Odd networking behaviour

[crossmr]

I was transferring a larger file (175 mb) via the network to another machine. Since it was wireless (B) it was to take about 6 minutes. I was at the other machine and opened up the shared folder before the 6 minutes was up. I went back to the other machine to check, and it had stopped at 3 minutes claiming the network folder was unavailable.

The second machine is still connected and can access the internet, yet the original machine swears up and down it can't find it.

I know that restarting will solve this, but I'm curious:

1)What caused this, was it as simple as me accessing the shared folder?

2)is there a way to get access back to this machine without the need of a restart?

Both machines xp pro fully upgraded.

[-pops-]

I think the reason is as you suggest in your first supposition. I've had video folders behave like that whilst being transferred from one drive to another (not wirelessly, in the same box).

I think Mr Gates didn't envisage such large files which had a noticably finite transfer time when he created Windows so didn't build any safety net to prevent attempts to open them during transfer.

("Mr Gates" is used in the corporate sense here. I am not suggesting that he had any personal involvement :) )

[Puppet]

Did you try to access the file that you were copying or just the folder?

This most definately sounds like a bug . When you tried to connect back to the system using \\computername were you unable to connect at all or did you connect to the com puter but not see the share. Sounds like some security objects in me mory got stepped on. Did you try \\ip address?