okay so i have my computers set up to do file sharing (with the windows work group thing).... anyways, so i've had it for a while, but i've always noticed its so unstable.... sometimes it recognizes the other computers, sometimes it doesnt'... and now fro some reason, none of them are being recognized by each other... its really dumb,...

does anyone know how to make it work properly??

No. I have the same problem.
Only solution I found, restart the #### PC.

This is one of the well known quirks in Windows that even I acknowledge, sometimes it works, sometimes it doesnt. To this day I dont know wth it's doing, I just keep IP's memorized.

i tried networking long time ago i gave up. me and the wife share the internet via a router

Granted I don't use it much, but I've never had trouble w/ it on XP...

Isn't that a pain and a security risk.

when you want to access the files on the second computer, don't use the shortcut under 'my network places' (they rarely work)

always click 'add new network place' and then 'browse' <--(I find) this browse function will see the second computer, even when the workgroup doesn't show it. its never failed (for me)

the other way is to reboot your machine(s) like Speed says

A security risk most definently.

if you setup each machine to be on an individual IP address within the same range then the problem won't resurface.

ie
machine 1 = 192.168.0.1
machine 2 = 192.168.0.2
machine 3 = 192.168.0.3 etc etc

in my experience doing this eliminates the hit or miss connections of the past.

Maybe that's why I don't seem to have problems w/ it... All my PCs get their IP via DHCP from the router, and they're all in the 192.168.1.1xx range...