[werwick]

Yes! Nice information that you have shared with us.

Thank you very much.

[brbrown]

Hello jm & John. Thanks for the replies.
jm, I am using a USB connection on my laptop as my router only has one Ethernet and a USB connection. My Desktop is connected with the Ethernet connection because it is the one most used.

John, I understand but I'm sorry, I'm not familiar enough to know or know how to find out. I've just spent nearly three whole days now applying various settings and each time I have lost the internet connection even after setting a restore point before changing settings. I was only able to get the connection back by clicking Diagnose Connection Problems which told me to click enable DHCP Client. I can find no way to enable File and Printer Sharing in Network and Sharing center.

[JohnWill]

When you open up services, you will see the running state of the services I talked about.

[TerryNet]

John wants to know whether the services are running or not. See my thumbnail. 'Started' in the "Status" column means the service is running; blank means it is not running. This is from XP, but Vista is nearly the same. If the DHCP Client stops (or never starts) that is an obvious problem.

In the Network and Sharing Center there is no one option for file and printer sharing. There are half a dozen for public folder sharing, password protected sharing, etc.

[JohnWill]

Terry, see my annotated clip.

[TerryNet]

Super, John. If you squint real hard at the tiny gray text to the right just under the darker gray background you will see that my post trailed yours by a minute. I should take the hints (not from you; I'm referring to the eyesight straining site upgrade) and quit trying.

[JohnWill]

You snooze, you loose.

[brbrown]

Thank you both. Pretty obvious really wasn't it? I just did notice the other colum. However, yes they are all showing started and I can this morning access the internet on the XP and the Vista but I still have the problem of file and printer sharing.

[JohnWill]

OK, let's work on the file/print sharing issue.

Turn off any firewalls for debugging. If the firewall is the problem, you'll have to configure it to allow access to "trusted zone" addresses. Note that some firewalls must be completely uninstalled to stop them from affecting your networking.

Hold the Windows key and press R, then type CMD to open a command prompt.

In the command prompt window that opens, type type the following commands:

PING each remote computer by IP address, and if successful, PING by name. Open a command prompt as described above and type.

PING <ip address>
or
PING <computer name>

Where:
<ip address> - is the x.x.x.x IP address
<computer name> - is the computer name

A failure to PING is almost always a firewall configuration issue. Any failure to PING needs to be corrected before you go any farther.

Note: You can obtain the IP address and computer name of a computer by opening a command prompt (DOS window) and typing IPCONFIG /ALL. This should work for any Windows version. The IPCONFIG /ALL display will provide a wealth of useful information for debugging your network connection.

Check your Services are Started on all PCs:

• Computer Browser
• DHCP Client
• DNS Client
• Network Connections
• Network Location Awareness
• Remote Procedure Call (RPC)
• Server
• TCP/IP Netbios helper
• Workstation

Note: You can check the services in Control Panel, Administrative Tools, Services.

All of these services should be started, and their startup type should be automatic.

All computers should be in the same workgroup for computer browsing to function properly. File & Print Sharing has to be enabled on any computer you wish to share files or printers from. You also need to actually share the resource in question from My Computer, right click on the drive/printer/folder, and select sharing.

If you encounter difficulties accessing computers that are visible in Network Neighborhood, make sure the computer being accessed has an account with the same name/password as the system connecting to it uses to login.

While the default NetBIOS setting is correct for normal network configurations, it's possible for it to be altered, and it costs nothing to make sure it's correct. NETBIOS over TCP/IP must be enabled for normal network browsing.

[brbrown]

OK. I have all Settings set to Auto and Started on Vista. File and printer sharing is on in XP but when I click Vista Control Panel then Printers, I get Microsoft XPS Document Writer Printer then I click Add Printer. if I click the option Add Network Printer, it searches and cannot find a printer. I then click My Printer Is Not Listed then I get three options, 1) Find printer by TC/IP Address, 2) by Computer Name, 3) Browse For Printer. None of these options can find the printer.

I have just heard from my Epson Support line that they think using XP as a host to allow Vista to share XP's printer will not work. Surely that's not right? What do I do next?

[JohnWill]

Did you start at the top of the list? Getting PING working all around by name is the first step.

[brbrown]

John, sorry, I missed a step. I have done everything from the top of the list including pinging the IP adresses to one another but I cannot get the computers to recognise the Computer Name pings. I get a message saying "Could not find host "...." (that being the name).

[JohnWill]

That's the first issue to address.

Let's see this for each computer.

Hold the Windows key and press R, then type CMD to open a command prompt:

In the command prompt window that opens, type type the following commands, one at a time, followed by the Enter key:

NBTSTAT -n

IPCONFIG /ALL

Right click in the command window and choose Select All, then hit Enter.
Paste the results in a message here.

If you are on a machine with no network connection, use a floppy, USB disk, or a CD-RW disk to transfer a text file with the information to allow pasting it here.

[brbrown]

Thanks John. This is from my XP desktop computer. Should I do the same for my Vista laptop?
Microsoft Windows XP [Version 5.1.2600]
(C) Copyright 1985-2001 Microsoft Corp.

C:\Documents and Settings\Brian Brown>NBTSTAT -n

Local Area Connection 2:
Node IpAddress: [192.168.1.3] Scope Id: []

NetBIOS Local Name Table

Name Type Status
---------------------------------------------
BRIANXP <00> UNIQUE Registered
WORKGROUP <00> GROUP Registered
BRIANXP <20> UNIQUE Registered
WORKGROUP <1E> GROUP Registered
WORKGROUP <1D> UNIQUE Registered
..__MSBROWSE__.<01> GROUP Registered

C:\Documents and Settings\Brian Brown>IPCONFIG /ALL

Windows IP Configuration

Host Name . . . . . . . . . . . . : BRIANXP
Primary Dns Suffix . . . . . . . :
Node Type . . . . . . . . . . . . : Unknown
IP Routing Enabled. . . . . . . . : No
WINS Proxy Enabled. . . . . . . . : No

Ethernet adapter Local Area Connection 2:

Connection-specific DNS Suffix . :
Description . . . . . . . . . . . : NVIDIA nForce Networking Controller
Physical Address. . . . . . . . . : 04-4B-80-80-80-03
Dhcp Enabled. . . . . . . . . . . : Yes
Autoconfiguration Enabled . . . . : Yes
IP Address. . . . . . . . . . . . : 192.168.1.3
Subnet Mask . . . . . . . . . . . : 255.255.255.0
Default Gateway . . . . . . . . . : 192.168.1.1
DHCP Server . . . . . . . . . . . : 192.168.1.1
DNS Servers . . . . . . . . . . . : 192.168.1.1
Lease Obtained. . . . . . . . . . : 09 May 2008 18:53:44
Lease Expires . . . . . . . . . . : 10 May 2008 18:53:44

C:\Documents and Settings\Brian Brown>

[brbrown]

Thus is for the Vista laptop.
Microsoft Windows [Version 6.0.6001]
Copyright (c) 2006 Microsoft Corporation. All rights reserved.

C:\Users\Brian>NBTSTAT -n

Local Area Connection 2:
Node IpAddress: [192.168.1.4] Scope Id: []

NetBIOS Local Name Table

Name Type Status
---------------------------------------------
BRIAN-PC <00> UNIQUE Registered
WORKGROUP <00> GROUP Registered
WORKGROUP <1E> GROUP Registered
BRIAN-PC <20> UNIQUE Registered

Local Area Connection:
Node IpAddress: [0.0.0.0] Scope Id: []

No names in cache

Wireless Network Connection:
Node IpAddress: [0.0.0.0] Scope Id: []

No names in cache

C:\Users\Brian>IPCONFIG /ALL

Windows IP Configuration

Host Name . . . . . . . . . . . . : Brian-PC
Primary Dns Suffix . . . . . . . :
Node Type . . . . . . . . . . . . : Hybrid
IP Routing Enabled. . . . . . . . : No
WINS Proxy Enabled. . . . . . . . : No

Ethernet adapter Local Area Connection 2:

Connection-specific DNS Suffix . :
Description . . . . . . . . . . . : MT882
Physical Address. . . . . . . . . : 00-18-02-E8-32-10
DHCP Enabled. . . . . . . . . . . : Yes
Autoconfiguration Enabled . . . . : Yes
Link-local IPv6 Address . . . . . : fe80::f165:eb09:9071:8028%11(Preferred)
IPv4 Address. . . . . . . . . . . : 192.168.1.4(Preferred)
Subnet Mask . . . . . . . . . . . : 255.255.255.0
Lease Obtained. . . . . . . . . . : 09 May 2008 19:43:54
Lease Expires . . . . . . . . . . : 10 May 2008 19:43:54
Default Gateway . . . . . . . . . : 192.168.1.2
DHCP Server . . . . . . . . . . . : 192.168.1.2
DNS Servers . . . . . . . . . . . : 192.168.1.2
NetBIOS over Tcpip. . . . . . . . : Enabled

Wireless LAN adapter Wireless Network Connection:

Media State . . . . . . . . . . . : Media disconnected
Connection-specific DNS Suffix . :
Description . . . . . . . . . . . : Intel(R) PRO/Wireless 3945ABG Network Con
nection
Physical Address. . . . . . . . . : 00-1F-3C-32-03-98
DHCP Enabled. . . . . . . . . . . : Yes
Autoconfiguration Enabled . . . . : Yes

Ethernet adapter Local Area Connection:

Media State . . . . . . . . . . . : Media disconnected
Connection-specific DNS Suffix . :
Description . . . . . . . . . . . : Marvell Yukon 88E8040 PCI-E Fast Ethernet
Controller
Physical Address. . . . . . . . . : 00-1D-09-4E-EA-08
DHCP Enabled. . . . . . . . . . . : Yes
Autoconfiguration Enabled . . . . : Yes

Tunnel adapter Local Area Connection* 6:

Media State . . . . . . . . . . . : Media disconnected
Connection-specific DNS Suffix . :
Description . . . . . . . . . . . : Teredo Tunneling Pseudo-Interface
Physical Address. . . . . . . . . : 02-00-54-55-4E-01
DHCP Enabled. . . . . . . . . . . : No
Autoconfiguration Enabled . . . . : Yes

Tunnel adapter Local Area Connection* 7:

Media State . . . . . . . . . . . : Media disconnected
Connection-specific DNS Suffix . :
Description . . . . . . . . . . . : isatap.{B206C483-2633-4EC3-B8DB-98DEB7A8E
505}
Physical Address. . . . . . . . . : 00-00-00-00-00-00-00-E0
DHCP Enabled. . . . . . . . . . . : No
Autoconfiguration Enabled . . . . : Yes

Tunnel adapter Local Area Connection* 9:

Media State . . . . . . . . . . . : Media disconnected
Connection-specific DNS Suffix . :
Description . . . . . . . . . . . : isatap.{33908997-6BDA-4A25-B095-E9C0A7DB1
E16}
Physical Address. . . . . . . . . : 00-00-00-00-00-00-00-E0
DHCP Enabled. . . . . . . . . . . : No
Autoconfiguration Enabled . . . . : Yes

Tunnel adapter Local Area Connection* 10:

Media State . . . . . . . . . . . : Media disconnected
Connection-specific DNS Suffix . :
Description . . . . . . . . . . . : isatap.{C9632476-C808-4B8E-BC91-8FC929E55
699}
Physical Address. . . . . . . . . : 00-00-00-00-00-00-00-E0
DHCP Enabled. . . . . . . . . . . : No
Autoconfiguration Enabled . . . . : Yes

C:\Users\Brian>