Have small home network. Using MS networking. A few XP systems & a couple of
Vista home systems. Can see MS network on all computers except one of the
Vistas. I'm reasonably familiar with XP, but not so much with Vista. Have
checked the various network settings on the offending system. All seems to
be in order. The other Vista system works fine. Problem system can get to
the internet fine. It can also get to other resources on the home network via
FTP. Is there a trouble shooting guide to help isolate the problem?

Carlzzz wrote:

Have small home network. Using MS networking. A few XP systems & a couple
of Vista home systems. Can see MS network on all computers except one of
the
Vistas. I'm reasonably familiar with XP, but not so much with Vista. Have
checked the various network settings on the offending system. All seems
to
be in order. The other Vista system works fine. Problem system can get to
the internet fine. It can also get to other resources on the home network
via
FTP. Is there a trouble shooting guide to help isolate the problem?

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

Problems sharing files between computers on a network are generally caused
by 1) a misconfigured firewall or overlooked firewall (including a stateful
firewall in a VPN); 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 security software 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. DO NOT TURN OFF FIREWALLS; CONFIGURE THEM CORRECTLY.

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. DO NOT NEGLECT TO CREATE
PASSWORDS, EVEN IF ONLY SIMPLE ONES. 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, turn off
Simple File Sharing (Folder OptionsView tab).


Malke
--
MS-MVP
Elephant Boy Computers - Don't Panic!
FAQ - http://www.elephantboycomputers.com/#FAQ

"Malke" wrote:
...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.


Is that the syntax for a range of IP addresses in, say, Norton's
Personal Firewall or the Zone Alarm Personal Firewall? Or does
one have to list each IP address separately?

*TimDaniels*

"Malke" wrote:
D. If one or more of the computers is XP Pro or Media Center,
turn off Simple File Sharing (Folder OptionsView tab).


Turn off Simple File Sharing in which OS - XP or Vista?

*TimDaniels*

Timothy Daniels wrote:

"Malke" wrote:
...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.


Is that the syntax for a range of IP addresses in, say, Norton's
Personal Firewall or the Zone Alarm Personal Firewall? Or does
one have to list each IP address separately?

*TimDaniels*

To answer both your questions:

1. As is written: "If one or more of the computers is XP Pro or Media
Center, turn off Simple File Sharing (Folder OptionsView tab)".

2. I can't comment on how one correctly allows the LAN as trusted in any
Norton or Zone Alarm products since I don't use, recommend, or support
them. I suggest reading the Help file for the program in question and/or
looking for user forums for answers. I know that ZA has active user forums.

Malke
--
MS-MVP
Elephant Boy Computers - Don't Panic!
FAQ - http://www.elephantboycomputers.com/#FAQ