Vista - Vista SP1 messing up home network

Hello Hello

(not quite sure where to post this.. here or in the newsgroup?)

I'm having some issues with file sharing in a network with 2 Windows XP pc's and 1 Vista 32bit. One of the XP pcs has a McAfee firewall and the other XP and Vista have standard Windows Firewall
Since I updated to SP1, I am no longer able to access files on the XP pc's or vice versa (accessing Vista files on XP pcs).
Vista can detect both computers but when connecting to them, for example:
\\XP1\shareddocs
it says:
Windows cannot access (that location)
Check the spelling.. etc.. etc..

Same thing on the XP pcs.. "The Network path was not found" when trying to access \\VISTA\PUBLIC.
Tried to reset firewall settings on Vista (read that somewhere) but it didn't help.
The weird thing also is that.. when Vista is connected to the network, the XP pcs can no longer see each other anymore. When I check the workgroup nothing shows up except the machine itself. When Vista is disconnected, the other XP machine shows up again.
Both XP pc's have the LLTD installed (although that doesnt really matter in this case)

There aint that much information but I hope someone can help me, I'm desperately trying to get files transferred to my Vista laptop. I could use bluetooth but when the filesize is over 5 gb... well you get the point.
Thanks

Zwaf:

Welcome to the Vista Forums

There's a good article on ComputerWorld which talks about networking XP and Vista machines together: Teach XP and Vista to play nice on networks

Let us know if that helps.

Hi,

Yea tried that but my problem is a little more complicated. All PCs were already in the same workgroup [MSHOME]. I changed it to WORKGROUP on one of the XP PCs (the other is not here atm) and Vista but it didn't help. Vista can detect the XP PC in the Network Map but when attempting to explore it, it says 'cannot find' and 'is not a valid host name'. On the XP pc, when I look in WORKGROUP, it only shows the XP PC.
Tried flushing DNS on both but no result.

Btw, I did notice something new. When I go to McAfee's 'manage network' option it says the Network is managed by VISTA-PC (knows its name) and McAfee can not change its settings. It didn't say something like that before update to SP1 on VISTA. The VISTAPC is also wirelessly connected to the router and the XP pc's aren't (altough that might not be very useful information).

Ipconfig on VISTA says:

Windows IP Configuration

Host Name: S071808 (--> VISTA-PC)
Primary DNS Suffix: (empty)
Node Type: Peer-to-Peer
IP Routing enabled: No
WINS Proxy enabled: No

Ethernet Adapter Bluetooth Network 12
(not really relevant)

Wireless LAN Adapter Network connection
(IPs are correct)
Connection specific DNS-suffix - (empty)
DHCP enabled - YES
Autoconfiguration enabled - YES
NetBIOS over TCP/IP - enabled

Ok I found out something.

When I choose START -> RUN and type \\192.168.1.3\PUBLIC
it opens the public folder on Vista pc.
But when I try to locate the computer in the network, try to add network location or type \\VISTA-PC\PUBLIC .. nothing shows up. Anyone ??

I am having the same problem.... except my XP machine can find the Vista shared folders with no problem. However, my Vista machine does NOT see the XP shared folders in 'network places', I can only access them via the Start>Run>192.x.x.x. shortcut. It's not the end of the world, but it IS annoying and every week or so something happens to make it conk out and then I have to do a lot of rebooting, changing settings, etc in order for them to 'see' each other again. Is there something that gets reset to default when windows installs an update or something???

I just realized that I originally set the network up in a different configuration, with the XP machine attached to the router (whereas now the Vista machine is attached and the XP is strictly wireless). That's probably the root of my problem, correct?

I'm at work now so I can't check, but if someone wants to verify that, to ease my mind

Also, is there a way to just sort of 'delete' the old network entirely so I can start from scratch rather than worry about old configurations confusing the OS? It's obvious that Vista and XP are just plain 'dumb' when it comes to such things, or else there wouldn't be so many people with similar issues. I'd like to cancel out as many variables as possible in case I have another issue down the line....