Home Network with one XP & one Vista PC

[lesg]

Previously, networking two XP PCs performed well. Now with one new Vista PC I have problems.

1) From the Vista PC I can access shared files on the XP PC and I can also print directly to its attached printer from Outlook Express. But if I try to print from Word (2003) I get “Active Directory Domain Services is currently unavailable”.

2) From the XP PC I cannot “see” the Vista PC’s Public files or its attached printer at all. I have rerun Network Setup giving it the same Workgroup name as on the Vista PC. I have also set the Firewalls on both PCs to allow file sharing (correctly, I think).

I have now exhausted my limited knowledge of networking. Can anyone help, please?

[Woomera]

how exactly did you set vista firewall? it has 3 type of profiles:public,private and domain.

have you tried firewall off in both windows's and see what happens?

[lesg]

I have the network set as Private. The symptoms I describe still occur with both Windows firewalls set to OFF and the firewalls in the Security suites on both computers also set to OFF.

Incidentally when I said I printed in Vista from Outlook Express I meant Windows Mail of course (old habits die hard).

[spacesurfer]

I do believe Windows Firewall is not an issue since I am networking Vista and XP without a problem.

I'm not using Public folders however. I set certain folders as shared folders in Vista and XP. What version of Vista are you using?

It may be an issue like XP Home version where XP home didn't support advanced file sharing. Home had simple file sharing while professional has advanced file sharing.

It also odd that another use in this forum described the opposite problem - he couldn't access XP files from his laptop, which has vista.

Edited April 23, 2007 by spacesurfer