Hiding Your Computer From Other Systems in the Same Network

If you are on a network you do not really trust, and would like to hide your computer from curious eyes while still being able to share files, one simple solution is to conceal your system from the 'network neighborhood' type applications.
Normally in Windows XP, the 'workgroup computers' command executed from the 'my network places' screen will bring up a list of any systems in the same network and workgroup as your system, and allow you to browse any shared resources on these systems. If you would like to stop your system from showing up in this location, bring up the command prompt ('start\run' and type 'cmd') and type 'net config server /hidden:yes.'