Hi,
i have two computers, one with Window XP professional and one with Vista Home.
I'm trying to network the two together following the typical steps with window help. setting XP computer to network with "workgroup" workgroup under ms window network.

my window vista has manage to see the xp computer in its network but cannot access it due to incorrect spelling or invalid host name, but i'm sure the computer name is right.
on the other hand, the xp computer cannot see my vista computer at all.

Also, the xp computer cannot network with any other xp computer as well.

Thanks for your help in advance.

First thing I would check is the firewalls. Vista is notorious for no letting you connect. Do you have shares setup on the windows XP machine? What SP is XP at? I would check to make sure file and printer sharing is #1 installed on the XP machine and Enabled on the vista machine. #2 Check the firewalls to make sure it is set to accept this connection. #3 you may be prompted for a password. if you are it should look like this, Machinename\user account ----> then password that should work for you.

Can I say its a Microsoft enhancement ? just kidding

ok back to the serious notes

Have you tried connecting to just the ip address ?

if you know how to do this ignore this part
----------------------------------------------------
start - run - cmd

ipconfig (just to get your ip address)

start - run - \\ipaddress\share name

----------------------------------------------------
I agree with Datadrop about the firewalls in Vista and the file & print sharing on the XP box.

I would almost bet that the easiest thing you can do for yourself is pop over to your favorite hardware vendor and get a cheap NAS (network area storage) device for your file storing. The bonus to using a NAS is that when your PC gets too hosed to fix you can just rebuild it without losing data.