Sharing files between 2 Vista PC's

[fred]

Hi there

I have 2 PCs both running Vista Ultimate. One PC is wirelessly connected to
a router, the other PC is wired direct to the router, which is a gateway to a
cable modem to my ISP.

I can share my wireless PC's files , however i cannot share my wired PC's
files to the wireless PC. It can only see the share "icon" in the "Network"
window. When double clicking it i get a message saying "Windows cannot
access \\xxxxxx. Check the spelling etc.."

Its odd that i can view/copy/etc one way but not the other.
Both PC's are setup identically, on private network, with network discovery,
file sharing and public folder sharing ON, the rest OFF.

The shares on both PCs are available to "Administrator" and both PCS are
logged in as Administrator.

 

[Malke]

Hi there

I have 2 PCs both running Vista Ultimate. One PC is wirelessly connected
to a router, the other PC is wired direct to the router, which is a
gateway to a cable modem to my ISP.

I can share my wireless PC's files , however i cannot share my wired PC's
files to the wireless PC. It can only see the share "icon" in the
"Network"
window. When double clicking it i get a message saying "Windows cannot
access \\xxxxxx. Check the spelling etc.."

Its odd that i can view/copy/etc one way but not the other.
Both PC's are setup identically, on private network, with network
discovery, file sharing and public folder sharing ON, the rest OFF.

The shares on both PCs are available to "Administrator" and both PCS are
logged in as Administrator.

It's not odd at all. You've got something set incorrectly on the wired
computer. BTW, it doesn't matter that one computer connects wired and the
other connects wirelessly; they are both part of the same Local Area
Network.

Excellent, thorough, yet easy to understand article about File/Printer
Sharing in Vista. Includes details about sharing printers as well as files
and folders:

http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/bb727037.aspx

Problems sharing files between computers on a network are generally caused
by 1) a misconfigured firewall; or 2) inadvertently running two firewalls
such as the built-in Windows Firewall and a third-party firewall; and/or 3)
not having identical user accounts and passwords on all Workgroup machines;
4) trying to create shares where the operating system does not permit it.

A. Configure firewalls on all machines to allow the Local Area Network (LAN)
traffic as trusted. With Windows Firewall, this means allowing File/Printer
Sharing on the Exceptions tab. Normally running the Network Setup Wizard on
XP will take care of this for those machines.The only "gotcha" is that this
will turn on the XPSP2 Windows Firewall. If you aren't running a
third-party firewall or have an antivirus with "Internet Worm
Protection" (like Norton 2006/07) which acts as a firewall, then you're
fine. With third-party firewalls, I usually configure the LAN allowance
with an IP range. Ex. would be 192.168.1.0-192.168.1.254. Obviously you
would substitute your correct subnet. Do not run more than one firewall.

B. For ease of organization, put all computers in the same Workgroup. This
is done from the System applet in Control Panel, Computer Name tab.

C. Create matching user accounts and passwords on all machines. You do not
need to be logged into the same account on all machines and the passwords
assigned to each user account can be different; the accounts/passwords just
need to exist and match on all machines. If you wish a machine to boot
directly to the Desktop (into one particular user's account) for
convenience, you can do this. The instructions at this link work for both
XP and Vista:

Configure Windows to Automatically Login (MVP Ramesh) -
http://windowsxp.mvps.org/Autologon.htm

Malke

 

[fred]

OK well i dont think its a firewall problem, as the wired PC has a WMP
library that can share media files to the wireless one...but i dont want to
share them, i want to share FILES. Also..the only firewall i run is the Vista
one with the exceptions tab for " file and printer sharing" ticked on, on
both PC's. I have tried with both firewalls off and on, no difference.

Both PC's are in "WORKGROUP" and username on both PC's are "Administrator",
guest accounts are both off. This confirms the user accounts used are indeed
the admin ones.

The connection on both PC's are dynamic as the router has DCHP is switched
on in the router. I can ping both ways, i can share database libraries both
ways ..i just cannot see shares both ways. Is there something im missing?

I wish this was as easy as XP ... but its not!

 

[Dave Griffiths]

Hi Fred.
1. Shut down both PC's
2. Restart the router
3. Power up both PC's (now the router will only hold one entry for each
computer and no other confusing information)
4. Make sure Network Discovery and File sharing is turned in Network and
Sharing Center on both PC's
5. Temporary disable the firewall on both PC's check if you have two way
communication.
6. If yes
7. Turn on one Firewall and check again
8. If yes
9. Turn on the other Firewall

If you get a failure using \\RemotePc
do an ipconfig on the pc you are trying to access (RemotePc) and note the
ipaddress and try
\\ipaddress and see if it fails that way also.

If it fails let me know where it failed

HTH Dave