Connecting work laptop to home network

[kieranbennett]

Just received a new laptop from my work to replace one with a damaged hard drive. The new one is a Dell Dimension D620, the old one was a Sony Vaio, both run Windows XP pro.

I have a decent home computer that also runs Win XP pro and i have several folders and a printer with sharing activated. With my old laptop, connected via wireless, i could find the folders and printer on my home PC. However the new laptop cant find the network/computer/folders.

The company laptop is set up to access our company server via a VPN, but the old one also did this, and there was no problem accessing my network. I have tried adjusting a few network settings on the company laptop, but with the end result of losing my connection to the company network.

The new laptop connects to the wirless for internet OK, but just cant see any folders or the printer.

I cant really adjust too much on the company laptop, but again, our IT dept isnt too stringent on what we do with the computers, as long as they work.

[tycho]

Did you run the VPN software befor trying to connect to your home pc? If you did then try connecting before. Your laptop should be set to DHCP so when it connects to your wireless router then it should get all the relevant settings to be able to see your home pc. Can you ping the home pc?

[zumbruk]

Is the new one set to disallow split tunnelling? (That is, when the VPN is up, it won't connect to any other networks, including the local one.) My work laptop is like that, and the only way I can access my local network (printer & file server) is to drop the VPN.

[kieranbennett]

Found it,

T'was the Windose firewall blocking printer and file sharing.

Just a bit confused now, how i could see the shared printers and folders on the company network and not mine though.

Cheers for the advice