Hey all,

I was just wondering if anyone knew the steps you had to take to network a
new Vista Home Premium laptop to the desktop and router. This is for file
sharing purposes. The signal is already setup and secured from the router, I
just now have to figure out how to access the workgroup from the desktop to
the laptop. I have tried the traditional wizard approach however, the laptop
is new and therefore does not have a floppy drive to create a network startup
disk.

On Wed, 25 Apr 2007 15:34:04 -0700, genubath30
wrote:

Hey all,

I was just wondering if anyone knew the steps you had to take to network a
new Vista Home Premium laptop to the desktop and router. This is for file
sharing purposes. The signal is already setup and secured from the router, I
just now have to figure out how to access the workgroup from the desktop to
the laptop. I have tried the traditional wizard approach however, the laptop
is new and therefore does not have a floppy drive to create a network startup
disk.

You don't need a floppy disk.

To setup a Vista server,
* Set the Network Location Type to "Private". This implies that your
computers are secure, behind a perimeter firewall or a NAT router, and opens the
personal firewall for file sharing.
* Check / set "Password protected sharing" (PPS). Disabling PPS is the
equivalent of enabling Simple File Sharing, in Windows XP.
* Setup shared folders and printers. If you enabled PPS, you should setup
access for individual users. If you disabled PPS, you setup access for "Guest"
or "Everyone".
http://www.microsoft.com/technet/network/evaluate/vista_fp.mspx
http://www.microsoft.com/technet/net.../vista_fp.mspx

To setup an XP server, run the Network Setup Wizard. With a router connection,
select
This computer connects to the Internet through another computer on my network or
through a residential gateway.
http://nitecruzr.blogspot.com/2005/05/using-network-setup-wizard-in-windows.html#NATClient
http://nitecruzr.blogspot.com/2005/0...html#NATClient

XP Pro can use either Advanced File Sharing which is equivalent to Enabled PPS,
or Simple File Sharing which is equivalent to Disabled PPS. Within AFS / PPS,
you have the choice of Guest, or non-Guest, authentication. Which ever choice
you make, be sure that the account chosen is properly prepared for network
access.
http://nitecruzr.blogspot.com/2005/06/file-sharing-under-windows-xp.html
http://nitecruzr.blogspot.com/2005/0...indows-xp.html

Both Vista and XP can have the same Windows Networking issues.
* Put all computers in the same workgroup.
* Make sure that NetBT is Enabled consistently.
* Make sure that any third party firewalls are properly setup.
* Make sure that name resolution is consistently setup.
http://nitecruzr.blogspot.com/2006/12/windows-xp-and-vista-on-lan-together.html
http://nitecruzr.blogspot.com/2006/1...-together.html

--
Cheers,
Chuck, MS-MVP [Windows - Networking]
http://nitecruzr.blogspot.com/
Paranoia is not a problem, when it's a normal response from experience.
My email is AT DOT
actual address pchuck mvps org.