XP/ME Networking

1) enable net/bios over TCP/IP

2) Add the user name for the ME machine in the XP box.

3) disable temporarily any firewalls that you may on the computers temp. to check to see they are givnig you the problem if so either configure the firewall or loose the firewall. Anything like Zone alarm, Symantec or any Mcafee firewall.

see what ip address/subnet mask/gateway each one has? to check: from XP, Start/Run/command ipconfig /all . from ME Start/run/winipcfg . write down particularly for your nic. see if you have same subnet for both pcs. should look like 192.168.1.xxx or 10.10.1.xxx. (same first 3 octets must be same on both or you not on same subnet. you also need identical subnet mask on both as you know. )if it looks like class C internet address like 168.142.xxx.xxx then you have machine which can't find dhcp server and is getting it's address from your isp's dhcp server. if you have each on private but different subnets you are running maybe into difference between how me and xp default when they are set up for dhcp but can't find server. try static ip addresses. set pc1 to 192.168.1.180 and pc2 to 192.168.1.181 with subnet mask 255.255.255.0 and on both set gateway to internet router address and maybe you will need to manually set dns servers. those will be class c addresses. note any that appear when you do ipconfig on the xp and start/run/wincfg on the me box.

This is a good one. I too have "issues" with a "white box" PC and networking. I've disabled the firewall, set static IPs, enabled netbios, reinstalled the netwrok services (TCP/IP), installed a different NIC, all to no avail. I can ping the other PC all day long, just can't see it or it's shares.