workgroup Computers Chris shows up there but if I click to connect I get an Error Message “\\Chris is not accessible You might not have permissions to use this resource contact Administrator – Network Path not found”. If I try re mapping using another letter Chris shows up but does not expand. On my Desktop I can still see my Laptop drives so the problems lies on my Laptop.





I’ve tried System Restore to take my Laptop back to Thursday’s setting that didn’t work.


I connect using a USR Router.


How do I reconnect my Desktop to my Laptop ????


Any help appreciated

Lost Network Computer?
Can try following steps:





1) Make sure both computers have same workgroup name but different computer name.





2)Check the IP Address of both the computers and write down on piece of paper.Make sure you can connect to Internet on both computers.


For IP Address Start%26gt;Run%26gt;CMD%26gt; IPCONFIG





3)Try to access the computers using run command by computer name and IP address


eg. \\192.168.15.1 or \\homepc





4)Disable firewall on both the computers





5)Try safe Mode with networking





6)Uninstall any antivirus/firewall/security software on computer





7)Turn on the Guest Account in control Panel %26gt;user Accounts





(Make sure you follow all the steps on both computers)





Best of Luck
Reply:Have you installed or upgraded a firewall lately? If so you will need to give permission for the pc that is trying to communicate. Also , you may have to drop the zone security levels to medium, otherwise it stops all netbios activity. Sometimes when you upgrade a firewall all security settings are set to high, just as when you install one from new.
Reply:It might be that the password of the account that you set up on the desktop or the laptop to allow you to access your files on the other computer has expired.





Go to Control Panel | User Accounts and select the user that you set up and see if the password has expired or that the account has been locked. Check this on BOTH computers.





Once you get that squared-away, you may be able to see your shares again.
Reply:I have had this happen to me before. It happened when I tried to change around my network configuration that seemed to mess up the whole network and I had to reset all the network settings on the computers and then it worked again. You mentioned something about on Friday you switched the kids? You mean what computer they use? My quess this is what threw you network out of whack. Network settings have changed so you will have to resetup your network.





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