Vista shared printer not accessible by other Vista PC

I have a small 3 PC network with 2 Vista Business machines and 1 XP Pro
machine. XP can access the shared folders and printer on both Vista machines.
Both Vista machines can access the shared folders on the XP machine. However
neither Vista machine can access the other's shared folders or printer
without being prompted for a username and password.

Both Vista machines are configured for the same workgroup as a private
network with file sharing, public sharing and printer sharing turned on.
Password protection is turned off. The firewall settings show printer and
file sharing access enabled.

So why does this happen? If XP can work with Vista and Vista can work with
XP why isn't Vista working with Vista?

(FWIW: For any MS people, networking was just fine in Windows 2000, since
then it's gone downhill, imo)

can both Vista ping each other by IP? if yes, can they ping by name?

--
Bob Lin, MS-MVP, MCSE & CNE
Networking, Internet, Routing, VPN Troubleshooting on
http://www.ChicagoTech.net
How to Setup Windows, Network, VPN & Remote Access on
http://www.HowToNetworking.com


"Denys T" <DenysT@discussions.microsoft.com> wrote in message
news:4A76A1CF-C3B0-4436-8A39-030758BA6548@microsoft.com...
>I have a small 3 PC network with 2 Vista Business machines and 1 XP Pro
> machine. XP can access the shared folders and printer on both Vista
> machines.
> Both Vista machines can access the shared folders on the XP machine.
> However
> neither Vista machine can access the other's shared folders or printer
> without being prompted for a username and password.
>
> Both Vista machines are configured for the same workgroup as a private
> network with file sharing, public sharing and printer sharing turned on.
> Password protection is turned off. The firewall settings show printer and
> file sharing access enabled.
>
> So why does this happen? If XP can work with Vista and Vista can work with
> XP why isn't Vista working with Vista?
>
> (FWIW: For any MS people, networking was just fine in Windows 2000, since
> then it's gone downhill, imo)

Both Vista machines are pingable (is that a word?) and all show up in the
workgroup so network discovery is working. If I connect to the printer using
the guest account I can print a test page. But afterwards if I try to print
an Excel spreadsheet for example it goes into queue but stalls with Error -
sent to printer. Opening the printer folder and after clearing the job if I
try to print a test page I get the same error.

"Robert L. (MS-MVP)" wrote:

> can both Vista ping each other by IP? if yes, can they ping by name?
>
> --
> Bob Lin, MS-MVP, MCSE & CNE
> Networking, Internet, Routing, VPN Troubleshooting on
> http://www.ChicagoTech.net
> How to Setup Windows, Network, VPN & Remote Access on
> http://www.HowToNetworking.com
>
>
> "Denys T" <DenysT@discussions.microsoft.com> wrote in message
> news:4A76A1CF-C3B0-4436-8A39-030758BA6548@microsoft.com...
> >I have a small 3 PC network with 2 Vista Business machines and 1 XP Pro
> > machine. XP can access the shared folders and printer on both Vista
> > machines.
> > Both Vista machines can access the shared folders on the XP machine.
> > However
> > neither Vista machine can access the other's shared folders or printer
> > without being prompted for a username and password.
> >
> > Both Vista machines are configured for the same workgroup as a private
> > network with file sharing, public sharing and printer sharing turned on.
> > Password protection is turned off. The firewall settings show printer and
> > file sharing access enabled.
> >
> > So why does this happen? If XP can work with Vista and Vista can work with
> > XP why isn't Vista working with Vista?
> >
> > (FWIW: For any MS people, networking was just fine in Windows 2000, since
> > then it's gone downhill, imo)
>
>