getting well sick of this now

running a laptop and desktop through a wireless adsl/router.

but the computers keep losing each other on the network, keep getting the message "you may not have permission access" and "network drive cant be found" type messages when i try to access the other pc's drives but sometimes it will work fine so i cant understand how it can be one of the settings. I have tried the usual stuff like turning off the firewalls etc but thats not the problem.

Also when the PC's cant see each other both can still access the internet no problem so its not a problem with the wireless router being down.

Getting well sick now its the whole point of setting all this up so i dont keep having to use memory sticks to move files around :mad:

any ideas

Paul

Box of matches

Once connected, do they stay connected until you reboot and then not work next time you restart ? If so it could be due to the devices getting a different IP address from your router each time they reboot. The solution would be a fixed IP address on each device, or a better still reserved DHCP addresses on the router.

You should be able to set the lease as "forever" in the router config.

 

It could be that since the devices are not active on the network on a constant basis, that XP is switching off the network cards to save power. It seems bizarre but there is a setting that is something like "allow the PC tgo turn this device off to save power"

 

How are you connecting to the other PC? Is it a mapped drive? Or are you just browsing? A mapped drive may be the answer..

 

HTH

ok thanks i have tried some of the suggestions.

booting the pc can stop the network working but the IP's are not changing.

at the moment my laptop can see all the drives on my desktop but not the other way round, the desktop cannot see the laptop at all, it cant map a drive on it or see it in the workgroup but it can successfully ping it so im still stuck

I assume they are all in the same workgroup...it can also help to have the same account and passwords on the PC's for authentication.