Vista to Vista network discovery and file sharing

Hi - I operate Vista Ult. 32 on my laptop and desktop. Both are on the
same workgroup. I have a number of external drives connected to my
desktop and a printer that I want to share with my laptop. Problem is
that neither computer is visisble to the other. They are both set to
"private", the drives and folders on my desktop are all set to share,
there is no password controls on any user accounts and file sharing, etc
is all enabled.

This has alwas worked in the past but then suddenly the visibility of
each computer has vanished and so, obviously has the ability to share
files. Both PCs are on the same BT Home Hub Router. I use AVG 8 with
firewall on both computers.

I would like to set up the external drives as network drives, enable
file sharing in the public folders, and in limited circumstances share
individual folders. But I can't get past lack of any visibility on my
network map. What gives?


--
tektron

First of all, it is not recommended to use blank password or no password.

Can you ping each other by IP? If not, double check the firewall. If yes,
can you ping by name?
Vista Password Issues
Can't enable/disable Vista Password Protected Sharing · Vista can open
but save - access denied · Vista can't create file: Make sure file name are
correct ...
www.chicagotech.net/vista/vistapassword.htm


--
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
"tektron" <guest@unknown-email.com> wrote in message
news:3f036ce6c48f57f6c7724dc03c188c3d@nntp-gateway.com...
>
> Hi - I operate Vista Ult. 32 on my laptop and desktop. Both are on the
> same workgroup. I have a number of external drives connected to my
> desktop and a printer that I want to share with my laptop. Problem is
> that neither computer is visisble to the other. They are both set to
> "private", the drives and folders on my desktop are all set to share,
> there is no password controls on any user accounts and file sharing, etc
> is all enabled.
>
> This has alwas worked in the past but then suddenly the visibility of
> each computer has vanished and so, obviously has the ability to share
> files. Both PCs are on the same BT Home Hub Router. I use AVG 8 with
> firewall on both computers.
>
> I would like to set up the external drives as network drives, enable
> file sharing in the public folders, and in limited circumstances share
> individual folders. But I can't get past lack of any visibility on my
> network map. What gives?
>
>
> --
> tektron

Thanks for this. My pinging did not work until I made sure the AVG
firewall profiles were the same for each computer - which happened to be
"allow all". This didn't seem very safe, but the file sharing is now
working. I have put the firewall "on" again on my router and sharing is
still working. Other than password file sharing is there anything else
I should be doing to beef up security? Teltron


--
tektron

To make them more secure, you may just assign private IP address range
instead of allow all.

--
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
"tektron" <guest@unknown-email.com> wrote in message
news:6a56b023c13774eaeccdd40325189334@nntp-gateway.com...
>
> Thanks for this. My pinging did not work until I made sure the AVG
> firewall profiles were the same for each computer - which happened to be
> "allow all". This didn't seem very safe, but the file sharing is now
> working. I have put the firewall "on" again on my router and sharing is
> still working. Other than password file sharing is there anything else
> I should be doing to beef up security? Teltron
>
>
> --
> tektron