[brbrown]

Disabled Zonealarm on XP but made no difference although I could still ping the Vista. I have even set the Vista name as a trusted site in Zonealarm.

[JohnWill]

Can you ping by name both ways with the firewall disabled?

[JohnWill]

You also have the nVidia firewall running it appears, I'd uninstall that one totally. You not only have one firewall, you have two, a bad combination!

[brbrown]

I have just disabled both Zonealarm on XP and McAfee on Vista. I can still ping the addresses both ways but not the computer names. I wasn't aware I had an nVidia firewall unless that is to do with the router. I have an nVidia network device on the XP. Could I therefore do away with Zonealrm and McAfee if I keep AVG Antivirus?

[TerryNet]

ZoneAlarm (firewall) and AVG Antivirus (anti-virus) are different products for different uses.

McAfee Anti-virus may or may not be better than AVG Anti-virus. McAfee firewall and anti-spyware are different products from AVG Anti-virus.

While a firewall is mandatory these days each person has to make his/her own decision about what firewall best meets his or her risk/reward criteria. Most of the time I am hiding behind a router plus use the Windows XP and Vista firewalls. I prefer to take my chances with outgoing attacks, as I think my habits and precautions keep my risks low. When I take my XP laptop to a public network I set the firewall to "No Exceptions." The only time a firewall has interfered with my LAN access is the time I forgot to unset the "No Exceptions" after returning from a trip.

[brbrown]

Thanks Terry. Yes I understand. What I meant was that if I do away with McAfee which deals with antivirus as well, I ought to add AVG antivirus. My McAfee subscription runs out soon so I think I will uninstall it anyway. I can't help feeling that it is what is causing my problems. I am not even sure now that I was able to disable it properly to try pinging my other computer's name.

[gostim]

by the way Vista has problems all over and personaly i don't like it i'v change it to XP nw all my programs which i have installed r working perfect i don't have any prob till nw... so careful wht prog u install while u using vista couse not all prog are supported by vista

[brbrown]

Yes, thanks gostim.I'll keep that in mind.

[TerryNet]

Yes, for sure if you are not going to keep McAfee internet security much longer uninstall it now and start using AVG (or another) anti-virus.

[brbrown]

Hello Terry. I have now uninstalled McAfee and installed AVG Free Antivrus and turned on Windows firewall on my laptop but at present I am not at home. As soon as I get home, I will try Printer and File sharing again and let you know how I get on. Brian

[brbrown]

Hello Terry. Have now tried Printer and File sharing again to no avail. I have even tried installing the Microsoft Network Map from this link http://tinyurl.co.uk/159g which makes no difference. Puzzle is, both computers can now ping one anothers IP addresses and there own name but not one anothers name. Now that I have uninstalled McAfee, my XP computer does not show on the Network Map on my Vista. Now on the point of giving up unless anyone can offer any other ideas.

[TerryNet]

Did you use the McAfee Removal tool to make sure it is all gone?

Is ZoneAlarm completely gone? If you are not sure, install it again and then immediately uninstall it.

Have you dealt with the nVidia firewall John pointed out?

[brbrown]

No Terry, I only used the Windows Add/Remove programmes in Control panel but I checked in Explorer and deleted an odd McAfee file I found and I ran CCCleaner afterwards. I can't find any others. I didn't have Zone alarm on the Vista but it is still on the XP. I am not sure how to deal with the nVidea firewall though. I have done a Search for it on the Vista but came up with no result.

[brbrown]

Terry, I've just realised, the nVidea John was talking about was on my XP but I understood that it was Network Adapter software. Surely, if I get rid of it, the connection will not work at all. Also, I had understood that the Windows firewall on XP was not very good and that I needed Zonealarm with the Windows firewall switched off. I presume there is a firewall in the router though.

[TerryNet]

I can't spot things the way John can, but apparently he is not the only one who thinks that C:\NVIDIA\NetworkAccessManager\bin\nSvcIp.exe can be termed a firewall. For example, see http://www.tomshardware.com/forum/21...ip-grows-300mb

Others say it is NVIDIA ForceWare Network Access Manager. But, since that seems to be a long winded way to say "NVIDIA firewall," I'll stick with John on this. Here's something on NVIDIA ForceWare Network Access Manager: http://forums.nvidia.com/lofiversion...php?t3455.html

As part of my "research" for this post I reviewed the thread quickly. We seem to be still stuck in the very first paragraph that was written in response to your initial post.