>Thank you again. I did this and still no good. The XP laptop can't even find the server when searching for computers on the network. It only sees itself..

This means that (1) the workgroup name is not the same as the name used for all other boxes on the system, (2) if the system is using a different set of protocols than the rest of the LAN environment is using to publish their existance, it may be visible because it uses a protocol for NetBIOS resolution supported by the other stations, but the other stations publish their own existance using a different protocol (ie the rest of the net uses NetBEUI for sharing within the LAN, but all stations have TCP/IP installed and NBT is enabled; the laptop might only have TCP/IP with NBT enabled and attempts to resolve NetBIOS names via DNS rather than WINS, and as a result it can be seen by others, but lacking the WINS resolution running on NetBEUI, can't see anyone else), (3) the laptop has not enforced security on its shares, but all other stations require a login to view their resources, and none have enabled the user in the context of the laptop (IOW, the laptop needs to log into an account on some other machine) to gain access to resources, (4) someone really screwed the pooch and is managing to use a Win9x station as Master Browser for the LAN (should not happen with a Win2K server in place, (5) there is in fact an Active Directory up and running and the computer has not authenticated on it, or any number of other possibilities. If I had to take a SWAG, I'd work my way down in numerical order to eliminate these possibilities.

With a server running at the site, is the a reason -not- to use a domain with a DC? Domains are significantly easier to maintain in the long run, at least from my POV.

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>Neil
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>>>>Run the Network Identification Wizard as noted below, and tell it you are a business user running a network without a domain. Give it the name of your WorkGroup when prompted,
>>>Ok., I did this and re-booted as per instructions
>>>
>>>>and then add accounts to the other machines or server that can act as administrators on the local machine and users on the machine and also have permissions on the other machines. Right now, the user accounts are all relative to the other machines; you either need to grant local users rights on other machines or existing users on your network permission to log into your machine to inherit their rights.
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>>>I am sorry, I don't understand this part. Please walk me thru this slowly. I just want the XP laptop to see the c$ of my server. I log onto the server as Administrator with a password
>>>
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>>Go to the Server. Add an account equivalent to the account that you logged into the laptop with, and then close the User Accounts applet. Open Computer Management, select Shared Folders, go to the C$ share, right click, and assign that new user the necessary rights to work in the C$ content.
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>>I strongly (cannot say this too strongly) that YOU DO NOT ALLOW -ANY- NON-ADMINISTRATOR or off the subnet of the workgroup IAC, direct access to the hidden admin shares (C$, etc.) If you must share the root, create a distinct share of the root with a different name and assign users to that - open sharing of the admin shares is a direct invitation to hackers - (JRandomHacker: OOO, lookie, a bozo who didn't know that everybody has these admin shares; let's try some user names and passwords via the latest Windows Security flaw... oooh, I wanna bit-sort the entire data volume C$... and let's infect these other drives with BugBear and so goes the box!)
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>>It's your system, I just wouldn't do things this way.