FINALLY! I got my peer-to-peer working to some extent and to a usable state.
Someone who had the same problem said he got his network to function by
uninstalling his Firewall (Norton). So I spent a few hours going through my
Norton Firewall Rules thoroughly and discovered that a few of the needed
ports for file sharing were set on "BLOCK" even though Norton's file sharing
rule was set to "ALLOW".
I can't only blame Norton's "easy-to-use" Firewall as I can now clearly see
that Microsoft did a poor job in the networking aspect of Vista and previous
Windows versions and made it difficult. But hey, I still love Windows
(especially Vista).
My Vista machine can still see my XP as it did before, but clicking on the
network icon to access my XP doesn't work. I have to manually access my XP by
running my XP's network name (RUN \\Shitro) which works sometimes. Most of
the time using my XP's network name doesn't work and I have to use it IP
address (run \\xpipaddress). <---That really sucks!!!!!
My XP machine doesn't SHOW that it detects my Vista laptop (icons/folders
don't appear), but looking at the Network Traffic on my XP reveals that it
actually does!(I can see my Vista machine accessing several ports) The only
method of accessing my Vista laptop was again running its IP address. Using
its network name never worked.
After I got my Peer-to-Peer "working", I tested file sharing through my
wireless router and I can only connect using the same method I use for
peer-to-peer.
So here's the step by step process of what I did and I hope it helps someone
else.
1. Make sure that file sharing is enable on both computers
2. Put both computers under the same workgroup name.
3. For see XP computer in Vista, download LLTD
http://technet2.microsoft.com/Windo...8eb8-45af-b063-4f50f5a77b291033.mspx?mfr=true
4. Perform a ping test between the computers to make sure that they are
connecting -- do this twice (XP to Vista, Vista to XP)
5. Manually check and make sure that all the needed file sharing ports are
OPEN/ALLOWED and not BLOCKED on BOTH computers. (Especially using Norton
Firewall; my XP had Kaspersky and it was already perfect.)
List of needed ports are found here:
http://www.microsoft.com/technet/network/evaluate/vista_fp.mspx
6. On XP run net view \\vistaipaddress and on Vista run net view
\\xpipaddress as Robert L told me to do, but use the COMMAND PROMPT and not
RUN as the window with immediately close if you use RUN. If then proper ports
are open and file sharing is enabled on both, you should see a list of the
folders being shared when you type these commands in the COMMAND PROMPT. If
you get "System 5 error occurred. Access is denied" like I did (when on XP),
I think it’s because you have Vista set to require a password to access
shared files. Don't worry too much about this error.
7. Restart both computers (don't know if necessary, but that's the only way
it worked for me) and you should be able to access each computers shared
documents running it IP address. (RUN \\IP Address)
If I’m confusing, I’m sorry, I been up since 6AM trying to figure this out.
It’s now 10PM I got things working and started writing this. If you need me
to explain something, just post in this thread and I will continue checking
thread to answer questions.
P.S. When I use the word "Running", I mean go to Startïƒ Run (on XP) and go
Startïƒ Accessoriesïƒ RUN (in Vista). You can also search RUN in Vistas Start
menu search box
..