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Networking XP and Vista

pluscomm
Newbie
Posts: 7
Registered: ‎10-07-2009

Networking XP and Vista

Any advice please on why I can not network a desktop XP(SP3) and a laptop Vista Home Premium (SP2)?  I did have them networked when my ISP was TalkTalk, I used a Netgear wireless router with WPA and my firewall/antivirus was Comodo.
Now I am with Plusnet, both the computers connect fine wirelessly to a Thomson TG 585 v7, the firewall is Outpost and the antivitus is Avast.  The router security is the WEP that it came with.
The name of the Workgroup is the same on both computers.
Viewing the full map on Network and Sharing on the laptop shows the laptop, Plusnet and the internet across the top but the desktop is below them as a discovered device that can not be placed on the map
I tried to follow advice about downloading a file to make an XP computer visible to a Vista computer but the result seemed to be that the file was already there.
I'd welcome any ideas.
Thanks,
Peter
6 REPLIES 6
pierre_pierre
Grafter
Posts: 19,757
Thanks: 3
Registered: ‎30-07-2007

Re: Networking XP and Vista

thought the Thompson came with WPA - thats what you should be using anyway, WEP is easily cracked
HPsauce
Pro
Posts: 6,998
Thanks: 146
Fixes: 2
Registered: ‎02-02-2008

Re: Networking XP and Vista

The router (or ISP) is very unlikely to be relevant to your problem.
Networking Vista and XP is, in my experience, full of weird and wonderful pitfalls. I've seen setups that just plain won't work with no obvious reason yet others work fine.
I'd start by looking at (temporarily disable?) your PC firewalls - after all the router presumably has one anyway.
Then check that sharing is actually enabled fully on both PC's (Wizard in XP, N&S centre in Vista) and no passwords are getting in the way.
PS WEP or WPA is also irrelevant, though WPA is probably "safer".
Peter_Vaughan
Grafter
Posts: 14,469
Registered: ‎30-07-2007

Re: Networking XP and Vista

Also ensure each PC has a user account set-up that is used on the other PC. e.g. is you have user bob on the XP PC and Sally on the Vista PC, the Vista PC needs a user Bob set-up and the XP PC needs a user sally set-up.
Make sure both users have a passwords set-up and he corresponding user on the other PC has the same password. Vista must have passwords before it will allow network access.
As said above, I have had Vista/XP machines that never worked yet the same set-ups on other PCs does.
Also make sure you have SP1 for Vista as it has a number of network fixes. Having SP3 for XP is also recommended, although not necessarily related to networking to Vista.
pluscomm
Newbie
Posts: 7
Registered: ‎10-07-2009

Re: Networking XP and Vista

Thanks for the advice.
Regarding the user accounts: do you mean that I need to add a user to each computer, the new account having the same name as the user on the other computer?
Regards,
Peter
Peter_Vaughan
Grafter
Posts: 14,469
Registered: ‎30-07-2007

Re: Networking XP and Vista

Yes.
And make sure you have passwords on all accounts ensuring both bob accounts have the same and both sally accounts have the same etc.
Nick_Russell
Grafter
Posts: 562
Registered: ‎10-05-2007

Re: Networking XP and Vista

Quote from: Peter
Also ensure each PC has a user account set-up that is used on the other PC. e.g. is you have user bob on the XP PC and Sally on the Vista PC, the Vista PC needs a user Bob set-up and the XP PC needs a user sally set-up...

I am not sure this is necessary.  I spent a very long evening a few weeks ago trying to get a chum's computers and printer to "see" each other.  One Vista PC and two laptop XP machines, one Dell network printer. I did not have to set up same user accounts on all three machines. Sorry but I can't remember how exactly we found the solution but we definitely did not set up user accounts.