W7 Network map tree with "?" between laptop and wireless router

sorry, guys, I take it back!!!

I came into the office today and found the network maps were up to their old tricks again! Question mark appearing between machine and switch, and some machines appearing at the bottom of the window with the caption "the following discovered device cannot be placed on the map".

back to the drawing board!

I still have the theory that somewhere in network land, there is some kind of "data traffic cop" that is manipulating data flow and causing these discrepancies...

Windows does love to keep us guessing!

cutedrdave said:

sorry, guys, I take it back!!!

Quite alright. It happens.

cutedrdave said:

I still have the theory that somewhere in network land, there is some kind of "data traffic cop" that is manipulating data flow and causing these discrepancies...

Maybe so, but why is it that whenever the "?" appears, it's always between the machine being used to view the map and the router/device it's connected to? Seems like, if any "?" was in the map, it would be associated with other machines on the network. Wouldn't that make more sense?

Hi All,
Thanks for the Sevenforums. I have been trying to get my son's laptop to use my printer for about a week.
I have followed the discussion with interest. I have resolved the Homegroup issue, I think. However I am also getting the "?" in the network map. If it doesn't affect the functionality, I will learn to live with it. Thanks again for all the helpful suggestions.
I am unable to tell which one fixed my connectivity / HomeGroup issue, but it looks OK at present

As to precisely why Win 7 shows an incomplete network map with a big question mark I think, but do not know for certain (someone with greater expertise may tell us all why) when clicking on "see full map" in "View your basic network information and set up connections" my best guess is that Win 7 has loaded incompletely. What I do know for sure is that restarting Win 7 fixes the issue and shows the complete map without the question mark. This must be done each time after each boot up, from the system in Hibernate, which, I think is the likely cause, since my copy of Win 7 Home Premium clearly has the ability to do so after reboot. I'd be curious to see any additional related information that enables us to zero in on the precise underlying cause like whether booting up from other states of Sleep, Hybrid Sleep, or from scratch. Hope this helps.

HA, ancient topic but then I've only just gotten around to the joys of W7.
I've had some success in overcoming the minor irritation of the question mark on the network map by changing my static IP address from the low 200s to the low 100s.
Hope this helps somebody.