How do I network with Windows Vista?

[ShawnD1]

Time to settle this once and for all. In another thread, I said this:

Networking is not fully compatible with XP. My Vista Home laptop could view the network drive on the Vista Business computer without issue, but any XP computer in the house would give an error saying it did not have permission. Vista computers can view the shared folders of XP computers, but XP computers cannot view the shared folders on Vista computers.

chrisg22 replied with this

My desktop is Vista Home Premium and my laptop is XP pro. I have no problems at all in accessing shared folders from either PC. There were a few settings in Vista I had to turn on in order to share files, but I can't remember at the moment what they were. Might have been to enable file sharing, and turn network discovery on. They were in the Network & sharing center (whatever it's called)

Alright, so it's possible. That's good. I just don't know how.
Time for a guided tour of file sharing on Windows Vista.



Step 1 - General Permissions

Control Panel >> Networking and Sharing Center:

Network Discovery is on
File Sharing is on
Public Folder Sharing is on, and anybody can change the files
Password Protected Sharing is off, so people don't need a password to connect

http://www3.telus.net/public/darich1/vista_network1.jpg


Step 2 - Folder Sharing

Right click on whatever you want to share, select share.

http://www3.telus.net/public/darich1/vista_network2.jpg


There's only one thing you can click, so click that.

http://www3.telus.net/public/darich1/vista_network3.jpg


Share it, give it a name, hit Apply.

http://www3.telus.net/public/darich1/vista_network4.jpg


Communism is a great idea, so make sure everybody has access, then hit Apply.

http://www3.telus.net/public/darich1/vista_network5.jpg


Step 3 - Connecting

Get on a different computer and find the computer you just configured.

http://www3.telus.net/public/darich1/vista_network6.jpg


Hit enter.

http://www3.telus.net/public/darich1/vista_network7.jpg


Cry.

http://www3.telus.net/public/darich1/dawson-crying.jpg


Stay on the current computer, and check if other computers, the ones still running Windows XP, work properly.

http://www3.telus.net/public/darich1/vista_network8.jpg

Hit Enter.

http://www3.telus.net/public/darich1/vista_network9.jpg


Now that you know the problem is specific to your new Vista computer, make an angry post on Anandtech

http://www3.telus.net/public/d...h1/vista_network10.jpg




Any ideas? I've googled search this one quite a bit, and all I can find is hundreds of people with the same problem and no answers.