Microsoft Windows Network: The local device name is already in use

I am working on a Dell computer running Windows XP. It suddenly started giving problems. When I try to access network drives, I get the message "The local device name is already in use". It was working yesterday but suddenly it started these problem and don't have idea why. Can anybody help me?

This happens may be because two computers using the same name. Duplicacy are not allowed in Windows networking. Try changing the name in one of the computer. Otherwise you can even try removing the existing network mapping. Then creating a new network mapping for the share.

This issue may occur if you log on to the Windows XP-based client by using a different connection type than you use to connect to the file server. If you created the network drive through a local area network (LAN) with your current user credentials, the mapping information does not contain any user information. When you log on to the computer, the operating system establishes only a partial connection to the share, and the network drive is considered used. Later, when you access the network drive, the connection is fully restored.

If you use another connection type such as Remote Access Service (RAS) to connect to the file server, the logon credentials used are different from the credentials that you used to create the network mapping. When you try to access the network drive to restore the connection, the operating system tries to use the logon credentials of the RAS connection. If the file share server does not accept the logon credentials of the RAS connection, the operating system cannot access the share. Then, the operation system tries to re-create the mapping to the already-used network drive, and the error occurs.

Try using the IP instead of the hostname. Otherwise you can try deleting the connection and resetting it as follows:

"net use */delete" in the command prompt