networking Vista Laptop with XP desktop via router?!?!?

[Chris [BEANS]]

Hi,

I'm after an idiots guide for networking my XP desktop with my Vista laptop.
The Desktop is connected to a Netgear router via an Ethernet cable and the Vista Laptop is connected to the router via Wireless connection.

They both access the net no problem.

The problem I'm having is filesharing between the two machines.
I've had a good butchers around the net and found LOADS of information but nothing seems to work.

Pretty sure it's been asked a few times, but I can't find anything that's helped so far

Cheers

Chris

 

[suarve]

Its literally just a case of selecting "share this folder". On the vista laptop check that connection is private, as opposed to public.

 

[tolien]

What doesn't work?

The router's irrelevant really. Traffic from one machine to the other won't go through the router per se, but rather through the switch and wireless AP built into the router (which are both transparent) - they may as well be connected directly with a cable.
You won't be able to ping the Vista machine if it has the Windows firewall running because it blocks ICMP by default.

Try \\[machine's name] or \\[machine's IP] as well.