Services: 'server' & 'computer browser'

[iceblu]

Problem:

I have a fileserver and the drive mapped to X:/, my roommate has a link but its not mapped.

All pc's running XP Pro with updates, laptop runs vista.

I will be using the share for weeks without a single issue, ill close all the windows to clean up the desktops and when i goto 'my computer -> fileserver X:/' i get error occured while reconecting mapped drive, network location cannot be reached. This will happen as my roommate and my laptop are currently streaming off the fileserver its ONLY my pc that this happens on and the only thing we do differently is i have the drive mapped.

I should not that when this happens i cant even acces my computers share via \\my_pc\my_share method or even \\10.0.0.101\my_share

Restarting the services, restarting windows, they do nothing... I gotta reinstall windows to get the damn thing to work again.

After many kernel debuggers and hours on IRC i have discovered that their is something malicious blocking the service 'server'.

# netstat -nao | find "445" <<--- ports 445 is required to enable file and folder sharing, without it open windows cannot even connect to its own shares when browsing 'network neighborhood'.

file and folder sharing and that port 445 is opened and managed by the service 'server' # net restart server <<---- i can start/stop the service without difficulty but something seems to have changed that service.

C:\WINDOWS\system32\svchost.exe -k netsvcs, everythin worked perfectly untill i started unzipping a massive file i had made previously, while unzipping the program error confermation poped up saying svchost crashed and once again I cant see or use anything on the network.

How do i re-configure the net server service??? any idea what the heck is constantly causing this??

EDIT - the service 'computer browser' is what actual does the work when accessing directories remotly but it runs perfectly fine, when net server crashes it brings computer browser with it, when their all restarted if that port 445 isnt opened computer browser is pointless.

And yes i have run a virus/malware/everything scan avg,avira,kaspersky,norton,MS,like 10 programs and none of them find a single thing... almost sounds like a maltious broadcast thats DoSing that service and on overflow corrupts.