Hi!

My Dad has just bought a new laptop with wireless connectivity. It came with Vista pre-installed. He wants it to use the internet connection provided by his router. The router is connected to a XP desktop computer via an ethernet cable. I managed to enable an internet connection through the laptop, but I cannot access any of the files or the printer that I have specified (on the XP machine) as shared. I know for sure that they are specified as shared. On the laptop, I have set things to be a private network and, under 'Sharing and Discovery' on the 'Network and sharing' page, everything is checked to be on, other than Printer Sharing (which is because, I guess, the laptop is not physically connected to a printer). I looked at advice given elsewhere on this forum for similar problems, and carried out the following steps:

* ensured that the workgroup name is the same on both machines
* on the XP machine, I downloaded and installed Microsoft LLTD protocol for XP.
* on the laptop, I used regedit to get to HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Control\Lsa. From here I changed:
LmCompatibilityLevel to 1.
NoLmHash to 0.
* both machines have been rebooted multiple times since

The machine still cannot view the shared files from the XP machine, yet the internet connection remains fine.

I'm a total novice at networking so I'd appreciate any support that someone can give!

Regards,

Cwebs

do you mean internet or intranet. You mean a network connection, you are not connected directly to the notebook? both are connected to the router?

you need to name your workgroup the same name and share a folder on each computer. Since there is not a domain controller to authenticate users, when you browse the other computers shared folders , first you will need to enter the credentials of a user on the other computer to access the shares unless they are in a public folder or unless you add your log on account ( credentials) to the other computer.

I set one up a couple of years ago on my step-dad's system using the WinXP networking wizard, and surprisingly it worked fine. He can wirelessly print from the laptop to the printer that is hooked to the desktop system with no problem, too. You must install the printer's drivers on the laptop for it to work. It would also be very wise to set up encryption and password protection (stealth) on the wireless router to keep others from tapping into it.

Ok, I've made sure that both the laptop (Vista) and the desktop (XP) have the exact same workgroup name. I've specified shared folders on the laptop and the desktop. However, the two machines seem unaware of each other's presence. The laptop and desktop both use a wireless connection to the router, which enables them both to get online. I've tried to run the network setup wizard on the desktop but it gives an error message ("an error occurred" - rather helpful!) and aborts the process. On the laptop, network discovery and all that stuff is switched to ON.

I've installed the printer drivers on the laptop but it then asked me which port (LTP, COM, etc) the printer is connected to, which baffled me. Shouldn't there have been a 'network' option there?

The help files in XP and Vista don't seem to answer my questions. Or, they say that they do, but it turns out that I've already actioned everything that they suggest. Any ideas?

Well, it turns out that things now work! Here is the frustrating news for anyone having the same problem as me: I do not know how I managed to get it working!

I know that I fiddled around on both machines to the extent that I was concerned about making an arse of everything, and then, magically, the mainpc machine appeared as available to the laptop, as did the printer.

I #think# that I manually specificed a home network on the main pc and took the settings from that. Then I manually set one up on the laptop, using the settings from the main pc. I'm sure that I did that in the past...but maybe not. It seems like such a blindingly obvious step to take, doesn't it?

Anyway, thanks for your considerations