[El_Doro]

No change i'm afraid!

[JohnWill]

Do you have simple sharing enabled on each of the machines?

[El_Doro]

It wasn't on the xp machine, so i enabled and restarted and there was no change. In Vista there isn't the option in folder options, but the file sharing option in network and sharing centre is enabled.

[TerryNet]

What 3rd party firewalls (security suites) are on the machines or have ever been on them? They sometimes continue to block some things unless completely and cleanly uninstalled or properly configured for the desired access.

[El_Doro]

The PC just has free editions of zone alarm and AVG, whilst the Laptop has mcafee 2008, and previously had a norton trial on it.

[TerryNet]

ZoneAlarm, McAfee and Norton! See second sentence of my previous post.

[El_Doro]

Norton's been completely removed, and both mcafee and zonealarm have been configured to allow sharing, i've even tried with both firewalls turned off but no change.

My thoughts would be that isn't something to do with the firewall, seeing as i can access the already shared files, and any file i move into them, but just can't allow other folders to be shared and accessed.

[TerryNet]

i can access the already shared files

Meaning the files that are in Shared Documents on XP or in the Public folder on Vista?

but just can't allow other folders to be shared

Be specific. You right click on a folder and 'Sharing and Security...' is not in the context menu? Or cannot be selected? Or you can select it but cannot 'Share this folder on the network'?

[El_Doro]

Sorry, i was a bit vague in an earlier post. Yes, when im on the vista machine i can acces the shared documents of the xp machine, and when i'm on the xp machine i can access the public folder of the vista machine.

Other folders i set to share show up on the other machine, but cannot be accesed, thats when i get the ".... is not accessible. You might not have permission to use the network resource ..." error message.

I've checked and rechecked the permissions of the folders on both machines, both set for full control for everyone, but no change.

[TerryNet]

It sounds like you're using Advanced File Sharing on the XP. I've only used SFS on XP, and usually have to "play around" with the permissions on Vista to get sharing working, so probably can't be of much help with getting the permissions correct.

[JohnWill]

Try turning off "password protected sharing" on the Vista machine.