Networking Vista & XP

[Jason]

I have recently purchased a laptop with Vista Home Premium, only to discover
that it wouldn't recognize my desktop machine on the network. The desktop is
Windows Media Center Edition (XP Pro). I've installed the Topical Link-Layer
Discovery update on the XP machine, and about once out of every three visits
to the "Network" through Explorer, my desktop will show up, but trying to
access it (ever) will give an error that essentially says "Sorry, chump, I
asked DNS about that PC, but there's no record of it existing." (Except, with
a Brooklyn accent.)

I'm fairly tech-savvy, so I've done my googling. I've tried enabling the
sharing options on the Vista machine, setting up accounts with the same user
ID & password on both machines - the standard response to this problem.
Unfortuneately, none of these things have solved this issue.

Any suggestions would be GREATLY appreciated. I've got software (source
code - I'm a programmer) and media on my desktop that I really need to get to
from my laptop.

TIA,
Jason

 

[Carey Frisch [MVP]]

Try the free trial version of Network Magic:
http://www.networkmagic.com/

--
Carey Frisch
Microsoft MVP
Windows Shell/User

---------------------------------------------------------------

:

I have recently purchased a laptop with Vista Home Premium, only to discover
that it wouldn't recognize my desktop machine on the network. The desktop is
Windows Media Center Edition (XP Pro). I've installed the Topical Link-Layer
Discovery update on the XP machine, and about once out of every three visits
to the "Network" through Explorer, my desktop will show up, but trying to
access it (ever) will give an error that essentially says "Sorry, chump, I
asked DNS about that PC, but there's no record of it existing." (Except, with
a Brooklyn accent.)

I'm fairly tech-savvy, so I've done my googling. I've tried enabling the
sharing options on the Vista machine, setting up accounts with the same user
ID & password on both machines - the standard response to this problem.
Unfortuneately, none of these things have solved this issue.

Any suggestions would be GREATLY appreciated. I've got software (source
code - I'm a programmer) and media on my desktop that I really need to get to
from my laptop.

TIA,
Jason

 

[Jason]

When I try to access the XP machine, it says:

Windows cannot access \\[ComputerName]
Check the spelling of the name. Otherwise, there might be a problem with
your network. To try to identify and resolve network problems, click Diagnose.
(V) See details [ Diagnose ] [ Cancel ]

When I click "Diagnose" I get:

Windows cannot find "[ComputerName]"
Windows sent the request to the DNS server and the server responded that the
name was unknown.

 

[Jason]

Thank you for pointing me towards Network Magic. Although I chose NOT to use
it, visiting their website did point out 1 small problem that I overlooked
while going through the common configuration for sharing between Vista and
XP... I left Norton's firewall up on the XP machine, so SMB and Windows file
sharing was being blocked on the XP machine.

Thanks,
Jason

 

[Not Me]

You have a Norton product installed, that explains a lot.
I don't allow anything from them anywhere my network anymore.