yes, the server, RPC and RPC Locator services are enabled and running. I tried a couple of times more also with the full install without removing any components and it seems the ping problem still exists so I guess it's a problem in my xp install or something with SP3, so I'm trying another version right now to see if this solves the problem.... After trying another version: It seems this problem still exists... could it be an option or some security settings that prevent the system from answering a ping request (it does answer a ping 127.0.0.1 to itself)? because everything else works just fine and I can connect to the internet and browse or anything else, I just can't connect to the computer from another computer.