I am having real trouble trying to set up a simple home network. I can see
the residential gateway icon which my sons xp computer is connected to ( I am
running vista) but I cannot see his computer. As far as I know I have
configured everything. I just want to let him access the music on my vista
computer. I downloaded Network magic which can see his computer but I cannot
download it onto his xp as my exhusband built it for him and it hasn't got xp
service pack 2 on it and cannot get it. If network magic can locate his xp
computer why can't I see it without using network magic. Can anyone just tell
me what to do in simple terms before I scream.

For everyone having problems with seeing computers on the network and
file/print sharing, you need to do a couple of things.

1) Make sure your Windows XP computers have SP2 installed. Download and
install it using Windows Update as described here
http://www.microsoft.com/windowsxp/sp2/default.mspx

2) Change your TCPIP properties on your network connections to use NetBIOS
over TCPIP. This is needs to be done on wireless network adapters also.
Make this change on all XP, 2003 and Vista computers.

3) Download and install Link Layer Topology Discovery (LLTD) Responder
(KB922120) on each Windows XP computer.
http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/d...displaylang=en

4) Insure all computers sharing files and printers are configured for the
same workgroup name.

5) Verify installed firewalls allow IP traffic on the trusted local subnet
(ie. 192.168.0.0/24),