was fine and then it wasnt

Some things to check on the Windows 7 machine

Can you ping the XP machines?

Can you access them by name - enter "\\machinenane\sharename

What firewall are you operating - the Windows 7 firewall is a lot stricter than the one on XP. you could try switching off the firewall for testing purposes. the correct ports should be opened automatically when setting the file sharing to on but it can sometimes get confused.
if this is the case or if you are using a 3rd party firewall the ports 135 to 138 and 445 need to be open for bi-directional communication.

As for the reboot changing things - this is always a potential issue when making multiple settings changes at one time - some take effect immediately some require a reboot - not all inform the user

Are you running the latest service pack SP3 on the XP machines - additional network services were added to improve communication with Vista and Windows 7

squonksc said:

Barman58 said:

Things to check for classic Networking Access on Windows 7

All systems on same Subnet
All members of same workgroup
Identical users on all machines
Passwords on all users on all machines
Network discovery on on all machines
File and Printer sharing on on all machines
Password protected sharing on all machines
Items shared using Advanced sharing
all users included in sharing permissions
All users included in file access permissions

All the above must be in place for consistent networking

Although this list is best practice for consistent networking,
most of them are not necessary for Win7 to see the other machines.
It used to be this way with XP, but on Win7 (and Vista) its a different game all together.

All systems on same Subnet yes
Network discovery on on all machines yes
File and Printer sharing on on all machines yes

All members of same workgroup no (win7 can see and even access machines with different network names, one of my machines had wrongly typed networkname for weeks before I found out)

Identical users on all machines no (you can logon with the username present on that particular machine.)

Passwords on all users on all machines no
Password protected sharing on all machines no
Items shared using Advanced sharing no
all users included in sharing permissions no
All users included in file access permissions no


In the op's case I'm betting on a firewall issue.

greetz

Agreed

I do tend to set All the systems up based on the oldest systems requirements within a mixed network.

The way I understand this Windows Vista & windows 7 actually use the TCP/IP protocol for all sharing - emulating the older protocols as required

Mathewlisett said:

Now isnt this interested and rather anoying now.

ive just in a way solved my issue.

i changed my encoding system which is the windows xp x64, from group name home to workgroup and left the widnows 7 system on home becuase every system before this was on home.

after a reboot, NOTHING

so i changed the windows 7 from home to workgroup...leaving the xp x64 system alone so nothign is adjusted from before.

reboot
then go straight to network and hey presto my xp x64 system nis now showing and accessible, but now the other systems are not so which means i have to now change them from home to workgroup.

so explain how and why windows 7 wouldnt see any system unless they were all in named group workgroup.

maybe its a bug i have foudn i dont know, but this has really stressed me out and i decided to just mess with stuff today and thought heck why not just change the name from hoem to workgroup thinking it couldnt simply be that...i mean why on earth would doing this solve it.

so peeps why has this suddenly worked and why will windows 7 not accept anything but workgroup on the network for other systems to show on its system and

The networking in XP professional is more advanced than that in XP home as it is designed to interface with client server systems This may be the difference here if the other machines are running XP Home but that should not cause these issues.

It would appear that the Windows 7 machine whilst connected to the XP professional machine has created some form of routing table which is still being used even after the names are changed back.

I have never experience any non acceptable workgroup names so it is maybe a bug as you state - Next time I have a mixed system to play with will try to duplicate your issue and hopefully find some reason