# Windows network stopped working: "alias could not be opened"



## doctormelodious (Jan 22, 2006)

Greetings,

My cable modem is connected to the uplink port of a wireless router. A PC running WinXP Pro is connected via Ethernet to one of the other ports. My iBook has an Airport card, and gets its Internet connection from the wireless router. That's the only thing I've been using the wireless for.

The other night I turned on File and Printer sharing on the PC. My iBook, after the customary long, long lagtime, finally showed the PC in its Network window. The relevant folder was MSHOME, and it contained an alias called FRED (the name of the PC). When I double-clicked FRED, I was able to enter the relevant PC account name and password, and connect to the PC's Shared Items folder (or whatever it's called).

Now I go back and try to do the same thing. Eventually, the iBook shows the MSHOME folder, containing the FRED alias. But now, when I double-click FRED and enter the account name and password, I get this:

"The alias FRED could not be opened, because the original item cannot be found."

This is right after it just showed up in the Network window!

I have tried various combinations of shutting down and restarting both the PC and the iBook, turning on and off File/Printer sharing on the PC, turning on and off AirPort on the iBook, etc. But nothing works.

Internet still works fine on the iBook, by the way.

What could cause this to work one day and fail the next??  Is there some OS X .plist file or something that I need to trash?

Any help greatly appreciated...

Thanks,
DM


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