G4 laptop shows up / disappears randomly on both home and office network

Question

I have a G4 laptop that I take between my office and home and for years have had no problem transferring files between it and multiple Macs at both locations. Something has happened in the last few days in which the G4 will show up sometimes on the bonjour network, and then it will not. I'll restart it . . . sometimes it will show up again, sometimes it will not. I've cleared the PRAM, run Cocktail, Applejack . . . same problem. Any ideas what has suddenly affected bonjour on the G4?

Answer 1

If you intend using your portable Mac in a variety of different environments then I recommend you create a series of Locations and then switch between them as required. Keep Automatic for your most used network such as your home or office and then create additional ones for say, wireless networks on the road, an internet connection via your mobile phone and so on.
I am getting confused though, you say
'Actually, even if I boot to the login screen, I will see the G4 appear and can start transferring files, but after 10 -15 minutes, it disappears.'
From what you said earlier in this thread I thought you meant that the G4 laptop would either be visible or not to the other Macs when you join one of your networks not that it is visible for a while then drops off the network. Which is it please?
If it is the latter then check in System Preferences/Energy Saver to see if 'Put the hard disk(s) to sleep ...' is ticked and if it is untick it. You might also want to extend the time for 'Put the computer to sleep ....' to see if that makes a difference.
Message was edited by: Sean Dale1