[LittleHobbit13]

I need some help with my home network. I recently got a new laptop. I was able to get connected to our home network to access the internet. I've been at school most of the time since I got the new laptop though. When I came home for Winter Break, I attempted to connect to the printer on our network. No such luck.

Together, my Dad and I have tried everything we could think of. We've made sure that I'm in the workgroup. We've confirmed that my computer is using the network's gateway to access the internet. We've tried temporarily disabling the firewall. We've even doubled checked that we're spelling the printer's share name right. No matter what we try, my computer cannot see, ping, or whatever anything else in the workgroup, including the printer.

I know it can be done. My old laptop has a working setup. Can anyone spot anything we've done, not done, or done wrong that keeping my laptop blind to the rest of the network? Or even just a suggestion on something else to try? I'm really confused about all this.

[rf6647]

The new laptop has no visibility of the workgroup. Do any of the established computers in the workgroup see the new laptop? It can take 10 minutes for the workgroup to establish itself.

Ping of an IP address should be independent of the workgroup concept. Use other computers to establish if the router is optioned to block ping.

One of the XP computers in the workgroup is the master. Check the event viewer for suspicious reports. What happens if the master is left out of the workgroup (master is powered off, new laptop rebooted)?

I gave up on using Windows workgroups. It crapped out repeatedly just as you are reporting. I never found a solution from the Microsoft Knowledge Base that worked for an extended period of time. This suggests that dumb chance was all there was.