Vista Home Networking problem[MOVED FROM WINDOWS]

[joe7dust]

I want to print files from my laptop with Vista Home Premium SP1 to my desktop which has a printer and also VHP SP1.

The desktop sees the laptop over the network just fine, but not the other way around.

All security settings are fairly low, like File Sharing is On, Printer Sharing is On, etc. and they are both connected to the same ATT U-Verse router, with IPs 192.168.1.66 & 192.168.1.67

[aceiii222]

This is how I have mine set:
(see attached)
network settings.bmp

Once you make sure they are both set this way you should be able to see both over your network.

[joe7dust]

I have it set pretty much the same way but I took it 2 steps further and turned off password protected and turned on media sharing.

I thought there was a rule against people answering threads unless they were part of the elite tech squad or something.

[joe7dust]

Anyone else out there that can help?

[johnwill]

I'd say you most likely have a firewall or NETBIOS configuration issue on the desktop.


Turn off any firewalls for debugging. If the firewall is the problem, you'll have to configure it to allow access to "trusted zone" addresses. Note that some firewalls must be completely uninstalled to stop them from affecting your networking.

Hold the Windows key and press R, then type CMD to open a command prompt.

In the command prompt window that opens, type type the following commands:

PING each remote computer by IP address, and if successful, PING by name. Open a command prompt as described above and type.

PING <ip address>
or
PING <computer name>

Where:
<ip address> - is the x.x.x.x IP address
<computer name> - is the computer name

A failure to PING is almost always a firewall configuration issue. Any failure to PING needs to be corrected before you go any farther.

Note: You can obtain the IP address and computer name of a computer by opening a command prompt (DOS window) and typing IPCONFIG /ALL. This should work for any Windows version. The IPCONFIG /ALL display will provide a wealth of useful information for debugging your network connection.

Check your Services are Started on all PCs:

• COM+ Event System (for WZC issues)
• Computer Browser
• DHCP Client
• DNS Client
• Network Connections
• Network Location Awareness
• Remote Procedure Call (RPC)
• Server
• TCP/IP Netbios helper
• Wireless Zero Configuration (XP wireless configurations)
• WLAN AutoConfig (Vista wireless configurations)
• Workstation

Note: You can check the services in Control Panel, Administrative Tools, Services.

All of these services should be started, and their startup type should be automatic.

If a service is not running, open it's properties and check the dependencies. Check each of the dependencies and see which one is preventing the service from running. Checking the event log is also a good idea here, there may be clues to what is failing.


All computers should be in the same workgroup for computer browsing to function properly. File & Print Sharing has to be enabled on any computer you wish to share files or printers from. You also need to actually share the resource in question from My Computer, right click on the drive/printer/folder, and select sharing.

If you encounter difficulties accessing computers that are visible in Network Places (Network and Sharing Center in Vista), make sure the computer being accessed has an account with the same name/password as the system connecting to it uses to login. NOTE: Vista's default is to require a password on the account to enable file/print sharing.

While the default NetBIOS setting is correct for normal network configurations, it's possible for it to be altered, and it costs nothing to make sure it's correct. NETBIOS over TCP/IP must be enabled for normal network browsing. You can open a command prompt as described above and type the following command: nbtstat -n. This will display the status of NetBIOS or indicate it's not configured.

[joe7dust]

I've tried your suggestions and still no luck. I do have more information though that will hopefully narrow it down.

"Remote Procedure Call (RPC) " isn't listed at all by itself on either computer. There is a "Remote Procedure Call (RPC) Locator" and it is "stopped".

"Wireless Zero Configuration" isn't listed at all on either computer either. I went into admin tools -> services to enable it and it is not even in the list there at all.

And one last bit of odd info, the router setup page is showing 2 additional IP addresses .64 and .65 on the network even though the only computers in the house are 2 and are .66 and .67

Even after a full, hard reset on the router these still show.

I can ping the laptop (.66) from the desktop (.67) just fine but not vice versa. You say this is almost always a firewall issue but it does not appear to be one unless you mean the firewall in the AT&T Uverse router that I cannot figure out how to disable completely. The closest I could come to disabling it completely is setting "DMZplus" to the desktop (.67) but even after that pings from the laptop to it are unsuccessful.

Horace PC is .66 and Wenona PC is .67