Network problems

Pennywise

I have a wired LAN network.

I have 3 computers that all "talk to eachother" through the network and all use Windows XP.

I've been trying to get a laptop to communicate to the others (and vice versa) for weeks, but can't get it. The laptop connections are OK as it can access the internet and email via the network router, so I know that the network card and cabling is OK.

The XP computers can "see" the laptop - it comes up when I "view workgroup computers", but when I click on the laptop icon, it says "lap could not be found on the network". So the XP computers can identify the laptop is on the network but can't actually talk to it. When I view "entire network" on the laptop, it doesn't show any of the XP computers, so the laptop can't identify the XP machines.

The workgroup name is the same on all computers. I have all computers set to allow sharing.

What am I missing?

albertross_2

Do you have a firewall on the laptop?

Blacksheep1979

ok if you go to control pannel and then network connections on the laptop and in that pannel click on either the lan or wireless connection (whichever you are using) just so that it is highlighted. On the left hand side you should see a box appear and should tell you a few details including the IP address. Write that down.

ok if you go to start and run on one of the other computers, and cmd and enter you should get a dos prompt box come up type 'ping xx.xx.xx.xx' where xx.xx.xx.xx is the IP address of the laptop (and without the ''s). Does it say

pinging xx.xx.xx.xx with 32 bytes of data

reply from xxbytes = 32 time = xx

a few times or does it say something along the lines of

pinging xx.xx.xx.xx with 32 bytes of data

request timed out

or destination unknown.