Home network - suffering from brain fade!

[towman]

Help! I cant remember how to do this and am struggling with Windows help. I hve a small wireless network at home - 2PCs and a laptop. The 2 PCs can swap files no problem and all can access the`net. But I can`t set it up so that I share the laptop files. "View Workgroup computers" only showa the PCs. What am I doing wrong?

tia

[Plotloss]

Is the laptop in the same workgroup as the two desktops?

[road2ruin]

Need to make sure of a few things on the laptop to enure you can see it. First make sure that the laptop is in the same workgroup as the other two machines. Next ensure that you have set up the harddisk for sharing (right click on the drive/s you want to share and click on sharing/security then fire away. Finally might need to allow the laptops local IP address on any connected firewalls. If the only firewall you are using is on the router this might be done automatically but the laptop needs to be set up to obtain IP address automatically.

See how you go.
Peter

[towman]

Plotloss said:

Is the laptop in the same workgroup as the two desktops?

sorry to sound stupid, but thats what I am trying to achieve! Perhaps my original post was badly worded.

[road2ruin]

towman said:

Plotloss said:

Is the laptop in the same workgroup as the two desktops?

sorry to sound stupid, but thats what I am trying to achieve! Perhaps my original post was badly worded.

Right click on my computer, go to properties then computer name then change and then change it to what ever you nedd to.

[Plotloss]

road2ruin said:

towman said:

Plotloss said:

Is the laptop in the same workgroup as the two desktops?

sorry to sound stupid, but thats what I am trying to achieve! Perhaps my original post was badly worded.

Right click on my computer, go to properties then computer name then change and then change it to what ever you nedd to.

Do that on the two desktops first to see what workgroup they are in, default is WORKGROUP and then set the laptop to be in the same one.

[aldi]

Check that the firewall on the lappy is set to allow file & print sharing to the local network, and isn't blocking outbound traffic from any system services.

[towman]

Ok Chaps - some progress but please bear with me here!
"View workgroup computers" on the lappy shows the two PCs and I can read folders on those.
"View workgroup computers" on the main PC shows only the two PCs.

I know it`s got to be something simple, but I just can`t think straight!

[Plotloss]

if on one of the desktops you do this:

open explorer

tools>map network drive

then enter in the box

\\laptopname\c$

Does that show you the contents of the C drive of the laptop?

Edited by Plotloss on Tuesday 12th September 13:45

[towman]

Plotloss said:

Does that show you the contents of the C drive of the laptop?

"network path could not be found"

[Plotloss]

Any firewalls etc running on the lappy?

[towman]

Plotloss said:

Any firewalls etc running on the lappy?

Not sure (not too techy!), but if there were, would I still be able to access other PCs?

How would I disable the firewall?

[towman]

Ok. Ive found the windows firewall thingy. It`s on and "file and printer sharing" is tickd in the exceptions box

[Plotloss]

Just to be sure, its an odd beast, can you turn it off and try browsing again?

[towman]

restarted both - same!

wonder if this will help you diagnosis..............

tried setting a folder on the lappy for sharing and got the following message...

"An error occurred while trying o share. The server service is not started. The shared resource was not created at this time."

However, I can still access files on the main PC from the lappy.

[Plotloss]

Ahhh.

Start>Run services.msc

Are both the 'Workstation' and 'Server' services started?

[towman]

Aha ! The plot thickens! Server on lappy not started, but when I tried to start it I got the following message... "could not start the server service on local computer. Error 2: The system cannot find the file specified"

any help? Thanks for your patience btw.

[towman]

"workstation" is started btw

[Plotloss]

Control Panel>Network Connections>'Connection Name'><right click>Properties>General

Is File and Printer Sharing present and checked?

[towman]

yes indeedy