Hi folks, I'm having a problem with file/printer sharing over a wireless network and am hoping someone here can help :

I have two computers that access a wireless router wirelessly (the router doesn't have anything actually wired into it). They can both access the internet fine independently through the router.

I tried using the "set up a home or small office network" and everything went fine - I was able to share selected files and use the printer from both computers. However, it only works intermittently - sometimes i will be fine, other times only one computer can access the other, sometimes none at all. If it doesn't work I get a "network path cannot be found" error.

One of the computers is XP Pro whilst the other is Home and both have ZoneAlarm installed which may be problems but I don't understand why it works sometimes but not others - I think it's actually more frustrating than not working at all!

Any help, before I destroy something, would be really appreciated!

Hi dhill, welcome to SAF

ZoneAlarm may be the culprit somehow, but there is some Windows issue too. I use 5 computers sharing 2 printers, all using XP home and pro, and when one system can not see another on the network, I first check if it isn't in hibernation or standby mode. Sometimes, a system may not be seen on the network if the screen saver is active (ZoneAlarm must be configured not to lock traffic when screen saver is running and it's possible that Windows security stuff locks it too).

If the system I can't access is not hibernating or its screen saver is not running, I must reboot it to see it on the network again. I never understood why though

Maybe some network experts can add something useful to us...

Chris

Hey, thanks for the warm welcome!

Since my post I did a bit more searching, tried a few more things and one I tried - installing NetBEUI - seems to have worked. At the moment both computers are picking each other up and I've mapped a network drive that is working fine. However, the network was working fine beforehand so I'll post an update once I've played around with it a bit more.

Cheers

Hi dhill,

I forgot this... I used NetBeui under Win98, because TCPIP was not reliable for local networking, and it always worked fine. When I installed WinXP, I forgot this protocol.

Thanks for remembering me. I guess you'll have no more sharing problems (neither will I).

Chris

Glad to have been of some help

It took me basically the whole of Friday to find that solution but hopefully that's it sorted and I can actually get some work done over the weekend to make up. Well, maybe not...

Cheers