Vista - LAN and sharing ailments:

For the first time last night I had a fully functional network. On the Vista machine I could see the laptop Icon, click into it and have alook at the files I could share.

I was about to test the shared printer but I decided to re-boot the Vista Machine and the network had collapsed and I was back to square one.

I could see the XP Laptop name when I have a look at the Network Map but nothing else. It's there in name only.

Now I think I have everything set up properly, I know this because for a moment, as I mentioned, the LAN was working fine with regards to sharing files.


This is my set-up.

A Lynksys Router Modem. ( I have not installed drivers for this on the Vista nor any update drivers, it worked properly when I connected the Vista to the router)

a Canon i560 Printer USB which is plugged in to my Vista. Vista recognised the printer and I can print from the vista no problems.


From the Vista:

I can see the other Laptop on the Netwrk Map but it doesn't appear on the network. For a moment it did like I mentioned but it has now dissapeared again. I can print to the printer from this machine

From The XP:

I can see the Vista and open up the public share files, I can set the defalt printer (\\Vista\canon i560)

But when I try and print from the Laptop it asks me for drivers and asks for a *.inf file.

So I re-installed the orginal drivers for the canon on the XP hoping that would help. I've also set the switches on the Vista to set where the rendering of the file to be printed. To no avail though.

Something is not right and this has me scrathing my head.

Any suggestions would be appreciated.

First, Are you on the same workgroup? Vista has network discovery which helps when it comes to file sharing with xp, but doesn't completely work unless the computers are on the same domain or workgroup.

Second, are your printer's drivers x64 compatible?

I've had the same issue as you and my solution is make sure that all your computers are on the same workgroup and that your drivers are x64 compatible.

Thanks for the reply but you must have skipped the first line of the OT.

Cheers


Baically I had it working...I reboot Vista and it's not working again.

I will however try keeping the printer on the laptop and access the printer from Vista through the XP and see how I go there but considering my only problem is Vista does see the XP but it's icon in the network map won;t click-on to give me access to the share folders on the XP system.

I hear what you're saying. Unfortunately, to be brutually honest I've had the same issue, but it was at 3 in the morining, so i made a few clicks and it works just fine now, so i have no idea what i did. I'm gonna do some backtracking to see if i can't help you at all.

What I might try to do is just come up with a unique workgroup name and re-do both.

UNfortunately the way the room is set up the laptop needs to be portable so it's not ideal to have the printer permanently attached to to the laptop.

within a moth I will probably buy a printer/scanner combo and go from there.

I just want the network to work 100% even if the printer doesn;t right now.

I'll keep messing around and see how I go.

I know the firewall on the XP is set to allow LAN access but I need to double check that on the Vista.

cheers


I have read somewhere about setting up a user account on the vista for the XP but that doesn;t make sense to me.

I've heard about the whole user account thing and you don't need to do that. If anything, it will cause more conflicts.

I'm trying to think here....

I have vista on my notebook and i can print to my xp computers, share files and everything. I'm trying to think of what i did to get my network "perfect" and we're all under the same MSHOME workgroup.

I would go ahead and try to recreate the workgroup on each computer and make them the same for each computer.

Something else just occured to me, on the vista machine, (not insulting your intelligence) but make sure your home network is set to private. Regardless if you have sharing enabled in the public setting, the firewall only sees the public and blocks regardless of the sharing setting.

Hope this helps.

I definately have Private set-up and publich sharing is off.

another weird thing is that lately there is a new icon in the View Network Map on the Vista

Before it looked like this


Vista PC------- Gateway(rounter)-----internet
. ..............|
. ..............|
XP PC_____|


Now it looks like this:

Vista PC-------switch--------Gateway(rounter)-----internet
. ..............|
. ............. |
XP PC_____|


I don;t know where that switch came from.

When I had it working I had no "switch" Icon and I can click on the XPpc icon to access any shared files on the XP

OK...fingers cross but it seems I havebeen able to fix the sharing and Vista can now access the shered files on windows Xp

It seems the problem was on the XP windows side.

I discovered that everytime I rebooted the XP under:

Control Panel/Network Connections/LAN/Properties... the "File and Print Sharing" check box keeps turning off. Even though the Firewall on the XP allows it (windows Firewall no third party firewall).

After some serious browsing on the net I discovered and tried this little diagnostic tool I found on the MS website:

http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/d...displaylang=en

I ran this then ran the Network set-up wizard again on the XP and it works now...though I admit that I haven't re-booted the XP yet so I'm not sure if I have resolved the issue with the Xp turning "File and Print Share" off on re-boot.

The other issue I have now is that on rebooting the XP I'm asked to log-in to the PC as "user" even though i haven't messed around with accounts. I don;t enter a password I just click OK and it finishes loading up WinXP. Anyone here who could enlighten me on this aspect as I prefer not to use accounts on the XP. In User Accounts...there are only two accounts now...XXXXX (the administrator) and a Guest account which I enabled to see what happens.

Thanks everyone who made suggestions in this thread...

Update:

Rebooted XP machine

and sure enough "File and Print sharing" is turned off.

Will have to check this out.

Though..by clicking it on again Vista can read the XP....

Strange....

The PC running XP is a THINKPAD laptop. I have now sorted out all network and sharing problems.

On thinkpad laptop you need to access the ThinkVantage module and uncheck File& Print sharing. Checked means it turns it off when you re-boot.

Faith in microsoft restored....

Tommorow...setting up a Canon Network Printer.