Visibilty of other network computer depends if I'm wired or wireless

Small home network consisting of ADSL wireless router (WPA and MAC security in place), my Vista-Business machine, the other wirelessly connected XP Pro machine and wirelessly connected printer.

Using ethernet cable connection to the router I can print, and 'see'/have access to the other computer. But using wireless connection to the router, while I can still print, I cannot 'see' the other computer.

Why the difference? How do I solve this problem, which I didn't have with my old XPPro machine, now sadly dead.

If relevant my firewall is COMODO Pro 3.0.22 etc. But switching off the firewall doesn't seem to make any difference.
David

 

Usually, being able to "see" another computer, means it appearing where you might expect it to in Network Neighbourhood. However, the success of this depends on how well a network protocol called NetBIOS is working - this provides name resolution on simple peer-to-peer networks. In your case it appears the NetBIOS is working OK on the cabled network, but not working so well when you move to wireless.

If you manually create a shortcut to the network resource you connect to regularly, this shortcut is not so susceptible to the vagaries of NetBIOS and will be more reliable.

So connect to the resource (via \\computer_name or \\ip_address) and then copy the target and paste it as a shortcut into the root of Network Neighbourhood.

 

Thanks ReggieB - I'll play around with that reply when I get a chance, and let you know what happened.
David

 

Grrr.. Simply pasting a shortcut to the other computer (dragged from Vista's Network) onto my desktop while wired up, leaves it accessible under wireless conditions - at least for the time being, even though it still does not show up under Vista's Network. It remains to be seen whether this still works after I've switched off and on again. I'll keep you informed.
David

 

OK - switching on and off a few times keeps the connection. It'll be interesting to see if it remains kept when the other computer s switched off and on a few times.

But... seems an inelegant solution to me. I wonder what is the 'proper' way of doing it.

I might try reading up at:

http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/bb727037.aspx

...as was suggested by Arie to a similar question regarding Vista and XP connectivity

Best
David

 

Just to finish this off - Have deleted the shortcut to the other computer - because it now appears under the network. But I didn't do anything. Honest guv... Go figure, as it is said...

 

have also seen this problem and it doesnt make much sense. vista is suppose to be better than xp well i think gates needs to go back to the drawing table on this one. as you can see im not a big fan of vista to many problems getting it to work the way m.s. says it should. hope windows 7 is better.

 

Actually - I think Vista is pretty good on the whole. The odd quirk like this, but it is friendly. You can configure it to stop treating you like an imbecile, if you like. It's pretty robust. It looks good, and it's easy to configure to look even better. I think we've all got the 'playground (schoolyard) chant' mentality where Microsoft is concerned, and Vista in particular. Now that I'm used to it, I really like it.
David

 

maybe i dont play with it enough to see what it can offer all i here is my clients bitching about it and having tons of problems. i do have a vista machine but only to assist when clients call. i still really like xp its stable. maybe vista will become better as time goes on. i do know i wont switch to vista not when my xp works as well as it does. the old saying if it aint broke dont fix it and right now xp aint broke.

 

Interestingly my old laptop (Win XP Pro SP2) broke down irretrievably, and when I got this new machine, I had to think long and hard whether to accept the provided option to "'downgrade' to XP pro ". I took the view that this machine will be my main one for a few years (I hope!) and that Vista will be fully mainstream in a year or so - so might as well start now. I don't regret it. I don't think you will if and when you switch.
But I think we've drifted well off-topic, no?
David

 

a program called network magic sets up printers across the network in a snap
you can install the program
the premium service will last three days or so
you can see if this program sets up the shared printer to confirm it is possible in the wireless mode
overall networking is "Vodoo Science "

 

Yes - I had Network Magic (paid/premium) - and have it on the other machine, too. But I've uninstalled it on this Vista machine and disabled it on the other machine, because it doesn't like my wireless router (keeps telling me it only supports a wired connection), and because of that, was not helping at all with my original problem, and couldn't find my printer wirelessly either. Since it is a bog-standard Belkin F5D9630-4 (UK version) ADSL2 G+ MIMO router - I don't see why NM shouldn't support it - and they clearly have no plans to do so, according to their bot-like response to my query. So - as far as I am concerned Pure Networks (Network Magic) can just get lost. Now everything seems to be working fine without it.