[pctech_wannabe]

I work for a helpdesk and we had a customer call in that was getting limited or no connectivity. We had him try diagnosing to no avail. Then he unplugged ethernet, merged & deleted networks, restarted, plugged ethernet back in and got connected. Now when he goes into "Network" he sees 2 other peoples computers. These were not in there before the above steps were completed.
One other thing I should mention, we do helpdesk support for several ISP's. I called the network tech for that ISP- a wireless ISP, and asked him if anyone with the last name the same as the 2 computer names that the customer is seeing, are on the same AP. There are customers with both of those last names on that AP. Is there a port open somehow on Vista that isnt supposed to be? If so, how can I turn this off.
Another detail worthy of mentioning. In my attempt to help this customer get rid of the 2 computer names showing up, I asked him to turn off network discovery (which if possible to do I believe may have also disabled his internet connection), but it was greyed out so he couldnt change anything in that.

[TerryNet]

I can't be positive of this but it sounds like that Vista user is on a public network but has designated it 'Private' or else has Vista's firewall disabled. The concern of this user is not whether he can detect other computers; the concern is whether others can access his computer.

[pctech_wannabe]

The network was actually designated public. I didnt think to check the firewall, wouldnt windows give a security warning in the lower right though if that was true? That is also our concern; whether others can access his computer. Of course we didnt want to call and ask if they see his computer also. Maybe Ill follow up with this customer tomorrow.

[TerryNet]

As I understand it with the network marked "Public" the Vista firewall will make his PC invisible. What I don't know is whether his PC will still detect less secure computers. So, he may be OK and maybe it's just the others who are at risk. I would run a test for you, but I only have this one PC on now and I'm ready to shut it and me down for the night.