Vista - Problem networking two Vista x64 machines.

There's actually a XP x86 too but I dont even care about that at this point. In a nutshell,... im trying to network my laptop and my desktop. I have them connected to a hub with rj45. I also have a printer thats connected to this hub also via rj45. An XP x86 machine too. ALL computers can make use of the printer with no problems whatsoever.

The problem is I access the one Vista x64 from the other. Each mahcine shows up just fine on the other. I can even see the drive that I am sharing on each. But when I go to access the drive, the computer tells me that I do not have permission.

I enabled sharing for one drive on each machine.
I have permissions set to full for "Everyone".
I have Network Discovery ON.
I have File Sharing ON.
I have Password Protected Sharing OFF.

In that same window there are two networks:

Network(Private Network)
Access: Local And Internet
Connection: Local Area Connection

Unidentified Network(Public Network)
Access: Local Only
Connection: Loacl Area Connection 2

My machine has two rj45 ports. One goes to another hub/ router setup so I can gain access to the internet. The other goes to this single hub I am using to network the computer and the printer together. I'm assuming the "Network" is the one for the Internet connection and the "Unidentifed Network" is the hub. I dont know. I tried changing it to a private network but everytime I reboot Vista changes it back.

As said when I try to access one machine from another I get the message saying the Whatever whatever is available but the user account you are log on with was denied access. I am the admin for both machines.

Please help. I only have so much hair left,....

do you have the guest account enabled? it was a while ago, but i had a problem similar to what you're stating. on my desktop, which is the computer that everyone gets onto, i had the guest account enabled. from my laptop, which is mine alone, i would be able to see the shared drives on the desktop, but could not access it. i found that when i disabled the guest account, then all was well with accessing the desktop from my laptop.

Guest Account is OFF on both machines. Another thing,... it seems like both machines take THAT much longer to boot into the OS after enabling all this networking stuff. Is this normal? Maybe a good 60 seconds or so longer?!?!

Quick question. The TCP/ IP for the adapter for this unidentifed netwrok is set to "Obtain Automatically". I know hub's alone dont hand out Ip's automatically correct? You think this is the problem? I dont know because im thinking if this was that niehter machine would be able to see one another at all. Just to let you know.

Ok. I enabled Public Folder Sharing and I am able to access the public folder of the opposite machine for both machines. But still,... I am unable to access a drive directly. I dont understand this.

if you just want to access the drive you could alway access the admin share of the drive by going to RUN and putting \\computername\c$ where 'c' is the drive name. If it feels you dont have the correct access for this as the logged on user it will ask you for a username and password that does have access. This user will need to have admin rights on the computer you are trying to access and not on the computer you are trying to access it from.

Hope this helps

It did ask me for a user name and password. Why is it doing this? I am the admin on both machines. This is probably why I cant access the drives on each machine the normal way.

What am I missing here? How come my machines aren't recognizing me as the admin!?!?

i only know this from xp so dont know if this works the same way in vista but: right click my computer and select manage, then select local users and groups and check the administrators group on the other machine (not the one you are trying to access from) and then make sure you have a user setup in there. I think this is because although the users are the same on each machine they are local accounts and might not be recognised on the other machine. try setting up a 'test' account on the other machine with admin rights and when asked for a user id and password use the 'test' account to login. I recon you should then gain access

I didnt see "local users and groups" in computer management

no problem. create a new user on the other machine and make sure it is an administrator, then use those login details when prompted for user id and password in the box that appears. Its just to make sure as the c$ share is only accessable by a local administrator

**well not just local admins but im gathering you are not running a domain