Vista - Desktop can't see laptop, Laptop can see Desktop (home premium network issues)

Anyone have any suggestions on how to troubleshoot a frustrating network issue I'm having?

I have a setup with a desktop that goes straight into a router (then out to a DSL modem) via ethernet cable -- and a laptop that connects to the router wirelessly.

Both computers have working internet, and both computers are running Vista Home Premium. Everything seems to be working from the laptop to the desktop--I can browse files on the desktop and "see" the desktop's icon/machine name in the network panel from the laptop.

From the desktop all I can see of the laptop is is a instance of a media player device--and even that comes and goes. I can't see the laptop's hard drives or shared folders nor a printer I want to connect to.

From the desktop, I can ping the laptop and get a response back which my router company's (Zyxel) technical support says means the router is working fine.

On both machines, I have network discovery, file sharing, public folder sharing, printer sharing, and media sharing "On". Both machines are in the same workgroup. What might I be missing?

Suggestions appreciated, thanks...

tomjonesrocks wrote:
Possibly you have a misconfigured firewall on the machine and/or don't have
matching user accounts/passwords.

Excellent, thorough, yet easy to understand article about File/Printer
Sharing in Vista. Includes details about sharing printers as well as files
and folders:

http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/l.../bb727037.aspx

Problems sharing files between computers on a network are generally caused
by 1) a misconfigured firewall or overlooked firewall (including a stateful
firewall in a VPN); or 2) inadvertently running two firewalls such as the
built-in Windows Firewall and a third-party firewall; and/or 3) not having
identical user accounts and passwords on all Workgroup machines; 4) trying
to create shares where the operating system does not permit it.

A. Configure firewalls on all machines to allow the Local Area Network (LAN)
traffic as trusted. With Windows Firewall, this means allowing File/Printer
Sharing on the Exceptions tab. If you aren't running a third-party firewall
or have an antivirus/security program with its own firewall component, then
you're fine. With third-party firewalls, I usually configure the LAN
allowance with an IP range. Ex. would be 192.168.1.0-192.168.1.254.
Obviously you would substitute your correct subnet. Refer to any third
party security program's Help or user forums for how to properly configure
its firewall. Do not run more than one firewall. DO NOT TURN OFF FIREWALLS;
CONFIGURE THEM CORRECTLY.

B. For ease of organization, put all computers in the same Workgroup. This
is done from the System applet in Control Panel, Computer Name tab.

C. Create matching user accounts and passwords on all machines. You do not
need to be logged into the same account on all machines and the passwords
assigned to each user account can be different; the accounts/passwords just
need to exist and match on all machines. DO NOT NEGLECT TO CREATE
PASSWORDS, EVEN IF ONLY SIMPLE ONES. If you wish a machine to boot directly
to the Desktop (into one particular user's account) for convenience, you
can do this:

Vista - Start Orb>Search box>type: netplwiz [enter]
Click on Continue (or supply an administrator's password) when prompted by
UAC

Uncheck the option "Users must enter a user name and password to use this
computer". Select a user account to automatically log on by clicking on the
desired account to highlight it and then hit OK. Enter the correct password
for that user account (if there is one) when prompted. Leave it blank if
there is no password (null).

Malke
--
MS-MVP
Elephant Boy Computers - Don't Panic!
http://www.elephantboycomputers.com/#FAQ