[surfinsurveyor]

I have a home network consisting of two PCs (running Win ME) and a recently acquired laptop (running XP Home). One PC is connected to a broadband router which is in turn connected to a broadband cable modem. A network cable runs from the router to a Netgear 5 port Switch(acquired today). From the Switch separate network cables run to the second PC and to the laptop. All appropriate lights are lit on the router and the Switch. All PCs talk to each other (and can access the Internet) with the exception of the laptop which will not connect to the second PC although communication is possible the other way round. On all devices all 'Network places' are visible. When I attempt to connect from the laptop to the second PC I get a connection window asking for the password but when I type this in nothing happens when I click on OK - not even an error message, the window just stays there until I click on 'Cancel'. The connection between the laptop and the second PC does not go through the router, only through the Switch.

Can anyone help? Thanks in advance.

[Capricorn]

You have a matching user name and password that you are using on all three of these machines, right? The only time I've see the password dialog come up is when the user names or passwords are different (or the user name doesn't exist on one of them).

[surfinsurveyor]

I forgot to mention that when I connected the laptop direct to the router (before purchasing the network switch) the laptop was able to access both PCs. Now that it is connected via the Switch there is a problem. This info may help someone with suggesting a cure. I don't want to run a long cable from the router to the laptop hence the purchase of the switch.

Thanks to Capricorn for the comment/advice. The file share passwords are all the same on all machines. The PCs have Windows logon rather than a user name (and no logon password) whereas the laptop NOW has a specific user name at logon and a logon password (All down to my daughter who has taken possession). Could this be the source of the problem? Perhaps I should try the laptop without a specific user logon - I have not used XP before but I presume there is a way to do this.

[Capricorn]

That pretty much eliminates the simple stuff.

They are all in the same workgroup, too, I would guess. So, from your description, it seems the addition of the Netgear switch caused the problem. (You might want to verify that's still the case in case something else changed.) There was a MS Knowledge Base article about slow connectivity between XP and ME/98 computers, but if you've kept up your windows updates on the XP machine, that should not be the problem. (Article 322097)

That switch is just a simple switch, right? It doesn't have any firewall or routing capabilities does it? (I would assume not. Shooting in the dark, here.)

[OIDanTheManIO]

you may not have sufficient rights. are we dealing with you not being able to connect to the ME or the XP?

[surfinsurveyor]

It is an XP laptop unable to connect to a Win ME PC. Strange thing is that the laptop will connect to the first PC which is plugged direct into the router. A network cable runs from the router to a Switch from which network cables go out to the second PC and the laptop. The workgroups are all MSHOME. The Switch has no firewall or routing capabilities.

[Capricorn]

Back to the logins, password thing, I personally used the Windows Client Login (Client for Microsoft Networks) on all machines and required a username/password on all machines (and made sure they matched) back when I had some Windows 98 machines. I only have Windows 2000 and XP, now so that's from memory. Since you are able to get everywhere when the switch is out of the picture, I don't think this is the source of the problem.

On the Windows XP Laptop, bring up your Network Connections window and look at the properties for the Local Area Connection. If you open the properties for the Internet Protocol (TCP/IP) and click on the Advanced button then the WINS tab, is "Enable NetBIOS over TCP/IP" the radio button that is checked? I would try that as opposed to using the Default setting.

I also just noticed that on this machine, I've Installed the additional protocols "NWLink NetBIOS" and "NWLink IPX/SPX/NetBIOS Compatible Network Protocol" I think I did that specifically to allow for running Diablo II network games, but maybe it's had a side benefit. You might try installing those from the Local Area Connection Properties dialog. (You can always Uninstall them later.) This machine is probably running the oldest XP configuration I have, and it was running in a mixed XP/W2K/98 environment for quite a while. It was always sharing printers and folders (and still is).