Hi there

First of all I am not the most technically minded person when it comes to
networking so whoever is able to help then please use child talk!

All I want to do is get my Vista Home Premium laptop to share my XP
desktop - and vice versa. How do I do it? I was easily able to do it on 2
XP machines but I am totally baffled by the XP to Vista set up :-(

HELLLLLLLLP!


--
Regards,

Bob

Bob wrote:

Hi there

First of all I am not the most technically minded person when it comes to
networking so whoever is able to help then please use child talk!

All I want to do is get my Vista Home Premium laptop to share my XP
desktop - and vice versa. How do I do it? I was easily able to do it on
2 XP machines but I am totally baffled by the XP to Vista set up :-(

I don't know what the "(140508") in your subject line references, but here
are general networking instructions:

Not everything may be applicable to your situation, so just take the bits
that are. It may look daunting, but if you follow the steps at the links
and suggestions below systematically and calmly, you will have no
difficulty in setting up your sharing.

Excellent, thorough, yet easy to understand article about File/Printer
Sharing in Vista. Includes details about sharing printers as well as files
and folders:

http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/l.../bb727037.aspx

For XP, start by running the Network Setup Wizard on all machines (see
caveat in Item A below).

Problems sharing files between computers on a network are generally caused
by 1) a misconfigured firewall; or 2) inadvertently running two firewalls
such as the built-in Windows Firewall and a third-party firewall; and/or 3)
not having identical user accounts and passwords on all Workgroup machines;
4) trying to create shares where the operating system does not permit it.

A. Configure firewalls on all machines to allow the Local Area Network (LAN)
traffic as trusted. With Windows Firewall, this means allowing File/Printer
Sharing on the Exceptions tab. Normally running the Network Setup Wizard on
XP will take care of this for those machines.The only "gotcha" is that this
will turn on the XPSP2 Windows Firewall. If you aren't running a
third-party firewall or have an antivirus with "Internet Worm
Protection" (like Norton 2006/07) which acts as a firewall, then you're
fine. With third-party firewalls, I usually configure the LAN allowance
with an IP range. Ex. would be 192.168.1.0-192.168.1.254. Obviously you
would substitute your correct subnet. Do not run more than one firewall.

B. For ease of organization, put all computers in the same Workgroup. This
is done from the System applet in Control Panel, Computer Name tab.

C. Create matching user accounts and passwords on all machines. You do not
need to be logged into the same account on all machines and the passwords
assigned to each user account can be different; the accounts/passwords just
need to exist and match on all machines. If you wish a machine to boot
directly to the Desktop (into one particular user's account) for
convenience, you can do this. The instructions at this link work for both
XP and Vista:

Configure Windows to Automatically Login (MVP Ramesh) -
http://windowsxp.mvps.org/Autologon.htm

D. If one or more of the computers is XP Pro or Media Center:

1. If you need Pro's ability to set fine-grained permissions, turn off
Simple File Sharing (Folder OptionsView tab) and create identical user
accounts/passwords on all computers.

2. If you don't care about using Pro's advanced features, leave the Simple
File Sharing enabled. Simple File Sharing means that Guest (network) is
enabled. This means that anyone without a user account on the target system
can use its resources. This is a security hole but only you can decide if
it matters in your situation.

Malke
--
MS-MVP
Elephant Boy Computers
www.elephantboycomputers.com
Don't Panic!

Thanks for that Malke - I will give it a shot!

The 140508 just makes it easier incase someone has already had the same
subject. (If that makes sense!! It does to me!)


Bob

"Malke" wrote in message
...
Bob wrote:

Hi there

First of all I am not the most technically minded person when it comes to
networking so whoever is able to help then please use child talk!

All I want to do is get my Vista Home Premium laptop to share my XP
desktop - and vice versa. How do I do it? I was easily able to do it on
2 XP machines but I am totally baffled by the XP to Vista set up :-(

I don't know what the "(140508") in your subject line references, but here
are general networking instructions:

Not everything may be applicable to your situation, so just take the bits
that are. It may look daunting, but if you follow the steps at the links
and suggestions below systematically and calmly, you will have no
difficulty in setting up your sharing.

Excellent, thorough, yet easy to understand article about File/Printer
Sharing in Vista. Includes details about sharing printers as well as files
and folders:

http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/l.../bb727037.aspx

For XP, start by running the Network Setup Wizard on all machines (see
caveat in Item A below).

Problems sharing files between computers on a network are generally caused
by 1) a misconfigured firewall; or 2) inadvertently running two firewalls
such as the built-in Windows Firewall and a third-party firewall; and/or
3)
not having identical user accounts and passwords on all Workgroup
machines;
4) trying to create shares where the operating system does not permit it.

A. Configure firewalls on all machines to allow the Local Area Network
(LAN)
traffic as trusted. With Windows Firewall, this means allowing
File/Printer
Sharing on the Exceptions tab. Normally running the Network Setup Wizard
on
XP will take care of this for those machines.The only "gotcha" is that
this
will turn on the XPSP2 Windows Firewall. If you aren't running a
third-party firewall or have an antivirus with "Internet Worm
Protection" (like Norton 2006/07) which acts as a firewall, then you're
fine. With third-party firewalls, I usually configure the LAN allowance
with an IP range. Ex. would be 192.168.1.0-192.168.1.254. Obviously you
would substitute your correct subnet. Do not run more than one firewall.

B. For ease of organization, put all computers in the same Workgroup. This
is done from the System applet in Control Panel, Computer Name tab.

C. Create matching user accounts and passwords on all machines. You do not
need to be logged into the same account on all machines and the passwords
assigned to each user account can be different; the accounts/passwords
just
need to exist and match on all machines. If you wish a machine to boot
directly to the Desktop (into one particular user's account) for
convenience, you can do this. The instructions at this link work for both
XP and Vista:

Configure Windows to Automatically Login (MVP Ramesh) -
http://windowsxp.mvps.org/Autologon.htm

D. If one or more of the computers is XP Pro or Media Center:

1. If you need Pro's ability to set fine-grained permissions, turn off
Simple File Sharing (Folder OptionsView tab) and create identical user
accounts/passwords on all computers.

2. If you don't care about using Pro's advanced features, leave the Simple
File Sharing enabled. Simple File Sharing means that Guest (network) is
enabled. This means that anyone without a user account on the target
system
can use its resources. This is a security hole but only you can decide if
it matters in your situation.

Malke
--
MS-MVP
Elephant Boy Computers
www.elephantboycomputers.com
Don't Panic!

Malke,

Can you elaborate more on part A. I have Noron as my firewall on both my XP
laptop and Vista desktop. Exactly how do you "configure the LAN allowance",
and how do you find the "correct subnet"?

thanks,
amanda

amanda wrote:

Malke,

Can you elaborate more on part A. I have Noron as my firewall on both my
XP
laptop and Vista desktop. Exactly how do you "configure the LAN
allowance", and how do you find the "correct subnet"?

Since I would never have a Norton product on any of my machines, I can't
open it up and look for you. Somewhere in the configuration settings for
the Norton firewall is a place to allow your Local Area Network ("LAN") as
trusted. Norton should see the subnet (your network) all by itself, but if
you want to see it go to the XP box. StartRuncmd [enter] Now at the
command prompt type: ipconfig /all [enter]

You'll see your computer's IP address. It will look something like
192.168.1.xxx (where the x's are numbers). This means you're on the
192.168.1.xxx subnet and Norton should allow any traffic between computers
on the 192.168.1.xxx subnet.

You can refer to Norton's Help files for more details.

Malke
--
MS-MVP
Elephant Boy Computers
www.elephantboycomputers.com
Don't Panic!