Here is my setup. I am having problems bneing able to see my computers in network places. I have 2 desktops and 1 laptop they all connect to a router and that is connected to a cable modem. All computers have XP. I go through the network setup and it says everything is fine then nothing shows up. I go to explorer and try to find it and I can't find it. What could be the deal?

The deal is you not bothering to use search engines..

The search feature is your friend. I would give you the prize for being a visitor #100 asking the same bloody question again, but i'm not sure if you are #100 or #200..

Try disabling Windows Firewall on all your machines, let the router take care of that. You can find windows firewall in the Control Panel.

Now you should be able to see the other computers.

Make sure you have File and printer sharing and that all your computers belong to the same Workgroup. Then set up your shares (folders and/ or printers ...)

Make sure you have not activated or started Internet Connection Sharing, re-run Network setup wizard, all you need to tell it is that each computer connects to the internet through a gateway or LAN.

If you still can not see your neighbours, have a cold brown pop (one for each system) and call us in the morning.

Sharam it was the firewall I can now see everything I really appreciate your help. I worked on this for hours and it just turned out to be the stupid firewall.

With my Windows firewall turned off any suggestions on how to keep a firewall? I went to my router and didnt see anything. Any thoughts?

Accessing anything on the other drives takes eternity. Any ideas on how to speed this up.

Your router has a built in firewall, well it actually doesn't but how it functions with NAT makes it a firewall. That is all I am using, have no winxp but if I did, I would've disabled the built in firewall as soon as I installed it.

If you are concerned with Dialers and such for outgoing traffic try Zone Alarm. I had Zone Alarm before and liked it but have not used any software firewalls so may be others can advise. I heard what windows uses is some version or variant of Zone Alarm; again, I could be wrong since I never researched on that.
Software and hardware firewalls each "protect" certain layers of the OSI Model, having both makes sense, I am happy with my router's firewall and practice "safe" browsing as well as clicking.

Go to Gibson Research Corporation try the ShieldsUP if the link don't work just let the first page load and scroll down, try the Leak Test as well.
I love the Three Musketeers

As for your other problem, slow file transfer could point to a faulty hardware ... from my side of the screen I can't see very well.

Please post your system spec.

How often do you update firmware, drivers and such?

BTW, you can add your network in the trusted list or something in windows firewall if you want and/ or have to use it.

I know there are settings you can set but only been there a couple times and since I have no WinXP here, I can't be sure.

Desktop one is a Dell pretty basic 2 ghz pentium and 512 ram.
Desktop two is a comp that I built it has a AMD 3800 and 1gb of ram
Laptop is a sony Vaio with a 3.2 ghz processor and 512 ram.

Not sure what else you need on system specs.

Well, we don't know what hardware you have, how it is configured and setup.

Like, is your NIC 10BaseT? What is the make and model of your Router?

All we know is that you have 3 systems, a router and a cable modem and that you drink a lot.

With the given information one might suggest sobering up, may be you had few too many and things are crawling

More details make us help you better. Hard drives, controllers, what is it you are trying to carry over, is this happening on all the systems, is your system clean, other than networking, are things the way they are supposed to be?

It happens when I try to look at anything even a simple document. My desktop that I built has a nic card intergrated on to the motherboard. The dell has 10base5 nic card and the laptop is wireless. Everything on all systems is running great as well. The router is a motorola nothing special but it hooks up x box leve as well and I had troubles with linksys trying to do that.

10Base5 is Thick Ethernet with Coaxial Cable and a max speed of 10Mbps which still plenty, are you sure? Do you use a BNC type and convert to RJ45?

An XBOX is in the picture as well, no problems, so from your clone with 10/100 integrated you try to pull a file from the notebook with built-in wireless or the Dell with 10Base5?

Have you tried moving a file over ... let's say ... to your notebook? Does the Dell system experience the same problem. You need to test network performance from each system. I mean from the actual machine. Do you only have the basics in your Local Area Connection's properties? Any unwanted protocols?

Are your NICs drivers up to date? Have you tried other cables? Are you using crossover or straight through and what lengths?

Since you tried fixes before, may be you should delete all your local area connections in XP on all systems and re boot so you get them re installed with the basics, not to worry as Windows re-installs them after re-boot but your connection n becomes connection n+1

I completely deleted and removed all computers from the network and then I reinstalled and everything works like a champ.

Way to go.
Glad to hear.