Mshome.......

[macten]

Went over to a friends house and installed a new dsl, AT&T modem. The desktop is hardwired to a Linksys router and is on the Internet. The laptop is connected wirelesly to the router and is on the Internet.

The printer is connected to the desktop and works fine.

He wants to print from the laptop. So I setup home networking on both the desktop and laptop. I shared the printer and created folders that are shared on both computers.

They both defaulted to a workgroup called MSHOME. When I click on mshome on the laptop, I can see the shared folder that I created on the laptop. When I click on MSHOME on the desktop it's empty. Neither the shared folder or printer show up.

How should I handle this? Should I delete mshome and setup a new network? Is MSHOME a Microsoft workgroup that shouldn't be deleted?

edit...neither computer can see each other. Neither can ping the other. I think the problem is with mshome. Both are running xp home. All software firewalls including xp's built in firewall are down.

[snw35]

MSHOME is just the default workgroup name for XP machines. As long as both computers are set to MSHOME then this should be fine, assigning them both to a different workgroup won't make a difference.

Can you access one from the other by going to start, then run, and typing:
\\ComputerName
where ComputerName is simply the name of the machine you are trying to access?

If I understand right, you can't see the shared folder you created on the desktop, from the desktop itself. This could mean there is something wrong with folder sharing on the desktop, which would also explain why it can't be seen by the laptop.
What do you see if you right-click a folder on the desktop and select 'Sharing and security'?

You should be able to check ‘Share this folder on the network’. If you can, but no shares are visible, then the problem might be with the network services running on the computer.

Also, are you certain that neither machine can ping the other with both firewalls down? That seems strange, especially if they both have internet access.

[macten]

Thanks for the reply snw. Unfortunately the computers are 10 miles away. I'm going back tomorrow for another look at it.

Just to recap. Internet works fine on both computers. I've setup probably 15 wireless networks without any problems. So this is a real mystery.

I think the problem is on the desktop. I've shared out the printer and a folder on the desktop. The 'hand' is under the icon so I know I've done it right. When I click on the workgroup 'mshome' on the desktop, it can't see it's own shared printer or folder. Could it be a service that is not running? There are no error messages.

[snw35]

Originally Posted by macten

Could it be a service that is not running? There are no error messages.

A service not running might be causing this, yes.
On XP, click start, then run, and type:

services.msc

To open the services window. Scroll down the list and check that the following are all set to 'Automatic' and are 'Started':

Network connections
Network Location awareness
Server
Workstation

If those are all running, then:
Go to the control panel,
Go to network connections ,
Right-click 'local area connection',
Click properties,

And make sure that both 'Client for microsoft networks' and 'File and printer sharing for microsoft networks' are present and ticked.

Failing that, go to 'my computer'
Click on 'tools' at the top,
Then 'folder options'
Scroll until you find 'use simple file sharing (Recommended)', and make sure it is ticked.

I hope that fixes it. In my experience, if all of these things are ok, then folder sharing should just work.

[macten]

I got the desktop to see it's shares. Looks like file sharing wasn't turned on. A big 'duh' on my part.

They still can't see each other and here's the problem. The IP address for the desktop is: 192.168.254.2 and the IP for the laptop is 192.168.1.100. So I tried the ipconfig /release, renew on the desktop and it obtained the same IP address. How do I get the desktop in the same range as the laptop?

[snw35]

You shouldn't need too, the router should give them addresses in the same subnet automatically. The fact those two addresses are so different makes me think they might be manually assigned on one/both of the computers.

To check:
Go to the control panel,
Go to network connections,
Right-click 'local area connection',
Select properties,
Scroll to 'Internet protocol tcp/ip' and highlight it,
Click properties

If you see 'use the following IP address' selected, and details in the boxes there, then change it to 'obtain an IP address automatically'. The boxes should all grey out.

Also make sure 'obtain a DNS server automatically' selected. Once you've done that click OK, then close.

Do that for both computers, then once they have both been set to 'automatically' run ipconfig/all and check their IP's. The linksys router should give them similar addresses on the same subnet (192.168.x.y and 192.168.x.z).

If it doesn't, then check that DHCP is enabled on the router by logging in to it's web interface. The 'default gateway' IP in ipconfig/all will be the router's IP address.

[wrench97]

Make sure the PC and the laptop are using the same router for DCHP sounds like the laptop is using the wireless from the AT&T router and the pc the linksys. I think the solution would be to turn off the DCHP function in the Linksys router and only use the DCHP in the AT&T router for both.