Ron, 
this is very helpful.. I see now (in reply mode) the date of this post. Sorry.  But I'm having a strange problem that has been going on since 2005, and you seem close to an answer.  Please assume that I've done everything right as you read this.  I have spent a good 40 hours on this problem.. and applied many tweaks that have netted nothing.

I have a home workgroup of 5 PCs, and a cisco wireless router.  4 of the PCs network fine.  But 1 very old XP installation does this... (and this is KEY somehow)  It boots up, and sees the workgroup, and all pcs which are on at the time.  And it works fine, sharing, printing to remote, and being seen, for about 15 minutes.  THEN it (without a whisper or a fault) disappears from the workgroup.  It can still access the internet, but cannot be seen by any computer, nor can it print to the remote computer...Unless I completely disable the firewall on that computer.  Then it can print (RAW data type) but it still doesn't see anyone, and still is not seen.

Any and every fix applied appears to work, since it always works for 15 minutes or so after booting.

details:
This PC is XP.  The remote printer host is XPe.  Both are SP3.  This PC is connected using Wifi, a belkin adapter, but the signal is good and can be tested.  Also, since I can print to the remote machine without seeing it (with the firewall off), the connection is there.  Let me clarify, this PC works and networks perfectly, for 15 minutes.  Thereafter, the XPe print server has to have the firewall disabled, to accept print jobs from this PC.  I even gave this PC static IP, and created a "Rule" in the firewall to allow anything from this IP.  No go.

The other machines are Win7.  Off/On even disconnected, nothing affects this old XP machine one bit.  Since the problem is between two XP SP3 machines, I will not give up.  WINS DNS LMHOST and CBS are all new things to learn.  Thanks for your short post.  This long one is mostly to avoid replies to many of the things already done..  BTW the most useful was an internet config change that moved shortcuts from "The internet" to "local network."

This whole thing might be related to request timeouts.

> On Thursday, November 15, 2007 3:21 AM Steve Winograd [MVP] wrote:

> In article
> ,
> tek  wrote:
> 
> If a network connection has been configured to use a WINS server,
> "ipconfig/all" will show the server's IP address.
> 
> At the risk of stating what you already know: a typical workgroup
> network doesn't have a WINS server.  WINS usually requires a computer
> running a server operating system.
> -- 
> Best Wishes,
> Steve Winograd, MS-MVP (Windows Networking)
> 
> Please post any reply as a follow-up message in the news group
> for everyone to see.  I'm sorry, but I don't answer questions
> addressed directly to me in E-mail or news groups.
> 
> Microsoft Most Valuable Professional Program
> http://mvp.support.microsoft.com


>> On Thursday, November 15, 2007 3:52 PM Lanwench [MVP - Exchange] wrote:

>> tek  wrote:
>> 
>> That's apples to oranges.....and note that hosts isn't for NetBIOS. That's 
>> LMHOSTS.
>> 
>> 
>> NetBIOS is broadcast based. Without a WINS server (which you don't normally 
>> have in a workgroup), your workstations are all participating in browser 
>> elections and hollering at each other over the network. "Hey, have you seen 
>> SERVER1? Oh, over there? Thanks."
>> 
>> WINS essentially shuts them up and says, "just check here when you want 
>> NetBIOS name resolution." Your WINS server is usually your master browser - 
>> when you have WINS, you can even stop & disable the computer browser service 
>> on all the workstations. Without WINS, you need it running.


>>> On Thursday, November 15, 2007 3:53 PM Lanwench [MVP - Exchange] wrote:

>>> No. Browser.
>>> 
>>> See http://www.chicagotech.net/netbios&wins.htm for some more help
>>> explaining this all....


>>>> On Thursday, November 15, 2007 4:12 PM Steve Winograd [MVP] wrote:

>>>> In article
>>>> <1e032aaa-044b-4c94-83e2-3f9c3939543f_at_b32g2000hsa.googlegroups.com>,
>>>> tek  wrote:
>>>> 
>>>> I think that the results from running the NBLookup tool on your
>>>> network are misleading.  There is no WINS server in a Windows XP
>>>> workgroup network like yours.  I suspect that the WINS server that the
>>>> NBLookup identifies is the computer that was able to resolve the
>>>> computer name that you queried.  In a workgroup, that name resolution
>>>> is done using NetBIOS over TCP/IP, not using WINS.
>>>> 
>>>> With no WINS server, you can assign static IP addresses to all of the
>>>> computers and create an LMHosts file (not a Hosts file) on each
>>>> computer that specifies the mapping of NetBIOS names to IP addresses.
>>>> 
>>>> But neither WINS nor LMHosts should be necessary on a workgroup
>>>> network, unless the network has multiple IP subnets.
>>>> 
>>>> Why are you asking about WINS in the first place?  If something isn't
>>>> working right, there's probably a better solution.
>>>> -- 
>>>> Best Wishes,
>>>> Steve Winograd, MS-MVP (Windows Networking)
>>>> 
>>>> Please post any reply as a follow-up message in the news group
>>>> for everyone to see.  I'm sorry, but I don't answer questions
>>>> addressed directly to me in E-mail or news groups.
>>>> 
>>>> Microsoft Most Valuable Professional Program
>>>> http://mvp.support.microsoft.com


>>>>> On Thursday, November 15, 2007 6:44 PM Lanwench [MVP - Exchange] wrote:

>>>>> tek  wrote:
>>>>> 
>>>>> 
>>>>> 
>>>>> 
>>>>> 
>>>>> Did you read the link I posted?
>>>>> 
>>>>> 
>>>>> 
>>>>> Then it's going to be the master browser. If you don't have a WINS server I 
>>>>> suggest you set computer browser to automatic on all your computers.
>>>>> 
>>>>> Actually, it means NetBIOS over TCP/IP is *enabled* on that computer because 
>>>>> you have a DHCP configured address, basically. Your router is not doing this 
>>>>> name resolution for you
>>>>> 
>>>>> If you don't have WINS or an internal DNS server and can ping a 
>>>>> computer/node by name, it's simply working via broadcast. Is that clearer 
>>>>> now?
>>>>> 
>>>>> 
>>>>> Not relevant, tho.


>>>>>> On Thursday, November 15, 2007 8:43 PM Lanwench [MVP - Exchange] wrote:

>>>>>> No prob.


>>>>>>> On Thursday, November 15, 2007 9:50 PM tek wrote:

>>>>>>> What command can I execute to find which PC is acting as the WINS
>>>>>>> server in my LAN?


>>>>>>>> On Thursday, November 15, 2007 9:50 PM tek wrote:

>>>>>>>> On Nov 15, 3:21 am, "Steve Winograd [MVP]" 
>>>>>>>> wrote:
>>>>>>>> 
>>>>>>>> The \windows\system32\drivers\etc\hosts files on each PC do not
>>>>>>>> contain static IPs because the router is the DHCP server. What allows
>>>>>>>> me to ping by hostname if there is no WINS server available? I must be
>>>>>>>> missing something in the way NetBIOS works.


>>>>>>>>> On Thursday, November 15, 2007 9:50 PM tek wrote:

>>>>>>>>> On Nov 15, 8:32 am, tek  wrote:
>>>>>>>>> 
>>>>>>>>> 
>>>>>>>>> I downloaded the nblookup tool and these are the results I get when I
>>>>>>>>> execute it. It's telling me that each PC is an acting WINS server and
>>>>>>>>> I don't understand how that can be true. BTW, I should mention all the
>>>>>>>>> PCs in the LAN are Windows XP Home SP2.
>>>>>>>>> 
>>>>>>>>> C:\Temp>nblookup -s pc1
>>>>>>>>> 
>>>>>>>>> pc1 resolved to 192.168.0.106
>>>>>>>>> Default Server: 192.168.0.106
>>>>>>>>> 
>>>>>>>>> Recursion is on
>>>>>>>>> 
>>>>>>>>> Querying WINS Server: 192.168.0.106
>>>>>>>>> NetBIOS Name: pc1
>>>>>>>>> Suffix: 20
>>>>>>>>> 
>>>>>>>>> Name returned: PC1
>>>>>>>>> Record type: Unique
>>>>>>>>> IP Address: 192.168.0.106
>>>>>>>>> 
>>>>>>>>> ...
>>>>>>>>> 
>>>>>>>>> C:\Temp>nblookup -s pc2
>>>>>>>>> 
>>>>>>>>> pc2 resolved to 192.168.0.1