dunno if anyone can help with this. must be something dumb ...

I have 2 XP PC's (A & B, say) and a linux box which is set up as a samba file server. I use the setup here:

http://www.oregontechsupport.com/articles/samba.html

and it works perfectly with the one XP machine A. B (which ran 98 until yesterday when I upgraded it), doesn't want to know. Also I can't share files between the two XP's via the workgroup.

Both have different m/c names, same workgroup. B has a static address (there was also a problem while it used DHCP). It can be pinged OK from any other m/c. It has internet access via the router, no problem. Windows firewall is off (for now). NetBIOS is set to "on" for both machines.

When I go into network neighbourhood and try to "view workgroup computers", on B, I get a pause then "Myworkgroup is not responding. You might not have permission to use this network resource. Contact the admin .... The network path was not found." (On A I see all 3 machines.)

When I do "run" and then "\\linuxbox\sambadrive" , I get "The network path was not found". (On A it is found straight away.)

I'm sure this is something real silly ... but what? I've read the FAQ's, HOW-To's, googled ...

Firewall?

switched off in thec problem machine.

really bugging me. why would this not work? is there some hidden config setting I don't know about?

the only *slightly* odd thing about this machine is that I did the install straight on top of a FAT32 win98 drive. I left the drive as FAT32. But surely that shouldn't affect the ability to share drives and so?

one other difference : the machine that doesn't work has a statically defined IP, the one that does uses DHCP. The router is a D-Link wireless job.

I'll try using DHCP on both. clutching at straws now. gonna try a samba newsgroup.

when I use DHCP it works. with static ip, it dies. wtf ...

oh well, can use DHCP for this machine. strange though. possibly a router quirk, I've seen that before with these.