Vista - XP - Vista network problems

My modem and wireless router are connected to my Vista desktop. My Xp laptop
connects wirelessly to the network. The network recognises my Vista desktop
as a computer on the network but only recognises my laptop as a media device.
The computers are on the same workgroup etc. I just want my laptop recognised
as a computer on the network so I can print share, transfer files etc. Any
ideas would be great.
Thanks
norto

I know this will make me sound like an idiot, but, I don't know what IP range
of my LAN means.
norto

"Laurie Cope" wrote:

I had this problem and had to make sure all computers were on the same
workgroup of course, and that the firewalls on each computer allowed the IP
range of my local area network through.

An IP address is like a telephone number for your computer. Computers use it
to find/identify other computers on a network. For that reason every
computer on a network has a unique IP address. On a local area network (your
network in your house using the router) the IP address will be assigned by
the router and will be in between something like 192.168.0.1 or
192.168.0.255 (or maybe 10.0.0.1 and 10.0.0.255), i.e. between 1 and 255 for
last numbers. I use Zonealarm fireall and by default Zonealarm does not
allow these IP addresses through. So my computers cant see the other ones.
So I have to add the computers IP addresses to the Trusted Zone on each of
the computers firewalls so other computers can connect to them. The easiest
way is add the range of IP address (i.e. 192.168.0.1 to 192.168.0.255) to
the fireall trusted zone. Then my computers can see the other ones.

So you need to find out how to add this IP range to your firewall. What
firewall do you have as each one will be different? This may not even be
your issue, but it was my issue and this fixed it for me.

To find out what you r local area network IP address is you can enter
"ipconfig" at the command prompt and there should be a line with "Address"
and it will be a number similar to the above and you know what IP range you
are on then. i.e. if its 192.168.0.11 for example, then its within the
192.168.0.1 to 192.168.0.255 range.