My Vista has lost the Network

I have two PCs linked by a wireless router to the Internet. One runs XP Home
and one runs Vista Home Basic.

Until two days ago they worked reasonably well in the network. VistaPC could
use the laser printer attached to XPPC and could access files on XPPX whereas
XPPC could access files on VistaPC but only after supplying a password every
day (which XP refuses to remember) after switching the PCs on.

On Monday I tried to improve the situation so that XPPC would not have to
supply a password, though I was not successful. But now, although I think I
put all the settings back to where they had been, VistaPC does not find the
network (it finds the Internet without problem). It cannot use the laser
printer on XPPC no matter what I do.

If I click Start and then right click Network and select properties
everything appears as it should. I have green lights showing that automatic
network detection, sharing of files, sharing printers and sharing protection
by password are all enabled and grey lights showing that sharing of the
public access folder and multimedia sharing are disabled (sorry if some of
these terms are not exactly right – my Vista is in Spanish!).

If I right click on Start and select Explore it pulls up Explorer. If I
scroll down the folder in the left pane I get to Network and if I click on
this nothing happens except that an information bar appears at the top saying
that "automatic detection of networks is not enabled, click here to change
settings" (even though I know from the Network Properties that it is)! So I
click there to change the setting and in the right hand pane the two PCs
appear. Now if I click on XPPX a pop-up appears asking me to give a username
and password. If I enter the username and password of another user account on
VistaPC (not an account on XPPC) I get access to all the shares on XPPC. I
can see shared folders and printers. I can right click on the laser printer
Iand select Connect and a small pop up appears that says “connecting to
printer� but when that disappears I still cannot print.

After a reboot I am right back where I started. Nothing that I have done has
been remembered by Vista. I performed a system restore back to Saturday (two
days before these problems appeared) but although that completed successfully
the problem remains. Does anyone have any ideas?

start>network> network sharing
network discovery ON
file sharing ON
public folder access ON
password protect sharing OFF

for vista to print from the xp machine, in the above, click on add network
device;

"Alan Williams-Key" wrote:

> I have two PCs linked by a wireless router to the Internet. One runs XP Home
> and one runs Vista Home Basic.
>
> Until two days ago they worked reasonably well in the network. VistaPC could
> use the laser printer attached to XPPC and could access files on XPPX whereas
> XPPC could access files on VistaPC but only after supplying a password every
> day (which XP refuses to remember) after switching the PCs on.
>
> On Monday I tried to improve the situation so that XPPC would not have to
> supply a password, though I was not successful. But now, although I think I
> put all the settings back to where they had been, VistaPC does not find the
> network (it finds the Internet without problem). It cannot use the laser
> printer on XPPC no matter what I do.
>
> If I click Start and then right click Network and select properties
> everything appears as it should. I have green lights showing that automatic
> network detection, sharing of files, sharing printers and sharing protection
> by password are all enabled and grey lights showing that sharing of the
> public access folder and multimedia sharing are disabled (sorry if some of
> these terms are not exactly right – my Vista is in Spanish!).
>
> If I right click on Start and select Explore it pulls up Explorer. If I
> scroll down the folder in the left pane I get to Network and if I click on
> this nothing happens except that an information bar appears at the top saying
> that "automatic detection of networks is not enabled, click here to change
> settings" (even though I know from the Network Properties that it is)! So I
> click there to change the setting and in the right hand pane the two PCs
> appear. Now if I click on XPPX a pop-up appears asking me to give a username
> and password. If I enter the username and password of another user account on
> VistaPC (not an account on XPPC) I get access to all the shares on XPPC. I
> can see shared folders and printers. I can right click on the laser printer
> Iand select Connect and a small pop up appears that says “connecting to
> printer� but when that disappears I still cannot print.
>
> After a reboot I am right back where I started. Nothing that I have done has
> been remembered by Vista. I performed a system restore back to Saturday (two
> days before these problems appeared) but although that completed successfully
> the problem remains. Does anyone have any ideas?
>

Thanks for the suggestion. I made the changes to the settings. I could not
find "add network device". I found add netowrk unit under tools but it only
gave me the option to map to a folder. Can you be more specific? (remember I
am dealing with a Spanish interface so things are not necessarily obvious.

Alan

"Mick" wrote:

> start>network> network sharing
> network discovery ON
> file sharing ON
> public folder access ON
> password protect sharing OFF
>
> for vista to print from the xp machine, in the above, click on add network
> device;
>
> "Alan Williams-Key" wrote:
>
> > I have two PCs linked by a wireless router to the Internet. One runs XP Home
> > and one runs Vista Home Basic.
> >
> > Until two days ago they worked reasonably well in the network. VistaPC could
> > use the laser printer attached to XPPC and could access files on XPPX whereas
> > XPPC could access files on VistaPC but only after supplying a password every
> > day (which XP refuses to remember) after switching the PCs on.
> >
> > On Monday I tried to improve the situation so that XPPC would not have to
> > supply a password, though I was not successful. But now, although I think I
> > put all the settings back to where they had been, VistaPC does not find the
> > network (it finds the Internet without problem). It cannot use the laser
> > printer on XPPC no matter what I do.
> >
> > If I click Start and then right click Network and select properties
> > everything appears as it should. I have green lights showing that automatic
> > network detection, sharing of files, sharing printers and sharing protection
> > by password are all enabled and grey lights showing that sharing of the
> > public access folder and multimedia sharing are disabled (sorry if some of
> > these terms are not exactly right – my Vista is in Spanish!).
> >
> > If I right click on Start and select Explore it pulls up Explorer. If I
> > scroll down the folder in the left pane I get to Network and if I click on
> > this nothing happens except that an information bar appears at the top saying
> > that "automatic detection of networks is not enabled, click here to change
> > settings" (even though I know from the Network Properties that it is)! So I
> > click there to change the setting and in the right hand pane the two PCs
> > appear. Now if I click on XPPX a pop-up appears asking me to give a username
> > and password. If I enter the username and password of another user account on
> > VistaPC (not an account on XPPC) I get access to all the shares on XPPC. I
> > can see shared folders and printers. I can right click on the laser printer
> > Iand select Connect and a small pop up appears that says “connecting to
> > printer� but when that disappears I still cannot print.
> >
> > After a reboot I am right back where I started. Nothing that I have done has
> > been remembered by Vista. I performed a system restore back to Saturday (two
> > days before these problems appeared) but although that completed successfully
> > the problem remains. Does anyone have any ideas?
> >