My network places: PCs disappear after 20 minutes

[Juano]

Hello everyone, i was wondering if someone would know why one of my computers disappear after 15 to 20 minutes in my network places, i can still access it by using start -> run --> \\pcname.

its just weird that it would disappear from my network places, making it imposible to access it by double-clicking. if i restart the ethernet connection (disable and enable) the network card inside network connections, the pc appears again.. it seems to fade though after 20 minutes.

Ip numbers seem fine, this PC (the one that disappears) is routing through the other PC through a ICS (internet connection sharing). it gets ip through DHCP.

I would appreciate any help on this issue. :-)

Juano.

[Juano]

Problem seemed to resolve!
i put in a wins server in the TAB wins under TCP/IP properties which is 192.168.0.2, this is generated by default when you enable ICS on the server. Assigning 192.168.0.2 in the first box at WINS tab made it work, its been 30 minutes and no PC has disappeared.
For ubuntu box it was changing:

# wins server = w.x.y.z

for

wins server = 192.168.0.2
---------------------------------------
in smb.conf

[Cyberdyne]

Great you solved it, just another example of trial and error and determination

Cyber

[Juano]

Thanks for the reply.

I would like to add to this that it is good to use static IPs with samba, after testing some with vmware i figured out that static IPs go well with samba, one of my problems was the Windows DHCP server, seemed to fail during ICS, my linux box then determined an APIPA address, 169.254.x.x with mask 255.255.0.0 , this caused for the computers to fail in my network places also (different masks at some boot ups). When i used static IPs, everything seemed fine. PCs should be on the same netmask and workgroup. enabling wins support = yes seems to work fine too under samba with Linux / Windows networking.
The good news is I solved the problem now :-)

I hope this can be useful to anyone, if they are experiencing this issue! :-)

Juano