Strange LAN problem

[matt_fsr]

I am having a problem with browsing to other machines on a Windows network, allow me to provide a little more detail:

I have 4 machines, named Silentium, Download, SleepyPC and Laptop, all of which run Windows XP SP2 with windows updates fully installed, and connected via wired network connections through a netgear router.

Problem is, as of fairly recently, it has become impossible to browse \\ to/from certain machines!!
Silentium (my PC) can see nothing, diddly squat Download can see silentium, and transfer files to shares on Silentium. SleepyPC has recently been rebuilt, and now cant see anything either. Laptop can see nothing under wired connection, but can see Silentium and Download under wireless!

In a word.... HEEEEEEELP!!!! I'm baffled at this one, I admit to not knowing as much as I should about Windows networking, but the fact is that this used to work to/from all computers, so im at a bit of a loss as to whats wrong. I have updated the routers firmware, tried different LAN ports on the router, and tried registering the connections of each machine in the DNS - on Download, this allowed it to see other machines, but the same setting on my machine, Silentium, does nothing. Firewalls are not a factor, I have allowed my LAN IP range through ZoneAlarm, and it behaves exactly the same with ZoneAlarm running or not.

Thanks a lot for reading this tripe, any suggestions are very willingly appreciated and will be tried!

 

[tolien]

So if you type \\[machine's name] in the Start -> Run box, it doesn't work? What error do you get?

 

[encephalopathy]

my first thought is zonealarm, even if switched off may be the culprit - have you tried uninstalling it completely and trying?

i assume all the pcs have the same workgroup name?

can you ping each pc by ip address, rather than \\silentium\share?
if yes then check this
Error Message: The list of servers for this workgroup is not currently available.

Solution: Make sure that the Computer Browser service is running on at least one Windows XP computer on the network:
Right click My Computer, and click Manage.
Double click Services and Applications.
Double click Services.
Double click Computer Browser. If the Service status is Stopped, click Start.
Set the Startup type to Automatic.

i think this may be a computer browser problem - decent resource to read through here
http://www.chicagotech.net/browser.htm

and more complicated stuff i don't really understand here
http://support.microsoft.com/kb/188305

hope this helps