Printer and file sharing

[bens]

I have a desktop PC running XP and a laptop running Vista. About a year ago I was able to set up a wireless home network. I was thrilled to find out I could share files and a printer between the 2 PC's. Everything was working well until last week when my router died. I replaced the router and both PC's are back online but I lost file sharing. I am NOT technical and know little about PC's. I just stumble along. I spent hours tiring to figure out the problem. What I do know is that my PC is telling me the network is set up but when I go into a file I want to share there is no tab that says "share file on the network". I can share the files within the PC with other users but not on the network. I checked all the settings and cannot find a problem. Any assistance would be greatly appreciated. Thanks....

[bens]

I was reading some posts and I tried to ping the computers but the ping did not work. Any Ideas???

[z1p]

hi bens and welcome to CTH,

Lets see what we can do to help.

Can you take a look at this post (http://www.cybertechhelp.com/forums/showpost.php?p=425775&postcount=1) and post the information it suggests. Please make sure to include the make and model of the router. Also, provide the ipconfig info from both machines.

Once we get that info we should have a better idea where to start.

-z1p

[bens]

Sorry for the delay. I had to replace my router again. The 1st one I purchased kept dropping the internet. Here is the info you suggested.

Computers:
Desktop pc running xp home media edition sp2. Hardwired to the router
Laptop running vista basic. Wireless to the router

Network:
Verizon fios high speed
No modem
Linksys wireless router WRT54G
Not using ICS
Computers are not networked (the problem).


PC IP address: 192.168.1.102
Laptop IP address: 192.168.1.103
Default gateway: 192.168.1.1
I can ping my default gateway from both computers.

After installing a new router I am unable to connect the computers to a home network in order to file and printer share..

I am able to connect to the internet from both computers.

- I ran “Set up home or small network wizard” on my desktop.
- I checked this computer connects thru a residential gateway.
- I verified my computer name.
- I verified my workgroup name.
- I turned on file and printer sharing
- I verified the settings.
- Then I came to a screen that said “you need to run network wizard on
each of the computers on your network”.
“What do you want to do?”

The choices were.
- create a network step-up disk
- just finish. I don’t need to run the wizard on the other computer.


I actually did both since I ran the wizard several times. When I use the setup disk I get an error on my vista laptop. I found out that you cannot use the set up disk on vista pc’s. When I chose just finish without using the setup disk the next screen said the network was successfully set up??????

How do I get the wizard to work with vista??? It apparently worked for me before because I had a working network before I replaced my router. Thanks

[z1p]

What are you using for a firewall on the machines? Check the firewall settings to make sure 'sharing' is allowed.

BTW - what was the make and model of your old router?

[bens]

I'm not sure what the firewall has to do with the network wizard setup but I checked my settings. The windows firewalls on both pc's are disabled. Norton internet security firewall is on but I went to the advanced settings, trust control, and added each computers ip address. I ran the network setup wizard again with the same results. The network setup wizard does not seem to work with vista.

[bens]

Cant sleep over this!!!
As I may have said I am not good with computers. What i'm wondering is why has replacing my router caused my pre-existing home network not to work? the computers are seeing the router but not each other.

[bens]

Still thinking>>>When I ran the setup wizard in vista it said " windows detected network hardware but could not configure it automatically"

I the click on configure manually and I go to my Linksys router webpage where i can configure my router. The wizard said to fill out the network name (SSID) and security type.

These fields are already set. So I'm stumped.

[z1p]

I'd forget about the network wizard. Running it repeatedly is generally not a good thing.
You say both machines have access to the internet.
You say both machines are in the same workgroup.
You say both machines have sharing enabled.

So something is blocking the file sharing and it started when you switched routers.
It may be something with the router or due to a side affect of switching routers.
Its possible that the ip addresses used switched between subnets when you switch routers (192.168.0.x to 192.168.1.x), that is why I asked what was the old router. This switch in LAN IPs may have caused your firewall to get confused, which is why I asked about the firewall.

Lets try a couple of more things.

Try pinging the machines from each other using IP address and by name.

Try disabling the firewalls and trying.

[bens]

I'd forget about the network wizard. Running it repeatedly is generally not a good thing.
You say both machines have access to the internet.
You say both machines are in the same workgroup.
You say both machines have sharing enabled.

So something is blocking the file sharing and it started when you switched routers.
It may be something with the router or due to a side affect of switching routers.
Its possible that the ip addresses used switched between subnets when you switch routers (192.168.0.x to 192.168.1.x), that is why I asked what was the old router. This switch in LAN IPs may have caused your firewall to get confused, which is why I asked about the firewall.

Lets try a couple of more things.

Try pinging the machines from each other using IP address and by name.

Try disabling the firewalls and trying.

Now I think we're on the right track. Everything worked fine before I switched routers. My old router was from verizon Actiontec M1424WR wireless router. This may or may not be important but since you mentioned IP addresses I should mention that when I replaced my router I had to call verizon fios to "break the lease"(to reconnect to the internet) and I think it had to do with an IP address???.


I was not able to ping the machines the other day then I read a post and
made a change to Norton security firewall. (windows firewall is disabled but Norton is active). I went to my Norton internet security firewall I went to the advanced settings, trust control, and added each computers ip address in the field. After I did that I am now able to ping each computers IP address and by name. Thanks

[z1p]

Is sharing working?

If not can you run 'net view' from the command prompt on both machines and post the output back here? This will show us what both machines see for shares on the network.

[bens]

Is sharing working?

If not can you run 'net view' from the command prompt on both machines and post the output back here? This will show us what both machines see for shares on the network.

I was able to figure out a work around to get file sharing working by mapping the network drives of the folders I wanted to share. This is not the way I originally had it set up but it seems to be working. However now I need to figure out how to share my printer.

As a follow up I'm stiil not seeing both computers in "my workgroup" folder. I ran "net view" and on my desktop XP machine I got:

Server name Remark
__________________________________________________ __________
\\DESKTOPPC
the command completed successfully


On my vista laptop I got:

System error 6118 has occured.
the list of servers for this workgroup is not currently available.

[z1p]

Sorry about not answering sooner, but I was out of town for a while. Now back to the problem.


Check the workgroup name on both machines. They must be the same.
Turn off the firewall on the vista machine and try the net view command again.

[bens]

Sorry about not answering sooner, but I was out of town for a while. Now back to the problem.


Check the workgroup name on both machines. They must be the same.
Turn off the firewall on the vista machine and try the net view command again.


Hope you had a good trip and thanks for getting back to me. THe net view command worked this time??? For some strange reason I still connot see the computers in the workgroup network. However all seems to be working. I was able to map the network drive fo the folders I want to share and I have my printer working. I'ts not set up the way I originally had it working before I replaced my router but it is working. One thing I learned, IF IT'S NOT BROKEN DON'T FIX IT!!! So I'm done. Thanks for all your help!!!!:thrilled:

[z1p]

Well, if you're satisfied thats good.

IMHO, the whole network neighborhood thing is a little unreliable.

If anything comes along you know where to look for help.

ltr
-z1p