Proper way to configure a network?

[apu95]

I seem to have this problem on and off, and it's been happening since I had XP, then when I had Vista, and now when I have 7. I can never have my network working properly =(. Sometimes using computer names (\\comp_name) works, other times I have to force it by using the IP address because the other method says the host doesn't exist. I have no idea how to fix this issue and it's been driving me nuts for a very long time now. I don't mind reconfiguring my entire network, so don't hesitate to suggest that as long as you can provide steps .
My router is issuing static DHCP ip addresses based on MAC addresses, other than that, there's nothing very special about the current configuration (no weird software firewalls, etc).

 

[Johnny]

If you are using a regular router all you really have to do is hook the computers up to it. I have a network with windows 7 on all computers, and a print server. It works great. You might be hooking it up wrong, or have the setting wrongs. I would unhook everything, set everything to default, then re-hook everything up to see what it does ..

 

[apu95]

That's pretty much what I have right now, except that one computer is running Vista, the other is running XP, and the rest are running 7. When you say I should set everything to default, what exactly is there to set?