Can only see XP machines via IP Address

If I go to Start/Computer/Network, Ionly see my two Win 7 machines, by thier name, but do not see any XP machines ( see left side of screenshot).

If however I go to Windows Explorer, and type in the ip address of any XP machine, it pops right up, and I see that XP machine (by its ip addrress), along with the Win 7 machines by name ( see right side of screen shot).

What is going on?? Why can I see all my machines right away? I used to !

Windows 7 debuted a feature called homegroups. this could be why you don't see the machines if the windows 7 machines are not part of the same "homegroup" which xp machines can not be, they may not show under that view. To get them networked the easiest way is to share folders on the windows 7 and search from the xp machines.

remember you should still be able to type "\\computernamehere" into a explorer or run command and bring up and shares on that system. (firewalls not withstanding) Give that a try on the windows 7 machine type \\xpcomputernamehere into the run command and see if it at least gets the printers folder of the xp machine.

Homegroup is not the issue. For one thing, its off.

My goal here is see all my machines from any other machine. Things used to work that way, but something must have changed along the way. Trying to narrow dow waht that is.


Status quo ( not normal):

• From any Win 7 machine, I only see the other Win 7 machines
• From any XP machine I now get this error when trying to view the netwrok from Entire Netwrork:

On PC01, if I manually type in \\pc02 and \\pc03 and \\pc04 , they all appear in thelist under Networks, and they all work... but if I close the window and re-open it, it goes back to only showing me \\pc01 and \\pc05

So there is something off in terms of 'network discovery" ( yes, its ON).

On PC05, it works great, all machines are there all the time.