Windows 7 loses sight of Xp Pro machines?

[smarr]

I have several Windows 7 machines, current service packs, and dozens of XP Pro machines also with current service packs. All machines are on a domain.

Normally, the W7 machines can see shared folders on the XP Pro machines and the XP Pros can see shared folders on the W7 machines. XP Pros can also see other XP Pros and W7s can see W7 machines. All permissions work perfectly to this end.

Every onces in a while (sometimes a few days) the one or more XP Pro machines will not be able to access 1 or more W7 machines, failing with a "not accessible" error dialog. The XP Pro machine in question will still be able to see other XP Pro machines (this never fails to work) and the other W7 machines. Only a reboot of the W7 machine will renew it's "visibility" to the XP Pro machine that was looking for it.

I've looked at the network cards on the Win7 machines--no timeouts or power saving options are active on the machines, and there are no firewalls enabled.

Any ideas what might be causing this "falling off the network" of Win7 machines (but only noticable to XP Pro machines)?

 

[severedsolo]

Hi there smarr.

Im afraid that with this sort of thing, its going to be a bit of guesswork. However, here are a few things that could be causing it:

1. Windows is just being weird
2. your Firewall. Any Firewall (with the exception of the Windows Firewall, which (NORMALLY sorts itself out properly) can cause all sorts of issues with networking,
3. (I think this one is the most likely) Dont suppose you have your Networks on the Win 7 machines set to "Home" do you? Change it to Work Occasionally Windows 7 confuses itself and thinks it should be in a Homegroup even when it isn't configured when set to "Home"
4. Update your Networking drivers.

Thats all I can think of for now

 

[smarr]

Appreciate the suggestions.....but....
-No firewalls involved. The firewalls in XP and W7 have been disabled, totally.
-No "Home" networking settings.
-All network drivers have been updated.

This is a consistent thing--given several days, the W7 machines will become invisible to the XP machines.