I have set up a wireless network at my in-laws’ and I am having a problem with file and printer sharing. Both computers are Windows XP and they have a Netgear router (I have the same router). The router is using the 64-bit encryption. I have added my mother-in-law’s laptop to the allow list of the router and I have added her IP address to ZoneAlarm on my father-in-law’s desktop (where the printer is connected to). I have run Network Setup Wizard on both machines and verified that they are both set to MSHOME. The problem is that I still cannot get it to share files or the printer. They both have a Shared Folder set up and the printer is shared on his computer. I had this problem recently with the daughter’s new computer and I thought that I had to add a Service, Client or Protocol under the Properties of the network connection, but I cannot remember how I did it or what I did.

When I look at “My Network Places” on his computer, I can see her computer but it will not allow me to go any further. On her laptop I cannot even see his computer or printer.

Can someone help???

 

1st - turn off or disable all the firewall including the windows firewall until you have it working then enable them.

Can you ping them?

Try:

Start -->run

\\Ipaddress and hit enter does it list anything?

 

I will try to ping them. She can get online through the router but just cannot connect to the other computer.

I turned off the Windows XP firewall on both but will try it with Zonealarm off on both.

 

If all that doesn't work..reboot the network.

 

windows firewall is causing the problem. disable all firewalls. and make sure file and print sharing is enabled.

 

Also, if this is XP Home, the host box needs to have the guest account enabled for file sharing to work, I believe. Not sure if the wizard enables that account or not.

 

And how do I do that?

 

I have a simliar question. I a tried to set up a network on my desktop and my laptop which is connected through a wireless router. The desktop can see the laptop but the laptop does not see the desktop. What could the problem be?

 

Control Panel > Users

Make sure the account named "Guest" is enabled. I have heard that this is required on XP Home (for file sharing). I never had Home, so I don't know if it is true or not.
Normally, you want the Guest account disabled for security purposes.

 

I will try that if all else fails. I did not have to do that at my house, though. I got my daughter's computer to connect to my printer but cannot remember how. It had something to do with the TCP/IP settings.

 

Make sure you have "File and Print sharing for Microsoft Networks" installed...it will show up under properties of the network card.

 

It is installed on both of them.

 

What about the pinging and the start run results.

If the basics aren't in place it'll take 5 pages of "well try this" until you stumble on the answer.

 

I will have my father-in-law check it tonight while on the phone with him. I am at work at will have to wait until tonight at the earliest.

I just thought that there was one simple setup thing to allow file and printer sharing that I may be missing. Is there a step-by-step for the entire process? I did it at home but it was more trial and error on my home network (and it was over 1 year ago).

Thanks for your help,
Steve

 

Here is a link to a Microsoft Article on file sharing with XP.....

http://support.microsoft.com/default...b;en-us;304040