Vista - Vista can't find Vista on LAN

I have both a Vista 32 & Vista 64 Acer laptop on the same LAN. Both connect well with the Internet.

My problem is that when I try to see the other computer's Public folder to share a file, I can't even find the other computer in the "Network" window, only the router and the computer I'm working on.

have you turned on public folder sharing and file sharing on both laptops?

Yes, all three are "on" , for both computers

Normally with wireless networks one would start at the router (set the SSID, Passphrase,...etc) and work toward the devices, but this is Vista we're talking about. And since Vista couldn't find an ass at a donkey farm, muchless a computer on a network, I had to change my approach when working with Vista,... ass backwards. Try this method. Click on "Start", "Network", "Add a wireless device". Allow Vista to search for wireless device. Disregard any devices that it may find, and continue with "I want to add a wireless device or computer that is not on the list using a USB flash drive", at the bottom of the window. Choose "Add the device or computer using a USB flash drive". Click on "next". You should see your local terminal listed, if not, "Create a new Wireless Network Profile". Set your SSID and Passphrase. You may want to "copy and paste your choices to notepad for future reference. Save your settings to your USB flash drive. Insert the USB flash drive into the other laptop and run the wireless setup wizard. Now open your routers web base page...192.168.1.100 for linksys...you'll have to find the right one for your particular manufacturer. If your router settings are stored locally or web based, make the new chages to the SSID and Passphrase. Restart all computers and they should all be able to view each other. Good Luck.

Well that sort of kicked it into gear. At least I can see the other computer. Unfortunately when I double click on the other computer icon, it says cannot connect

Hi Satwar

Do you have identical user names on each laptop?

Are both on the same workgroup?

Basics I know but sometimes missed

Yes I use the same user names on each computer and both computers belong to the workgroup "WORKGROUP"

I should mention that I have no problem browsing a shared folder setup on my Win98SE machine attached to the same LAN with either Vista laptop.

Am I a lost cause ?

Never admit defeat

If all the basic settings are correct then the next question is what if any Firewalls are you running?

it may be worthwhile switching off the firewalls on both machines and seeing if that changes things.

If you see an improvement with no firewall then this will have to be set-up to allow sharing - how depends on the firewall involved

Thanks for not giving up on me

I'm using the Vistat firewall on both machines, and turning them off makes no difference.

Another symptom of the problem is that if I try to look at my own Public folder starting from the network, the CPU gets very busy and locks the computer up. I can however readily look at my own Public folder starting from C: drive with no problem.

Both laptops behave the same and both browse on the Internet with no problem. But peer-to-peer is deadly. If I restore hard drives to Acer factory default condition, the peer-to-peer works fine, but sooner or later it breaks. It seems to be an awfully fragile system. The only hunch I have is that it breaks after performing a disk defrag.

I don't know much about pinging, but I've tried before and the Vista PC's do respond, although the response time for the initial ping can be slow. This may be another symptom of the problem. The router always responds with little or no delay, as does my Win98SE PC.