[hobbesotr]

I have a situation w/2 computers on a router/switch. Both XP, 1 home, 1 pro. As of Oct, it was possible to connect to each other and map drives, shares, etc. Sometime in the interim, that capability was lost. The XP workstation cannot ping the Home station. However, the home pc can ping the pro pc. And it sees the share/printers. The home pc is entered in the hosts file previously. Any thoughts?:4-dontkno

 

[johnwill]

If you can't ping, that's almost always a firewall on the target machine. The XP-Home machine is blocking the PINGs, that's where you should start looking.

 

[hobbesotr]

thought of that. double/triple ck'd that the os firewall is off. when this prob was first noticed, i suspected it was the cisco vpn client was in use and keeping the vpn secure by blocking the local network. i've seen this happen in the past. tho, that's not the prob. even w/out the vpn client loaded, or an active connection, the pc is being isolated. i'm wondering if there's something in the vpn client, even when idle/not connected, that's killing inbound lan connections.:4-dontkno