Home Network

[TubaCoopa]

Ok, so I just bought a new laptop and router, and I want to share files and possibly a printer between my laptop (Vista) and my desktop (XP). How do I go about doing this? Here's the setup so far:
My internet comes in through the modem, then to the router, then to my desktop via ethernet. My laptop connects to the internet wirelessly through the router.

I've already scoured the internet for help, but to no avail. (All the websites only talk about both computers being wired or wireless, not both) Any help would be appreciated.

[AndyCat]

As long as they're both members of the same workgroup (ie Workgroup!) and you enable sharing on both it should just work.

Some printers don't work very well shared when the printer is physically attached to the XP machine. My Samsung refuses point blank, whereas my Minolta and Epson work just fine.

[The Jackson]

I've tried to use the printer on my wirelessly connected desktop to the printer attached to the other computer, but it won't do it. They sell print servers, though. The dude at Best Buy said that I could only use the printer if the computer it was attached to was powered on. I tried working on that, but I couldn't get it. I don't know how much print servers cost, but I might be looking to get one soon.

[TubaCoopa]

OK, I think I can give up on sharing the printer, but how do I make both computers part of the same workgroup and enable sharing? Is that all I have to do?

[AndyCat]

On XP it's right click 'My Computer'-> Properties -> then Computer Name.
On Vista it's under computer then system properties.

[Rick Denney]

I've tried to use the printer on my wirelessly connected desktop to the printer attached to the other computer, but it won't do it. They sell print servers, though. The dude at Best Buy said that I could only use the printer if the computer it was attached to was powered on. I tried working on that, but I couldn't get it. I don't know how much print servers cost, but I might be looking to get one soon.

Yes, the computer hosting the printer must be running. Then, make sure you "share" the printer on that computer. That will make the printer available to other computers on the network, and not just to computers in the same workgroup.

It will also make the printer driver on that computer available to other computers on the network that install the printer. A network-attached printer will often require you to take the printer driver disk around to any computer that might want to use it to install the driver. Many prints have a driver built into their OS, but it may not support all the features. All that is definitely true with my Brother networked laser printer. It's much easier to share it than to use the network connection directly.

There is no difference for me between my wirelessly attached computer and my hard-wired computers (and I currently have up to seven computers on my home network). But make sure that the network computers are on the same side of any firewall--there is very little beyond basic internet access that you can push through a firewall. The firewall should be between the network and the internet, not between the wireless access point and the wired network.

Vista makes everything harder in my experience. I bought a cheapie computer at Best Buy to use with my ham radio stuff. It had Vista. I struggled with that POS for two months and gave up. I put a different computer there, and converted the Vista box to a Ubuntu Linux box. Now it works predictably without annoying me at every turn. If you just want an email box, or basic office productivity, try Ubuntu Linux. It comes wiht Open Office, Firefox, and so on, and there's very little one needs to add to it. The only issue I've found so far in trading workaday files back and forth between Open Office and Microsoft Office has been when one file used non-standard fonts. But there is a fix for that, too. I would not consider this for very sophisticated Office files, but for everyday stuff, especially at home, it works fine. And it's free.

Rick "who will probably skip Vista altogether and wait for Microsoft's next attempt" Denney

[TubaCoopa]

OK, I've put both of my computers on the "Workgroup" workgroup. How do I make them find or see each other? That I believe is where the real problem is.

[Doug@GT]

I don't know if they've fixed this in the meantime since I last tried it, but last summer when I got my laptop with Vista I had a similar problem. I tried using a network router (both wired and wireless with the laptop) AND a basic crossover cable--no dice. I finally found a site that said, basically, Vista and XP can't talk to each other on a network and you need to download a patch for XP from Microsoft.

Because of my *cough* version of XP, I was unable to install the patch. So I just transferred what I needed (not much) via my really big external hard drive.

[SplatterTone]

I'm not sure how much talking you want the computers to do. All I have ever done is some file sharing. I create the share on the source computer. On the client, I "map network drive" in explorer and use the IP address of the source. You can get the IP address from a few places. Probably the easiest place is to:
Start=>Run=> type "cmd"
to get a DOS prompt. Then type "ipconfig".
I set up my wired/wireless router to hand out dynamic IP addresses starting with 192.168.1.100. The computers are setup to use DHCP, but they hang on the IP address they originally got back in Genesis 1:1. I set the print server to use 192.168.1.150 since I figured I could remember an even number like that.

It is weird if Vista and XP won't do old fashioned shares. But I don't do Vista.

[The Jackson]

The first thing I did when I got my Vista machine was to take off or disable ALL the crap that came with it/that Microsoft wants me to use. I deleted every little "virus blocker", shut down the firewall and all that stuff. I then downloaded the software that I have used for those applications that have served me well in the past. I've had hardly any issues with it; surely nothing that would make me want to change my OS. I've only had one serious malware issue since I got in June of last year and that was because I was an idiot. I was able to fix the issue in a few hours with no outside support.

[TubaCoopa]

Finally, I got my computers C drives networked, only to find another problem. When I try to access the User folders on my XP desktop from my Vista laptop, It says that access is denied. However, the XP desktop can access the Vista laptop's User folders just fine. Is there something I'm missing?

*edit*

Now that I've tried, I can't save or edit files on my Vista laptop from my XP desktop either. Is this a problem with permissions or the OS or something else?

[SplatterTone]

It's generally best to create a share on the specific directory (or "folder" ... yuck) you want to network rather than on the entire drive. However, regardless of how you do it, there are indeed permissions you set when you create the share. There are also local permissions on the files and directories. I'm a little hazy on the details because I haven't done it in a while. But I'm thinking that to grant access to the entire C$ share, you might need to add the remote user as an administrator.