Resolved XP laptop can't find Vista Laptop

Hi there, I'm hoping someone can help me out with this.

I have a Vista laptop and an XP (SP2) laptop which I'm trying to file share between. I've followed a lot of the "how to" guides and both the laptops are in the same workgroup.

From the Vista laptop, everything is fine. I can ping the XP laptop, see it in Network places and access the shared folders on it.

From the XP laptop, it's a different story. I can ping the Vista laptop (by name and by IP) but it does not appear in Network Places nor is it found in a "search for computer "

Any ideas? I feel like I'm very close but I just don't see what the next step is.

 

Thanks for the suggestion.
Both machines have a user name and password to log on, and these are the same for both.
On the Vista machine I went into "Network and Sharing Center" and turned off "Password protected sharing" but that hasn't made a difference that I can see.

 

No problem - anything I can do to get to the bottom of this!

The vista machine is named "Doug-PC" and workgroup "WORKGROUP "
The XP machine is named "benq" and in workgroup "WORKGROUP "

On the Vista machine I can see both machines in my explorer | network area and view the shared files on both machines.

On the XP one, I can successfully ping "doug-pc "
But I can't find it if I do a search for computer of that name, nor can I map a network drive e.g. \\Doug-PC\movies
I would get the error "the network path \\doug-pc\movies can not be found "

 

OK I have changed my settings as suggested. I've turned off "public folder sharing" and turned on "password protection ".

My settings now:
Network discovery: On
File Sharing: On
Public folder sharing: Off
Printer sharing: Off (<---- I can't turn this on, I have no printer)
Password protection: On
Media sharing: Off

To be sure, I went to the movies folder and removed the share. Then I started again.
The list was
Doug Owner
<Unknown Contact> Co-owner

I added
Everyone Reader

and clicked "share ".

I'm still not getting it from the XP machine.
I can ping doug-pc successfully
If I windows search for computer "doug-pc" I don't find anything
If I "explore" my network places | entire network | microsoft windows network | workgroup then I get the error message
"Workgroup is not accessible. You might not have permission to use this network resourse. Contact the administrator of this server to find out if you have access permissions.
Windows cannot find the network path. Verify that the network path is correct and the destination computer is not busy or turned off. If Windows still cannot find the network path, contact your network administrator. "


Any ideas?

 

Thanks, I've given that a go.

net use \\192.168.1.103 /uoug
and the response was
"System error 53 has occurred.
The network path was not found. "

I turned off the firewall on the Vista machine (it was Windows Firewall) and retried. Got the same error, although I think the error message appeared more quickly.

Just rebooted the router (Linksys Wireless G) and the situation is still the same.

 

OK, thanks for this.
I'm pretty sure that the DNS is correct. Well, I certainly haven't messed with it! And if I am on the XP machine and "ping doug-pc" then it correctly resolves that to an IP address and pings the Vista machine. So that sounds right to me.

For the NetBIOS thing, I have just gone into the advanced properties of the wireless connection. It was set to the option "take the values from DHCP......" and I changed it to a straight "enable NetBIOS" and rebooted but that hasn't changed my situation.

How would I know if "File and Printer Sharing for Microsoft Networks" is installed on the XP machine?

Also is there any significance in the fact that if I am drilling down through network places it doesn't allow me to access "workgroup "? Should it not at least see itself in there?

 

Thanks for both those replies.
I checked and the XP machine does have File and Printer sharing on the network tab.
I tried the IP reset on the XP machine and rebooted it and it still won't find Doug-PC

Would it help to post the resetlog?

I'm still baffled why it can ping "doug-pc" but not find it when I do a windows "search for computer "

 

Appreciate the continued suggestions!
That's not it, unfortunately.
I have shared a folder on the XP machine, and I can see it fine from the Vista machine.
I've just been on the XP machine and checked and the folder option "use simple file sharing" was checked, so I unchecked it and rebooted.
I can still see the XP folder from the Vista machine but not the Vista folder from the XP machine.
The XP machine still won't let me drill into "Workgroup ", nor will it find the Vista machine by name in a search from Explorer.

 

First time I tried this I got "System error 53 "

Then I remembered that I had re-enabled the Vista Windows Firewall (setup for a private home network)
So I disabled Windows Vista Firewall and tried again and this time I got

"System error 51 has occurred.
Windows cannot find the network path. Verify that the network path is correct and the destination computer is not busy or turned off. If Windows still cannot find the network path, contact your network administrator "

Both computers are definitely operational, and the network is working, it's a straightforward wireless router (linksys wireless g) that both are connected to. I've got working internet browsers on both. In fact I can run tomcat on the vista machine and connect to it using http://doug-pc:8080/ in an internet browser. I can also ping doug-pc. I just for some reason can't see the workgroup or the computer in windows explorer on the XP machine.

It's very frustrating, maybe we should give up?

 

Fantastic!

It was the File and Printer sharing on the Vista machine that wasn't turned on. I had checked it on the XP machine but didn't find it on Vista
Network and Sharing Center | Manage Wireless Networks | Adapter Properties

Turning that on got me to Error 5. (I'm not sure why XP didn't pass across my logged on user name) but then I could map the network drive and use "connect as" to specify my vista username and password and it worked! I can see the Vista shares :-D

Thanks for the patience and the help!