Networking Vista & XP

I have recently purchased a laptop with Vista Home Premium, only to discover
that it wouldn't recognize my desktop machine on the network. The desktop is
Windows Media Center Edition (XP Pro). I've installed the Topical Link-Layer
Discovery update on the XP machine, and about once out of every three visits
to the "Network" through Explorer, my desktop will show up, but trying to
access it (ever) will give an error that essentially says "Sorry, chump, I
asked DNS about that PC, but there's no record of it existing." (Except, with
a Brooklyn accent.)

I'm fairly tech-savvy, so I've done my googling. I've tried enabling the
sharing options on the Vista machine, setting up accounts with the same user
ID & password on both machines - the standard response to this problem.
Unfortuneately, none of these things have solved this issue.

Any suggestions would be GREATLY appreciated. I've got software (source
code - I'm a programmer) and media on my desktop that I really need to get to
from my laptop.

TIA,
Jason

Try the free trial version of Network Magic:
http://www.networkmagic.com/

--
Carey Frisch
Microsoft MVP
Windows Shell/User

---------------------------------------------------------------

"Jason" wrote:

I have recently purchased a laptop with Vista Home Premium, only to discover
that it wouldn't recognize my desktop machine on the network. The desktop is
Windows Media Center Edition (XP Pro). I've installed the Topical Link-Layer
Discovery update on the XP machine, and about once out of every three visits
to the "Network" through Explorer, my desktop will show up, but trying to
access it (ever) will give an error that essentially says "Sorry, chump, I
asked DNS about that PC, but there's no record of it existing." (Except, with
a Brooklyn accent.)

I'm fairly tech-savvy, so I've done my googling. I've tried enabling the
sharing options on the Vista machine, setting up accounts with the same user
ID & password on both machines - the standard response to this problem.
Unfortuneately, none of these things have solved this issue.

Any suggestions would be GREATLY appreciated. I've got software (source
code - I'm a programmer) and media on my desktop that I really need to get to
from my laptop.

TIA,
Jason

"Jason" <> wrote in message
news:6BB01068-8E89-4216-B360-...
>I have recently purchased a laptop with Vista Home Premium, only to
>discover
> that it wouldn't recognize my desktop machine on the network. The desktop
> is
> Windows Media Center Edition (XP Pro). I've installed the Topical
> Link-Layer
> Discovery update on the XP machine, and about once out of every three
> visits
> to the "Network" through Explorer, my desktop will show up, but trying to
> access it (ever) will give an error that essentially says "Sorry, chump, I
> asked DNS about that PC, but there's no record of it existing." (Except,
> with
> a Brooklyn accent.)

The exact error message would be helpful, the above tells me nothing.

You do have the drive(s) shared on the XP machine, right?

I do this everyday and have no problems.

When I try to access the XP machine, it says:

Windows cannot access \\[ComputerName]
Check the spelling of the name. Otherwise, there might be a problem with
your network. To try to identify and resolve network problems, click Diagnose.
(V) See details [ Diagnose ] [ Cancel ]

When I click "Diagnose" I get:

Windows cannot find "[ComputerName]"
Windows sent the request to the DNS server and the server responded that the
name was unknown.

"Bob Campbell" wrote:

> "Jason" <> wrote in message
> news:6BB01068-8E89-4216-B360-...
> >I have recently purchased a laptop with Vista Home Premium, only to
> >discover
> > that it wouldn't recognize my desktop machine on the network. The desktop
> > is
> > Windows Media Center Edition (XP Pro). I've installed the Topical
> > Link-Layer
> > Discovery update on the XP machine, and about once out of every three
> > visits
> > to the "Network" through Explorer, my desktop will show up, but trying to
> > access it (ever) will give an error that essentially says "Sorry, chump, I
> > asked DNS about that PC, but there's no record of it existing." (Except,
> > with
> > a Brooklyn accent.)
>
> The exact error message would be helpful, the above tells me nothing.
>
> You do have the drive(s) shared on the XP machine, right?
>
> I do this everyday and have no problems.
>
>

Thank you for pointing me towards Network Magic. Although I chose NOT to use
it, visiting their website did point out 1 small problem that I overlooked
while going through the common configuration for sharing between Vista and
XP... I left Norton's firewall up on the XP machine, so SMB and Windows file
sharing was being blocked on the XP machine.

Thanks,
Jason

"Carey Frisch [MVP]" wrote:

> Try the free trial version of Network Magic:
> http://www.networkmagic.com/
>
> --
> Carey Frisch
> Microsoft MVP
> Windows Shell/User
>
> ---------------------------------------------------------------
>
> "Jason" wrote:
>
> I have recently purchased a laptop with Vista Home Premium, only to discover
> that it wouldn't recognize my desktop machine on the network. The desktop is
> Windows Media Center Edition (XP Pro). I've installed the Topical Link-Layer
> Discovery update on the XP machine, and about once out of every three visits
> to the "Network" through Explorer, my desktop will show up, but trying to
> access it (ever) will give an error that essentially says "Sorry, chump, I
> asked DNS about that PC, but there's no record of it existing." (Except, with
> a Brooklyn accent.)
>
> I'm fairly tech-savvy, so I've done my googling. I've tried enabling the
> sharing options on the Vista machine, setting up accounts with the same user
> ID & password on both machines - the standard response to this problem.
> Unfortuneately, none of these things have solved this issue.
>
> Any suggestions would be GREATLY appreciated. I've got software (source
> code - I'm a programmer) and media on my desktop that I really need to get to
> from my laptop.
>
> TIA,
> Jason
>

"Jason" <> wrote in message
news:69ED5571-526D-417F-BEEB-...
> Thank you for pointing me towards Network Magic. Although I chose NOT to
> use
> it, visiting their website did point out 1 small problem that I overlooked
> while going through the common configuration for sharing between Vista and
> XP... I left Norton's firewall up on the XP machine, so SMB and Windows
> file
> sharing was being blocked on the XP machine.

Yep, that'll do it!

You have a Norton product installed, that explains a lot.
I don't allow anything from them anywhere my network anymore.

"Jason" <> wrote in message
news:69ED5571-526D-417F-BEEB-...
> Thank you for pointing me towards Network Magic. Although I chose NOT to
> use
> it, visiting their website did point out 1 small problem that I overlooked
> while going through the common configuration for sharing between Vista and
> XP... I left Norton's firewall up on the XP machine, so SMB and Windows
> file
> sharing was being blocked on the XP machine.
>
> Thanks,
> Jason
>
> "Carey Frisch [MVP]" wrote:
>
>> Try the free trial version of Network Magic:
>> http://www.networkmagic.com/
>>
>> --
>> Carey Frisch
>> Microsoft MVP
>> Windows Shell/User
>>
>> ---------------------------------------------------------------
>>
>> "Jason" wrote:
>>
>> I have recently purchased a laptop with Vista Home Premium, only to
>> discover
>> that it wouldn't recognize my desktop machine on the network. The
>> desktop is
>> Windows Media Center Edition (XP Pro). I've installed the Topical
>> Link-Layer
>> Discovery update on the XP machine, and about once out of every three
>> visits
>> to the "Network" through Explorer, my desktop will show up, but trying to
>> access it (ever) will give an error that essentially says "Sorry, chump,
>> I
>> asked DNS about that PC, but there's no record of it existing." (Except,
>> with
>> a Brooklyn accent.)
>>
>> I'm fairly tech-savvy, so I've done my googling. I've tried enabling the
>> sharing options on the Vista machine, setting up accounts with the same
>> user
>> ID & password on both machines - the standard response to this problem.
>> Unfortuneately, none of these things have solved this issue.
>>
>> Any suggestions would be GREATLY appreciated. I've got software (source
>> code - I'm a programmer) and media on my desktop that I really need to
>> get to
>> from my laptop.
>>
>> TIA,
>> Jason
>>