In article ,
"Andy" wrote:
I have a home network where my ME box successfully pings the XP box,
But the XP box cannot ping the ME BOX.

1. Is this preventing me from sharing files and printers?
2. If so, then I believe that the Me box is not configured properly.

My Me box has the following network components:
Client for Microsoft Networks,
TCP/IP,
and File and print Sharing for Microsoft networks.

I read the previous posts in this newsgroup and still have no luck.
(Posts:
"Connect ME to XP temporarily, Save old settings".

File and printer sharing probably won't work if pinging doesn't work.
Have you tried it?

The most likely problem is that a firewall on the Me box is blocking
access from the XP box. If there's a firewall program (Norton,
McAfee, Sygate, ZoneAlarm, etc), configure it to allow access by other
computers on the local area network.

Try pinging both by IP address and by computer name. If pinging by IP
address succeeds and pinging by computer name fails, make sure that
NetBIOS Over TCP/IP is enabled on both computers:

Your reply makes sense to me, however, it does not appear that
my ME box has a firewall in place. I did have the unfortuante luck, where I
installed zonealarm once and had problems uninstalling it, untill I
did some further research. So now I have no programs running in my "Close
program" window (Ctrl-alt-delete), which indicates a firwall running.
So I am wondering is there something in my ME configuration which could be
preventing the ping?

Thanks, Andy Miller

Go to Start | Run | Msconfig | Startup and disable any ZoneAlarm
remnants, such as TrueVector.

It might help to re-install ZoneAlarm and then un-install it cleanly.
--
Best Wishes,
Steve Winograd, MS-MVP (Windows Networking)

Please post any reply as a follow-up message in the news group
for everyone to see. I'm sorry, but I don't answer questions
addressed directly to me in E-mail or news groups.

Microsoft Most Valuable Professional - Windows Networking
http://mvp.support.microsoft.com

Steve Winograd's Networking FAQ
http://www.bcmaven.com/networking/faq.htm