Recently, for no visible reason, one of my computers decided to stop talking to another of my computers. I have three here and they're all networked. C can connect to A and B. B can connect to A and C. A can connect to C but cannot connect to B. When I attempt this, I get a message that says it is not accessible and adds, "You might not have permission to use this network resource. Contact the administrator of this server to find out if you have access permissions." Since I am the administator of it all, I have no idea what to ask myself or how to answer me.
But it's weirder than that. I have a program called Network Magic installed on my computers. It's a utility that comes with DLink routers and it monitors your network and allows you to tinker with settings, and you can even network your computers through Network Magic. A can connect to B that way but not via the standard Microsoft Windows Network. This would make everything fine except that I can't run my sync/backup utilities through the Network Magic network. They only run through the Microsoft Windows Network where A can't connect to B.
Last evening, a gent who knows more about computers than I will ever know was here for four hours, tinkering and trying to make things right. I was disappointed that he couldn't fix things but I also had that quirky bit of pride that he didn't do any better at solving the problem than I had.
I spent another hour or two this morning, playing with settings and trying odd things. I'm down to, "Well, there's no earthly reason why this should make a difference but I'll try it anyway." And now, I'm going to make a concerted effort to forget about it for a while and turn my attention to deadlines and work that must be done. That may be the hardest part.