I have a small business with four or five computers and we just replaced two
with units running Vista Home. I can connect to the internet and send/receive
e-mail with both systems but when I attempt to connect from one computer to
another, I can only go in one direction (from one unit to another). The first
connects to the second unit and also connects to the other units running
Windows XP as can the Windows XP units to the first Vista unit. The second
Vista unit will only connect to the first Vista, the XP units do not appier
in the network mapping. I've compaired all settings I can think of between
the first and second Vista units and all are the same. I need to share
printers and storage devices so any help or suggestions will be greatly
appriceated.

Hi B Farkas,

On your Second vista Unit first Make sure Network Discovery is turned
on, Also File Sharing. make sure the following Services are Set to
automatic and started.

Function Discovery Resource Publication Serivce

Function Discovery Host service

Server Service

and that your firewall allows file & print sharing to passthrough if
you have a 3rd party


Hope this helps

Cheers !!


--
john_cena

-Shihan Sylvester Pietersz-
-(MCP,MCSA,MCSE+Security,MCSE+Messeging-
-MCTS,MCITP)-
-Systems -::-Engineer / Consultant Trainer- ::

B Farkas wrote:

I have a small business with four or five computers and we just replaced
two with units running Vista Home. I can connect to the internet and
send/receive e-mail with both systems but when I attempt to connect from
one computer to another, I can only go in one direction (from one unit to
another). The first connects to the second unit and also connects to the
other units running Windows XP as can the Windows XP units to the first
Vista unit. The second Vista unit will only connect to the first Vista,
the XP units do not appier in the network mapping. I've compaired all
settings I can think of between the first and second Vista units and all
are the same. I need to share printers and storage devices so any help or
suggestions will be greatly appriceated.

Here are general network troubleshooting steps. 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.

E. Create shares as desired. XP Home does not permit sharing of users' home
directories or Program Files, but you can share folders inside those
directories. A better choice is to simply use the Shared Documents folder.
See the first link above for details about Vista sharing.

F. After you have file sharing working (and have tested this by exchanging a
file between all machines), if you want to share a printer connected
locally to one of your computers, share it out from that machine. Then go
to the printer mftr.'s website and download the latest drivers for the
correct operating system(s). Install them on the target machine(s). The
printer should be seen during the installation routine. If it is not,
install the drivers and then use the Add Printer Wizard.

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

Two suggestions:
1. See the link ' 'Network Map in Windows Vista does not display
computers that are running Windows XP'
(http://support.microsoft.com/kb/922120) ' regarding Network Discovery
for Windows XP - You need to install the LLTD Responder component on
each XP PC for Vista to put the XP PCs into the map correctly AFAIK
2. Have you checked your firewall settings? I sometimes find it useful
when I have had this sort of problem to disconnect my router from the
internet (for security) and then disable all firewalls and check the
connectivity. If it connects then it is a firewall setting.


--
log64

*Giga-Byte GA-X48-DQ6, Q9450, 8GB ECC RAM, ATI Radeon HD3470, 2.5TB HD
*