Unauthorized change in computer name

[lenwest]

What would be the cause of a computer's name being changed by itself? Computer is running XP Pro and is on a peer to peer network. It has always been named Laptop2 but we now find it's name has been changed to the same name as the administrator login "William". It was manually changed back to Laptop2 but a few days later, it has again been renamed William.
It appears to running OK. I haven't heard of this kind of problem before.

[YeOldeStonecat]

A most odd one. Where are you seeing the name? When you right click "My Computer", properties, "Computer Name" tab?

Soon as you reboot...immediately check..which name shows?

At a command prompt, nbtstat -n
What do you get?

Was this PC ever a member of a domain?

[lenwest]

A most odd one. Where are you seeing the name? When you right click "My Computer", properties, "Computer Name" tab?

Soon as you reboot...immediately check..which name shows?

At a command prompt, nbtstat -n
What do you get?

Was this PC ever a member of a domain?

I agree - this is really odd. We have changed it back once and on rebooting the new name reappears. The name shows in the area you mention. On other computers on the same LAN, the "new" name shows up in Network Places instead of the traditional name of laptop2. Pinging this computer from others can only be done by pinging the new name and not the traditional name.
Rebooting maintains the "new" name
This PC was never a member of a domain.

When I get home tonight I shall check the nbtstat -n results and post.

thanks for the interest.

[lenwest]

Mea culpa. Culprit discovered.
The computer was having trouble logging into different networks (with a static IP). The user installed NetSetMan and inadvertently filled in the PC name with his user name. I logged in remotely using Logmein and noted the naming error.
Changed PC name in NetSetMan.
I would guess all would be OK now.
Wow, it was driving me nuts.