I recently had this problem and after much head scratching it turned out to be the Firewall on the PC. In my case, ZoneAlarm. I had recently changed routers, from D-Link to Linksys, and the new one uses a different set of IP addresses. ZA was configured to allow addresses from the D-Link machine.
Reconfigured ZA and all is fine now.
Check that the XP Firewall is not turned on too
P
Hello,
In the last couple of days I have been getting the following message when trying to connect from my G4 to my Desktop PC: ''The alias ''XXX'' could not be opened, because the original item cannot be found''. Then it gives me three options: ''Delete Alias'', Fix Alias'' and ''OK''. When I press ''Fix'' I just get the window that says ''Choose the item that you want alias ''XXX'' to open. Whatever I choose, nothing happens.
The situation is no better when I try to connect from my laptop to my desktop PC. When I open ''View workgroup computers'' all three computers all listed there. Yet when I try to connect I get a warning saying ''\\XXX is not accessible''. On the other hand, from that problematic desktop I can with no problems access both my laptop and my Mac. I thought that my Zone Alarm was blocking the access, but even with Zone Alarm off I still have the same problem.
Any ides what the problem might be?
Thanks a lot!
Cheers,
Exp.
Desktop OS: XP Pro SP2
Laptop OS: XP Pro SP2
Mac OS: OS X Tiger

Chowhound
Comic Vine
GameFAQs
GameSpot
Giant Bomb
TechRepublic