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I’m just going to jump in here at the end to suggest using ‘Mouse Keys’ from the Accessibility Options icon in Control Panel. With a bit of patience and tweaking-up of the settings, it’s a useable emergency alternative.

HTH

Oh for heaven’s sake…

The clients had different DNS settings to the server. The kind of stuff you learn on day one of Networking 101, right after the tutor says “Good Morning”. Bah.

I think this was due to system restores being carried out which took the machines back to a time when I had a temporary router installed with a different configuration. I’d completely forgotten.

Joe, thanks for holding the flashlight for me. Much appreciated. Great link BTW.

No, none of the router settings have been changed. I’ve had a look at the server updates and System Restored the client a couple of times, but can’t see anything obvious. I Googled the symptoms, followed around 50 links and in my desperation even browsed the MS Support pages, just in case there was a known issue surrounding loss of network browsing after a specific update, but again nothing obvious.

The only service settings I have changed was to add Hamachi as a service using ‘srvany’, but this I did after the problems started.

Also, everything has been restarted from cold – router, switch, server, clients.

Hi Joe,

When I open My Computer on a client machine and type serverpractice (this is mapped as M:) in the address bar, the status bar tells me there are two objects, but no files or folders are displayed. All I get is ”Not Responding’ when I click in the window background. If I drop to a command prompt and type ‘dir m:’, all the files are shown. I have tried starting the program (connect.exe) from the command prompt and the loading screen flashes up for a second, but then nothing. Task Manager doesn’t show any instance of connect.exe running either as an application or as a service.

I have Windows Defender running on each client. On the server I attempted to run the Windows Firewall shown in Control Panel, but all I get is a message saying “Windows Firewall cannot run because another program or service is running that might use the network address translation component (ipnat.sys)”. I use a router as the primary firewall. I have now disabled Defender on the client.

Why is it that I can see files that reside on the network when in Word or Excel, but not in Explorer/My Computer?

P.S., I can access the Internet on each client and have VNC running with no problems throughout the network.

What about olives? Are they fruit or vegetables?

What about olives? Are they fruit or vegetables?

This doesn’t really surprise me, especially if the circuitry didn’t appear to have gotten wet.

I adopted a motherboard from a friend who’s little girl had spilt an entire cup of sugared tea over it, just moments before it was to be fitted into a client’s machine. Being curious, and having nothing to lose, I took it home and soaked it in lukewarm soapy water and gently scrubbed all over with an old toothbrush. (Please note, ESD precautions were completely ignored throughout). After leaving it in the airing cupboard (where the house hot water tank resides) for a day and after giving it a few blasts with my wife’s 2kw hairdryer, I gave it a close inspection under a magnifying glass. Most of the components were clean but some of the more intricate connectors, especially the processor ZIF socket and the PCI sockets, were still gummed up with the sticky mess. A second bath with hand-hot water and an electric toothbrush followed by a further day’s drying, did the trick.

At first I assembled only the bare minimum of parts outside of the case to show me whether or not it had survived the cleaning – an old CPU, one stick of low-capacity RAM and a redundant AGP graphics card. One flip of the power switch and I was up and running. I powered down and fitted it into an old case and it was still working. All went well for a few weeks until I accidentally smashed through some of the PCB tracks with a screwdriver blade whilst try to clip on the heatsink, but with a bit of micro-soldering by a very helpful engineer friend, it lived again!!

It is now seeing out it’s winter years as the workshop television.

This doesn’t really surprise me, especially if the circuitry didn’t appear to have gotten wet.

I adopted a motherboard from a friend who’s little girl had spilt an entire cup of sugared tea over it, just moments before it was to be fitted into a client’s machine. Being curious, and having nothing to lose, I took it home and soaked it in lukewarm soapy water and gently scrubbed all over with an old toothbrush. (Please note, ESD precautions were completely ignored throughout). After leaving it in the airing cupboard (where the house hot water tank resides) for a day and after giving it a few blasts with my wife’s 2kw hairdryer, I gave it a close inspection under a magnifying glass. Most of the components were clean but some of the more intricate connectors, especially the processor ZIF socket and the PCI sockets, were still gummed up with the sticky mess. A second bath with hand-hot water and an electric toothbrush followed by a further day’s drying, did the trick.

At first I assembled only the bare minimum of parts outside of the case to show me whether or not it had survived the cleaning – an old CPU, one stick of low-capacity RAM and a redundant AGP graphics card. One flip of the power switch and I was up and running. I powered down and fitted it into an old case and it was still working. All went well for a few weeks until I accidentally smashed through some of the PCB tracks with a screwdriver blade whilst try to clip on the heatsink, but with a bit of micro-soldering by a very helpful engineer friend, it lived again!!

It is now seeing out it’s winter years as the workshop television.

Big thumbs up to you Mark.

What a splendid utility! Small, efficient and free. I’ve just given it a quick test here in the office and it does look like it will do the job.

A donation will be winging it’s way to the author as soon as I can.

Another utility I tried last night is Odi’s LFN Tools which preserves long file names when copying in DOS. Worked a treat.

Big thumbs up to you Mark.

What a splendid utility! Small, efficient and free. I’ve just given it a quick test here in the office and it does look like it will do the job.

A donation will be winging it’s way to the author as soon as I can.

Another utility I tried last night is Odi’s LFN Tools which preserves long file names when copying in DOS. Worked a treat.

I’ll give that a try tonight. Isn’t it likely that I’ll get ‘Abort, Retry, Fail’ message at the first faulty file and be stuck in the same situation?

I’ll give that a try tonight. Isn’t it likely that I’ll get ‘Abort, Retry, Fail’ message at the first faulty file and be stuck in the same situation?

To follow on from Viking’s point, is this an LCD monitor?

LCDs have a native resolution, that is to say an optimal resolution the monitor is designed for. With most, it tends to be either 1280×1024 or 1024×768. Setting the monitor to anything other than its native resolution can produce effects similar to those you describe.

Please, report back if there are any developments.

To follow on from Viking’s point, is this an LCD monitor?

LCDs have a native resolution, that is to say an optimal resolution the monitor is designed for. With most, it tends to be either 1280×1024 or 1024×768. Setting the monitor to anything other than its native resolution can produce effects similar to those you describe.

Please, report back if there are any developments.

Of all the luck. I have one of these in my garage awaiting the next jumble sale collection. I inherited it and have never used it, in fact it was brand new when I was given it. It’s a ‘Boots’ brand, which I doubt you have over there. If ever you’re over, you’re welcome to have it.