[PCH (Paul)]

Hi Gary and silv,

thank you for that latest input.

Ok, I think I'm getting somewhere though not solved yet.

On the XP machine if I go to Control Panel > Network Connections, the LAN icon at the top of the screen is showing as 'firewalled'.

I went to the C: drive in Windows Explorer and removed file sharing, then re-added it to try and re-establish the connections.

Then I re-booted the PC and went back into Control Panel > Netowrk Connections. To my delight the LAN now showed as connected. Perfect.

But after just a few seconds, the dreaded 'firewalled' showed up.

So now I'm reasonably sure that the connection problems emanate from the XP machine. That said, I'm still unsure as to how exactly I can free up the LAN from the grip of the firewall.

The fw is just the regular Windows FW which has worked fine since Adam was a lad.

And in Windows Explorer under C > Properties > Sharing, it says the fw is configured to allow this folder to be shared with other users on the network.

But I know it's lying, lol.

Edit: whoops, false alarm. I disabled the fw and observed that the LAN status of 'firewalled' disappeared, but still can't see the LAN across the network.