If I want my network places, I'll have to wipe clean and reinstall....

[poltr1]

After several email exchanges with Jacky in Australia -- my colleague from techrepublic.com -- his last recommendation was for me to wipe my C: partition clean and do a brand new install of XP. I told him I'd rather not do that. It would take me days, if not weeks, to reinstall everything I've had on my system in the past 8 years. Although I'm quite certain that it will get rid of a lot of the problems I've been having with the system. (Rebooting and/or reinstalling gets rid of many problems with Microsoft software.)

So I'll just continue doing what I'm doing -- going to the library to download large files onto the laptop, copy them to a flash drive, and copy them to my desktop machine.

I did find a network diagnostic tool at http://support.microsoft.com/kb/914440 . But alas, it only works under Service Pack 2, and I've already upgraded to Service Pack 3. Of course, I can always rollback to Service Pack 2, run the tool, and then reinstall Service Pack 3.

Comments

[hms42]

Sorry I could not help with the networking problem. It sounded like you did everything right.

Hmm.. An idea... Do you have a spare hard drive around that you can try the reinstall on to see if that is the solution?

[poltr1]

I have a spare *machine* -- a Gateway E-4000 that was surplused from my last workplace -- that I installed XP on this afternoon. I need to find the drivers disk before I can proceed any further.