Thanks for te reply Tripredacus. A repair instal did not fix the problem. Did a complete format and clean instal. All OK now. If I remember, before clean install, FILE & PRINTER sharing was installed and working. I my have disabled or deleted the guest account - I did not know that the guest account was needed. is it? Guest account is OFF on laptop, and all is Ok. all other accounts were ok - no passwords. all shares did still exist. again no passwords. From a command prompt, the network looked fine. Only within the WinXP UI, "microsoft windows network" was not visible. Could not use the XP UI to see or Map drives or shares. Could do all above from command prompt. Curious problem, but problem solved wit fress install - Just a lot of work finding install discs and licences. Bill Rothe