Now here's a strange thing. I can browse my network (one laptop, one PC) only when the laptop is on, even though I can browse both machines. When the laptop is off, no network shares are shown. Both a are wireless (obviously). Is there any logic to this?

It's Windows networking, of course there's no logic!

Actually, I think the problem may be that one machine automatically sets itself up as the network namespace manager. If you shut that machine off, it probably takes a while (like a couple of minutes) for another one to pick up the function.

Actually, I notice something similar.

I have a home network with a windows machine and a linux machine that shares some directories using Samba.

If the windows machine powers down, then the linux share is not visible...until the windows machine powers up again (ie the linux machine does not become visible after a few minutes)

I'm not trying to hijack the thread, but since the title is kind-of non-specific you've given me no choice . I've recently set up a linux (gentoo) file-server to store movies (played via my hacked xbox) & for my wife to store her pictures on. My wife uses an XP box (only because she won't let me install linux on it, two because I need it to run Checkpoint VPN to connect to the office, but I digress ).

The problem is that although I can access the file-server fine via either ssh, smbmount or NFS from my own linux pc & the xbox uses smb:// to access & play movies great, my wife gets a error when trying to copy files over from her XP box, "path is too deep". The path to the folder is just three single-word directories down & I haven't been able to google any answers. Any ideas? tx

(now back to our regularly scheduled topic )

Known bug in Windows networking - there's a Microsoft patch for it. I did the patch and all was well after that (sorry I don't have the reference from my home machine here to check the patch number).

I will bear & raise any (more) offspring that you care to produce if you would send be the patch#!! I've been scouring the net for days trying to find something that even pointed the finger at the root problem, never mind any direct reference. tx

I can't find the link to the MSN report, but I can see that what I did was change HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\System\CurrentControlSet\Servic es\LanmanServer\Parameters
IRPStackSize=18

I finally managed to fix the problem, but not in the way that I expected. Here's my story.

Unfortunately from what I've read, the error 'path is too deep' is just a general windows error when it can't connect to some external resource. It's been reported when accessing network shares & usb drives, etc, since around 2004 with 'doze 2000. Everyone reports a different fix that worked for them, from software fixes like yours to hardware (bad cables and/or nics).

I've tried several dozen software tweaks to no avail (amongst them tweaking the card speed from as low as 10mb-hd up to 100mb-fd on both the server & client boxes, a couple different registry hacks including yours). It wasn't until after I tried replacing the cable between the server & the hub it's on when I thought that since the server was the only box connected to the 4-port hub that I had just attached to the last free port of my router, then maybe that was the cause. I connected the server directly to the router then lo & behold, I've just copied over some files from my wife's pc not only without any errors, but a lot faster then it was before.

Just goes to show that you have to trouble shoot from the ground up. First make sure the power to the house is on, then make sure the pc is plugged in, etc

Thanks for the help.

Hmmm, I'm having this problem too, when I try and copy a pdf over to my 770 I get the "path too deep" error.

Any tips? I'm not a regedit genius, and when I navigated to ./Parameters, I didn't see any IRPStackSize to change to 18.

Thanks for any tips,
Oy.

PS: It's very peculiar, I moved over a .lit file just fine, but I can't this .pdf.