ghannon

I have a new dell inspiron 1525 with vista home basic. I also purchased a netgear wireless router. I have internet access with the router, but i would like to be able to network my laptop with my desktop ( a dell percission 220 workstation with windows xp home), and access my desktop and printer from my laptop and visa versa. i would also like to be able to access my desktop remotely i.e when i am away from home. can i do this, and how? i have made several attempts, following windows instructions, but to no avail. your assistance is greatly appreciated. have a great day!

Riskyone101

Go to control panel, internet options, connection, and use the

to setup a network connection wizard.

ghannon

thank, but i have already been where you sent me. please forgive me but i am an idiot. the instructions in windows does not work. my head is about to explode and i am about to throw my computer against the wall. please, if you can, give me step by step instructions from start to finsih. windows instructions does not work. no access between computers.

jenae

Hi, I take it both computers connect to the internet through the wireless router. XP home has NTFS file system and not fat 32? Both computers need to have a different name and both need to belong to the same workgroup Vista will have it's workgroup name as "workgroup" XP home will use "MSHome" so you need to change one to the other. I suggest "workgroup". Post back and we will continue.. don't worry this is not that hard just need to get some of the basics right first.

ghannon

Thank you for your response. Yes, I have internet aaccess on my laptop through my router--no problems with that. My appologies, I should have been specific;explaining what I had applished in previous attempt. I realize now that everybody, includeing Risky101, was in the dark as to what my problem really was. Last night after posting, I made another attempt. This took several hours before I gave up and needed to get some sleep. I accomplished the following things last night; I made the network names on both computer the same"MSHOME", I entered the ip and name of my desktop when the wizard on the laptop promted me. I installed the software for my printer onto my laptop, as I would also like to use my printer with my laptop if possible, and the wizard promted me to do so. I read all the trouble shooting solutions offered by windows vista for every situation. I also followed the same instructions given by windows xp when running the wizard on my desktop, includeing; burning a network installation disk made by the XP OS. Now, here is my current situation. With all the file sharing boxes checked yes and the network determined to be private, I still am unable to have access to my desktop from my laptop and visa versa. The network does not show up on my desktop, and the desktop, files and printer do not appear on the laptop. However, the network does appear on the laptop as unsecure and no signal. One more thing. I was unsucessful in installing the network disk XP made from my desktop to my laptop--from the disk the programm was visable, but I was unable to run it at all. I made a second attempt, and sent the file as an email attachment to myself, opened it up from my laptop, saved it to the desktop on my laptop (I hope that is not too confuseing), and attempted to run the installation from there. The prorgam ran for a short time, and then was unsucessful. No error report, nor error numer, just the message that the program was not installed. I repeated this several times. I hope that you and everybody here can now see clearly where my problem lies. Have a great day, and thank you for your assistance.

ghannon

Riskyone101,

Allow me to exstend my appologies. I was not clear as to what my problem was. I humbly ask that you consider reading my last post--just posted before replying here. In that post, I am very detailed in explaing my situation and everything I have done to accoplish setting up my home network. Thank you for you assistance. Have a great day!

jenae

HI, have a read of this guide, why are you inputing an IP address you would normally have DHCP enabled, in other words have the internet protocol set to obtain a DNS automatically.
http://www.informit.com/articles/article.aspx?p=1165037

ghannon

I mean no disrespect, but it is very frustrating when I ask for assistance and the only help I can get is no more than what the FAQ's offer or trouble shooting guide offfers. This is my second time in this forum asking for tech assistance, and nobody in here is able to give me any kind of help. Before I ask for assitance, I have already exausted the instructions, related troubleshooting materials and the faq's. It is sad that I can not find technical help that goes beyond this. I am sorry, but I have just wasted my time here. There seems to be no technicians in here that are willing to help. No insult intended, but you are no more a technician than I am, and neither is the writer of the article you llinked me to. It boggles my mind when people who cliam the title technician know no more than I do, and have no tech skills beyond the ability to read. I can read. But how do close my accoint for this monkey farm? NO MORE CONTACT! FAKE TECHNICIANS IN HERE. WHY IS IT THAT PEOPLE WHO CLAIM TO BE TECHNICIANS REALLY KNOW NOTHING OTHER THAN HOW TO READ THE FAQ'S? YES, I AM FRUSTRATED AND DOWN RIGHT PISSED OFF. STUPID PEOPLE CALLING THEMSELVES TECHNICIANS. YOU ALL MUST WORK FOR MICROSHIT CORP., McTAFFY, OR FORTON. THOSE LEADING SOFTWARE COMPANIES HAVE FAKE TECH ALSO. HOW DO I CLOSE MY GOD DAMN ACCOUNT HERE?