Home Network Setup Help - XP & Vista on D-Link Router

[Oblio]

Hey all,

I'm trying to set up a home network. I have two PC's, one on xp and one on vista, on a dLink router.

I have both computers set to the workgroup 'WORKGROUP', and I attempted to set up LAN, but I really don't know much about this and neither computer is seeing each other, and the printer (connected to vista, set to sharing) also won't work.

any tips or ideas?

Greatly appreciated! thanks!

 

[Oblio]

to expand,
on vista:
i checked that the private network setting was enabled,
i have no firewall,
yes its all connected to the router :)

 

[Oblio]

I guess this is what I should've expected on a physics forum eh? :P

 

[mgb_phys]

Do they have static IP addresses or is the router doing DHCP.
Can you ping the other computer.
Can you see the other computer in 'network neighbourhood'

 

[Oblio]

the router is set to DHCP and I haven't been able to see either computer in the neighbourhood.. pinging I'm going to try when I get home...

 

[Art]

I set up a home network recently with the same configuration - 1 Vista machine hard wired and 1 XP wireless. You didn't mention if your network is hardwired or wireless and the procedure for each is a bit different. Also how are you connecting to the internet. Do you have one machine sharing it's connection with the other or are you using a residential gateway to give each computer it's own connection? If the latter are both machines connecting to the internet okay?Whichever way you are networking you need to first link both machines to your router and then enter the network key and set the sharing options on public folders so both computers can access them.

Note before you can see both machines on the Vista network map you will need to download an update from MS for the XP machine although this will not stop you having access to shared folders or devices.
.

 

[Zenparticle]

Yes it's different wireless vs hardwire but I figure you already know the ipconfig /all and how to ping- Once you get a computer to communicate with the router you get the ip of the router open up IE explorer and put the ip in the address bar it should bring up your Admin utility's which can really help-also the d link customer service people are great walking you through the whole process via phone or by chat.

 

[Astronuc]

the router is set to DHCP and I haven't been able to see either computer in the neighbourhood.. pinging I'm going to try when I get home...

Windows default has the firewall turned 'ON'. You will not be able to see the computer with the firewall on. Turn it off.

The router should have a firewall in it.

 

[turbo]

Beware that XP's network wizard is not real tolerant of some Linksys software/drivers, and may not play well with others. My wife has my old computer (pretty much stripped/wiped, so she uses it for Internet access for recipes, etc) and XP's wizard cannot address the wireless port. Everything has to be configured manually with the software that came with the wireless hardware. I spent a LOT of hours sorting through those problems.