Vista - Unable to see shared folder on XP

I have two computers, Vista Home Premium SP2 and XP SP2. Both belong to the same workgroup.

Tonight I could see the XP computer from Vista. Then I rebooted the Vista computer and I can no longer see the XP computer's shared files.

They are both connected via a linksys wireless router.

I have Norton on both; both have the windows firewall turned off.

Any ideas where to look for the problem(s)?

Thanks.

RON

do you have norton antivirus or do you have norton internet securtiy/360 both of these products come with intergrated firewalls so even if you turn the windows firewall off you would still have to turn manaully turn off nortons firwall. Sometime you must configure the firewall to accept connections from your network
Also Check the network and sharing center to see if file sharing and public folder sharing is enabled. Try this out and tell us what happens

thanks

I do have Norton 360 on both computers. On the Vista computer, Norton Firewall is turned on; on the XP computer both Norton and Windows firewalls were on. Now, that is confusing to me because I turned Norton off.

One thing also confuses me: What is the danger to a network behind a Linksys wireless router to computers regarding firewall settings? That is to say, on a home system, how do I protect the system from outside intrusion but permit inter-computer communication?

Also, with Norton and Windows, which should I use on both Vista and XP; what settings?

RON

Use only one Firewall not both


Most routers will block WAN to LAN connections unless its coming from its own IP or orginated from a reqest from the LAN,. The IP can be spoffed but with a regular router/modem/switch/AP there isnt too much you can do about that. But the way IP works provides a "little buffer zone" between the LAN and the WAN because the are on different subnets and techinally cant be directly accessed from the internet. Software firewalls only protect the computer that they are installed and do not provide 1st line of defense like hardware firewalls or other security devices because the are installed on the computer.

To test try and turn all the firewalls off, if you can see the files on all the computers then the firewall was the problem.
Check in your Network and Share center and make sure file sharing turned on and make sure that when you turn your firewall back on that it allows 2 way connection for all the pcs in your home network

thanks hpe this helps
tell us if it works

IT does help. I can connect again, but it seems sort of sloppy. I need to do a little more research, but when I turned off both Norton and Windows firewalls on both machines I could connect. And I'm still connected it seems even though I've turned on the Norton firewall on both computers. BUT....it seems like I should be able to map to the other computer's drives more easily than turning off norton on both machines, mapping, turning it back on, right?

Perhaps (likely) I'm missing something.

RON

I have a Linksys wireless router between the computers and the Internet so I have some intrusion protection. So, my computers are on a subnet inaccessible (I hope) from the internet.

Ron,

I don't have Norton antivirus but this is an FYI just in case it might help. Especially the part about the windows firewall in my Vista laptop. I have a Belkin router, a wired WinXP Pro desktop and a wireless Vista Home Premium 64bit laptop. Both PCs are running Panda Antivirus Pro 2009.

The WinXP Pro desktop has Panda's firewall turned on but Windows firewall turned off, per Panda's recommendation.

The Vista laptop has Panda's firewall turned on and Windows firewall turned on. Panda tech support said the windows firewall can be on or off in the Vista PC so I left it on since the laptop is wireless and I figured two firewalls would provide extra protection.

I did not have to set anything up in my antivirus software or in Windows firewall in the Vista laptop and I can share folders between PCs or surf the web with no problem.

Skyzoomer

I'm running Norton and when I turned on the Vista Windows firewall, Norton poped up a message box "Security Alert" saying "The Norton Security Firewall provides your PC with the best defense against online threats. Norton recommends that you turn off Windows Firewal."

In the previous post i was saying that you should turn the windows firewall off and only use the norton firewall.

when i was suggesting turning off the firewall i was implying that you should use this to troubleshoot the problem.

Im not a norton user but as skyzommer said normally communcation on the LAN should not be a problem
if the problem presist you must configure the firewall manually