>We are running WIN 2000 Server on our network. We have purchased some new computers that have XP Home Edition on them. We have upgraded some to XP Pro, but have had many problems in the machines seeing the network. The problems are inconsistant.

Are you using in Domain with Active Directory or are you in a Workgroup? What vendor did you use for your new purchases? You can also call Microsoft for support - they have been very helpful to me in the past.


>We have 'downgraded' some of the machines to WIN 2000. After going through all of the updates, they seem to work well, but do not have all of the needed drivers for the different hardware that is on the new machines.

>In setting up the XP PRO machines, we :
- get the updates
- set up the TCP-IP to our network settings
- update the virus protection
- install needed software

I always connect to the network first, upgrade after that, install software, install virus protection. There's even an order for Microsoft Software that you sometimes have to follow but that need has diminished in recent years.

>Is there some trick we are missing, or is XP (Home or PRO) just not a good thing??

I have had to upgrade some printer's firmware but other than that I WILL NEVER GO BACK. There are too many features of XP I couldn't live without. I recently installed some bad software which corrupted about everything, ran the system restore utility, and was back up and productive in 15 minutes! Without a disk!


HTH

Chuck