Networking 2 PCs - one Windows XP, one Windows Vista

[david1969]

Hi all - I have just bought a new PC for my home office and I want to network it with my existing one. The old one has Windows XP on it and the new one has Vista (I could not find one with XP!).

I went through the "normal" process (using the help functions in Windows) but one does not seem to be able to find the other.

Has any here cracked this problem before?

Thanks
David

[smiley]

I recently had exactly the same problem... I may need to go and look at settings to remind myself EXACTLY what the solutions were, but here is the gist in the meantime:

1. Apparently, it is a "known issue" that XP and Vista can take some time to see each other on a wired LAN (you didn't say how you were trying to network?) environment. The first time I connected them it took about 10 minutes and now it can take a minute or two every time I boot everything up... so you may just need to wait...

2. I'm guessing you have some sort of antivirus/firewall application? If so, you need to ensure that the app on BOTH machines is configured to allow IP traffic in and out of the LAN IP addresses (NOT the same as your external WAN IP address, or even your internal wireless LAN address, if you use wireless) on both machines

3. One machine needs to act as a DHCP server (again, assuming we are talking wired LAN here) to allocate an IP address out to the other machine. There are ways to hard-allocate IP addresses out to machines on a network but the dynamic way is the simplest

4. Far simpler than all the above is to use your existing router (probably wireless?) as the hub for your network as these tend to be already configured to do all the above and you will find a far more "plug and play" experience!

Let me know if any of this helps and I'll try and help more if not...

Smiley

[david1969]

Hi Smiley

That's two computer issues solved here... great!

It turned out to be the firewall - I couldn't find the controls to allow the traffic as you suggested but a neighbour fixed it for me very quickly when I showed her your post...

If this is a common problem, is it possible to post pictures to show people how to do it themselves?

Many thanks
David