pcbiker

Barb, I appreciate your help so far. Here's what I found:

1. On Vista, I have the network set Private, and the workgroup name set
(apparently) correctly. I say "apparently" because the Network page show the
workgroup ALL CAPS (as it is in XP), but the network status tooltip (lower
r.h. corner of screen) show the name as Initial Cap only. Probably not
significant, but I want you to know what I see.

2. I installed the LLTP service on one of the XP machines (which still has
Netbios & uPnP disabled). That machine (among the 5 XP machines on my
workgroup) now shows up on the network map. BTW, that machine runs XP Pro;
the other 4 run XP Home.

3. I stll haven't figure out how to access any of the shaed folders on the
XP Pro/LLTP machine. When I double-click on the machine of the nework map,
nothing happens. When I type in "//machine name/foldername" on the Run box,
I get "folder inaccessable" error message.

4. I haven't found any way in Vista to see, or access, the other 4 XP
machines at all. How should I do this? Or, stated differently, what I am
not seeing on Vista that I should see?

5. The Linux file server runs Samba, and is designated as the workgroup
browse master. I did this because the server runs 24/7, and so my family
will never have to wait for a workgroup master-browser election. And it
works properly with the XP machines. Would this be making a difference to
Vista?

6. The server also has a fixed IP address. Vista will not access this
machine or its shared folders, even by IP address or by name.

By way of personal background, I'm a professional computer consultant,
specializing in XP machines, with occasional forays into Win 2000 and older
versions of Windows. My clients tell me I'm pretty good at this, so you can
assume that I am at least generally representative of actual field
technicians who will be dealing with Vista. If I can't make a mixed Vista/XP
workgroup function, after consulting the online help and Googling things like
mad, then it might be reasonable to conclude that (a) I've overlooked
something obvious, or (b) Vista and its documentation leaves much to be
desired in terms of workgroup support.

I would hope that (a) is the correct conclusion; and I hope that you can
lead me to the resolution of my workgroup problem. After all, I've made
stupid errors in the past (as have we all), and expect to make a few in the
future.