GayleC said:
My new computer (Vista) is wired to a wireless router. While the router
sees all other connections to the network, Vista doesn't recognize ANY
computer (1 on XP, 1 a MacBook and 1 a wireless game system).
How do I get Vista to recognize the other computers on the network?
Previous XP computer saw and allowed sharing without issue, so not a
hardware problem I'm thinking, as the new computer/Vista is the only
change to the system.
Can't help you with the "wireless game system" but here is how to network
Vista to XP and to the Mac.
I. Vista network setup:
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
II. XP network setup:
For XP, start by running the Network Setup Wizard (see caveat in Item A
below).
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
D. If one or more of the computers is XP Pro or Media Center:
1. If you need Pro's ability to set fine-grained permissions, turn off
Simple File Sharing (Folder Options>View tab) and create identical user
accounts/passwords on all computers.
2. If you don't care about using Pro's advanced features, leave the Simple
File Sharing enabled. Simple File Sharing means that Guest (network) is
enabled. This means that anyone without a user account on the target system
can use its resources. This is a security hole but only you can decide if
it matters in your situation.
E. Create shares as desired. XP Home does not permit sharing of users' home
directories (My Documents) or Program Files, but you can share folders
inside those directories. A better choice is to simply use the Shared
Documents folder. See the first link above for details about Vista sharing.
III. Mac OS X network setup with Vista
This assumes that you have correctly set up Windows Sharing in OS X. If you
have Leopard, make sure you are using the SMB protocol and not AFP. You
must create matching user accounts/passwords on both the Mac and Vista. 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 in Vista (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
You also need to make sure you've correctly configured your firewalls on
both machines to allow the Local Area Network as trusted.
To enable Windows Vista to connect to Mac OS X with Windows File Sharing
enabled, you will need to change the following policy in Windows Vista:
Start>Run>secpol.msc [enter]
Click on "Local Policies" --> "Security Options"
Navigate to the policy "Network Security: LAN Manager authentication level"
and double-click it to get its Properties. By default Windows Vista sets
the policy to "NTVLM2 responses only". Use the drop-down arrow to change
this to "LM and NTLM ? use NTLMV2 session security if negotiated".
In Vista Home Premium, you won't have this tool so per Steve Winograd, do:
1. Run the registry editor and open this key:
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Control\Lsa
1. If it doesn't already exist, create a DWORD value named
LmCompatibilityLevel
3. Set the value to 1
4. Reboot
Malke
--
MS-MVP
Elephant Boy Computers
www.elephantboycomputers.com
Don't Panic!
