Making Vista work with my XP network for file sharing and Printers

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Guest

Well Per the MVP’s, and Dale I have started a new frkin THREAD!!!

Here goes: I bought a new Toshiba laptop with Windows Vista installed. Now
I have two other computers at home that use Windows XP. Now the two computers
work on my network, sharing files, and the Lexmark Z8350 on in one Printer.

We have a Cable modem, With a Linksys Router. Now my other two computers
using XP work just fine over the network.

Now to the problem: This new laptop will not work over my network using XP
it will not share files, nor will it communicate with my printer.

I have tried a lot of things, I re-configured the router and it’s settings.
Made sure all computers have the same NAME, and the same WORKGROUP. And
nothing works.

Now if someone can truly help me it would be wonderful. I need someone to
walk me step by step to correct this problem, and common layman terms, so the
average JOE can understand.

All I want is all three computers on the same page working together, sharing
files and one printer. Over the same Wireless network.

So to all of you MVP’s , Geekish Whales, and Dale’s. Please do not respond
only if you can speak plain clear concise English, and have no need to feed
your egotistical EGO’s to pretend that you know what you are talking about
 
Hi,

For starters, all computers on the local net should have different names and
the same workgroup name. Your user account name and password can be the same
on all machines, but not the computer's names.

Run ipconfig /all from a cmd prompt. What type of node is being reported?

--
Best of Luck,

Rick Rogers, aka "Nutcase" - Microsoft MVP

Windows help - www.rickrogers.org
 
PMFJI, but if Node Type is Hybrid, does that means there is a mix of
different OS's on the network?
 
Right. What's most important here is that node type is not peer-to-peer. It
should be hybrid or broadcast.

--
Best of Luck,

Rick Rogers, aka "Nutcase" - Microsoft MVP

Windows help - www.rickrogers.org
 
Aren't all these MVPs a lot of help! I have networked 2 comps , one with XP,
and the other Vista. I hooked the printer up to the XP one, and I can print
thru it from Vista. In XP we are used to "shared" folder; in Vista I used its
"Public" folder, copy and paste everything from Documents to Public. It
works! I can work on the files in XP, and save them, even though they are
Vista files. It is hard to write the weird way i did things down!
In the Vista machine, in Networking, I turned on Network Discovery, File
sharing, etc, and TURNED OFF password protection for file sharing, etc
To set the printer up in Vista in Networking, I clicked on "ADd Network
Device", and selected XPs printer, a Lexmark.
hope this helps you.

Mick Murphy in Australia (QLD)
 
Rick, I'm having the same problem (existing 2-computer XP network on Linksys,
trying to add a Vista laptop), but my node appears as "Unknown" on the two XP
machines and "Hybrid" on the Vista machine. I can't get the Vista machine to
"see" the XP machines, but they can see it. Whuddeyedo?
 
To All: I would sincerely like to thank you for this information. I will
start troubleshooting this problem with your advice.

I sincerely hope this works...because it is driving my CRAZY, and I am
losing what little hair I have left.

Thank you again, and I shall keep you posted on the steps success.
 
You should be able to go under Mange network, choose the Lan or wireless
connect, double lcik on the IP4 field, Choose Advance and then choose WINS.
If I remember right, Checking the Box for LMhost lookup turns on broadcast
lookups.

You could of course, hard code IP addresses into each machine (except for
laptops that roam to other networks) and if you wanted you could use an
actual LMhost file to tell each system about other systems. But that's a bit
technical and there are some minor drawbacks to that method

There is also a means to go into the registry and set the node type to
whatever you want. Wonder how you got unknown for node type.
 
That didn't do it. LMhost was already checked. I unchecked it just to be
sure, but it didn't change anything. This particular laptop travels a lot,
so hard coding isn't an option. Any other thoughts?
 
Hi,

Make sure the workgroup names are all the same.

You can change the node type in the registry here:

HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\System\CurrentControlSet\Services\Netbt\Parameters

String: DhcpNodeType
Value Type: REG_DWORD - Number
Valid Range: 1,2,4,8 (b-node, p-node, m-node, h-node)
Default: 1 or 8 based on the WINS server configuration
Set it to 1.

If it doesn't exist, create it.

--
Best of Luck,

Rick Rogers, aka "Nutcase" - Microsoft MVP

Windows help - www.rickrogers.org
 
Thanks for answering me Rick.

All workgroup names are the same.

I managed to create a string where you told me to, with the right value
type. Then I set the value to 1 (caused the computer to boot as a 'broadcast'
node). I'm stuck as to how to set the value range, and which of my computers
should be set to which node type.

My desktop XP machine is cat-5 to the router and is the Internet connection
and is the "broadcast" node right now. What should I do next?
 
Hi,

The range is merely the available options, you just needed to choose the
one. So now you should have a single reg_dword under that key named
DhcpNodeType with a value of 1. Once rebooted, check to make sure it stuck.
As you're using a router, I imagine you are using dhcp assigned addresses,
so make sure all of them are set to accept this. Once all the machines have
different names and different IP's, you should be able to "talk" to each
other as long as file and printer sharing is enabled.

--
Best of Luck,

Rick Rogers, aka "Nutcase" - Microsoft MVP

Windows help - www.rickrogers.org
 
Hi,

Okay, all 3 are Broadcast Nodes with different IP addresses that are
assigned by DHCP. They have unique names, but a common workgroup name. File
Sharing is enabled on all three, they are all set to unsecured network. But
still....the two XP machines can see the Vista machine but cannot access
it...and the Vista machine still can't see the other machines. AND....my
head is starting to hurt!
 
Hi David,

Assuming you've rebooted all machines, from the Vista machine open Windows
Explorer, and in the address bar type \\machine_name where "machine_name" is
the name of one of the other XP systems your are trying to access. What
happens?

--
Best of Luck,

Rick Rogers, aka "Nutcase" - Microsoft MVP

Windows help - www.rickrogers.org
 
But...I can type the IP address for 'desktop' and get to the shared
directory....what does it mean?
 
Hi David,

It means the node type is wrong. Run ipconfig /all from a command prompt
once again.

Another thought, do you have internet connection sharing enabled on any
machine? It shouldn't be, but that can cause the incorrect node type to be
used.

--
Best of Luck,

Rick Rogers, aka "Nutcase" - Microsoft MVP

Windows help - www.rickrogers.org
 
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