Our office has 7 Windows XP Home SP2 computers that are all members of a common workgroup. One of these computers is set-up as a file server which is accessed by all other computers in the office regularly throughout the day.
The problem we’re having is this: The computer that is being used as a server becomes inexplicably “unavailable.” This happens frequently and at irregular intervals. There doesn’t seem to be any particular “trigger” that causes it to happen.
When the error box indicating that the computer is not available comes up, I have used the Command Prompt and have successfully pinged using both the computer name and its IP address.
By restarting my computer (not the file server that is disconnecting) I am able to regain access without doing anything on the server computer. This problem/ solution is not exclusive to my computer- all users in our office get the error message at the same time when the server disconnects, and we can all get back on by restarting our computers.
I have changed the PowerSave settings on the server to never spin down, or hibernate, or anything like that.
I have two questions, but really only need an answer to one or the other: (1) how can I keep the “server” from disconnecting? or (2) how can I tell my computer to reconnect to it again without having to reboot?
Any help is much appreciated!