strange setup

[JB]

Hello.
My sister and her niece both have laptops, both with Vista, both inbuilt
wireless connecting to the internet by way of a wireless D-Link dls router.
The first thing that is odd is that when viewing the map on both laptops, my
sister's connection is via my niece's.
ie. Sister >>>>Niece>>>>Router>>>>Internet.
And yet we can't work out how that happened or how to fix it. Both laptops
were setup in the same way.
Looked for available networks, found the router, connected having used WEP
keys for both.

The other thing is, which probably is because of question 1, is that they
can't see each other at all.
They both have Network Discovery enabled,
Both have stuff in their public folders. and even those are shared to be
sure.
what to do?
Thank you
J

 

[Jack \(MVP-Networking\).]

Hi
Connection via would mean that the laptop would need the other one to be On
in order to connect to the Internet.
Switch Off the Niece laptop and see what would happen.
As for sharing, successful Sharing involves some general consideration in
Network settings, http://www.ezlan.net/sharing.html
As well as specific adjustment of each computer according to what it is
allowed to be shared.
Vista File and Printer Sharing-
http://www.microsoft.com/technet/network/evaluate/vista_fp.mspx
Windows XP File Sharing -
http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=kb;en-us;304040
Printer Sharing XP -
http://www.microsoft.com/windowsxp/using/networking/expert/honeycutt_july2.mspx
Windows Native Firewall setting for Sharing XP -
http://support.microsoft.com/kb/875357
Windows XP patch for Sharing with Vista -
http://support.microsoft.com/kb/922120
Jack (MVP-Networking).

 

[JB]

Thanks Jack.
That's the weird thing, when my niece's laptop is off, the connection is
fine.
I've taken my laptop over to see and the same thing happens.
I will look at the stuff you sent. In the meantime I made a mistake with the
map, it is
sister (and me)>>>router>>>>niece>>>>internet
thanks
J

 

[JB]

Worked out why they couldn't share.
It was the AVG firewall. Although it is set to accept the network, it was
blocking everything. So I disabled it and that did the trick, and so we've
enabled the Vista firewall .

The only thing that is a problem is this strange setup to the internet. When
my sister is the only one switched on, she has no troubles at all and is
connected the whole time. As soon as my niece switches her laptop on, she
stands between the router and the internet, and my sisters connection keeps
cutting out, and the only thing she can do is disable the network card and
re enable it and this goes on as long as my niece is switched on.

Very odd
Thank you for any help here