>Larry, thanks for your reply.
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>
>>As long as your IP address is on their network, you don't need to change your Workgroup information. You will however, have to authenticate yourself to every PC you access.<<<
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>Is this always the case. I just upgraded my own Notebook here recently and I did not need to give our own File Server any details about IP addresses, but was still able to log on.
>If I do get my IP address on the client's network ? if I have to
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If you accepted the defaults then most likely you are using NetBEUI to connect. That's why you didn't need to get/give any other information.

TCPIP is much better (IMO) because it allows your machine to communicate with machines in different workgroups. The workgroups will show up in Explorer under Network Neighborhood almost immediately. Using NetBEUI, Explorer may display them but it will take an extremely long (in relative terms) time for your system to receive broadcast messages from the other systems.

>>
>>If you are using Netbeui instead of the TCPIP to connect, that is why you have to change the name to find their network.
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>Can I dispense with either of these ?. Currently I notice they are both configured in the contol panel .
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Get the IP address information from your network administrator (IP address, DNS Servers, Default gateway) and input that in your TCPIP properties. Or your network may have DHCP (Dynamic Host Configuration Protocol) implemented. When you boot up your machine, it seeks out a DHCP server and gets temporary IP information from it. In that case, you don't need to do anything but delete NetBEUI.

If your client also has DHCP impolemented, then it is a simple matter to attach to their network by typing the following at the command prompt:

ipconfig /release
ipconfig /renew

You must release it first before you can renew on a different network. Most likely the IP information for the two networks is incompatible and the old information will prevent connection to the DHCP server on the new network.

HTH.