cannot map network drive. local device name already in use

PopIT

Hi All
I have a small home network. I have a Windows Vista PC(PC1) at the heart of it with several shared drives. Three WiFi laptops have no problem mapping and connecting to the shares. I put a WiFi PC(PC2) in a few weeks back and it work with no issue until the other night when my wife told me she could not access the shared resources. The PC can still access the internet it just will not reconnect to or re map the drives. All are running Vista Premium. The error message I get when trying to reconnect is "Local device name already in use" When I try to map the drive, it does not show the network name at all. The PC2 is on the same network MSHOME as PC1. PC1 is connected by cable to the router.
Any help with this greatly appreciated.

gouche

What is the name of the PC?

If two PC's have the same name you may run into difficulties.

You can find out right-clicking My Computer and going to properties which should give you the PC name, workgroup name and other info.

For a list of NetBIOS names on the network run nbtstat -n from cmd line.

PopIT

gouche wrote: »

What is the name of the PC?

If two PC's have the same name you may run into difficulties.

You can find out right-clicking My Computer and going to properties which should give you the PC name, workgroup name and other info.

For a list of NetBIOS names on the network run nbtstat -n from cmd line.

Thank you. I will look at that.

PopIT

So I checked the computer name and it is unique but just in case I changed it to something else but still getting the same problem. From PC1 I can see PC2 in the network folder but cannot access it. Also I cannot use RDC to access it. Network discovery is turned on on PC2 and password protected sharing is turned off. I cannot think of anything else to do at this stage then reinstall Vista. Cannot understand how it was working for a few weeks and then stopped. PC2 will still go on the internet and Outlook will still send and receive emails as well. I am stumpped.

HardenendMan

Does it work ok using IP addresses?

whizbang

Are your workgroup names the same on both ?

anytime i come across this it is when connecting a domain registered pc to another.

From a command prompt, (type your own drive letter for x): net use x: /delete
then try again.