XP won't share on my network

[pwright2]

I've had a little home network for a year or so now. HPNA linking 2 desktops and a laptop. Originally all Win98SE, now 2 Win2K's and one still 98. Occasional problems but generally worked fine for sharing files and internet.

Then I picked up an 802.1b wireless setup (incredible rebates from Staples). And I rigged it up and it worked fine with the Win98 laptop and the 2 Win2K machines. But I found that the laptop just didn't have enough horsepower to multitask like I wanted. (I've been wanting a new machine anyhow.)

So, I got me this wonderful new Presario P4 laptop. And, of course, it came with XP home. After figuring out enough about XP to get it to run at all, I plugged in the wireless card and installed the drivers. And, wonder of wonders, it linked up. FANTASTIC!!! Roaming the internet from anywhere in the house.

But then I tried to grab some files off the network drives. No Go. And there I remain.

My Win2K machines see the laptop in Network Places (they get the machine name successfully) but they cannot access it (network path not available) or even ping it. The laptop running XP does not even see the two 2K machines. I can ping the wireless router and also the Linksys router which serves as the gateway but cannot ping the two 2K machines. They see each other flawlessly.

I have set up accounts on the 2K machines for the laptop. I have checked all the settings I know about. They are on the same workgroup and the IP addresses are in acceptable ranges. I have put the ip addresses in the trusted zone for Zonealarm and have even gone as far as shutting down Zonealarm. Still, no file share, no ping. Internet continues to share just fine.

Any suggestions?

-----Paul------

[ecross]

Since you've already tried adding the ip address in the trusted zone, uninstall ZoneAlarm completely while troubleshooting. Sometimes disabling doesn't always work. Permantely disable XP's firewall on local area networks. It is only intended for direct connections to the Internet. Ensure NetBIOS over TCP/IP is enabled on all machines.