Accessing internet fine, but can't access other computers or workgroup.

Go to "My Network Places"
What does it say when you try to go there?

You may just not have anything shared?
Did you enable printer sharing too?

When I go to Network Places, there is only one icon, an FTP site.  On that page, when I click on "View workgroup computers," that's when it pauses and gives me the message that the workgroup is not available.

And on the computer with the printer attached, when I right-click on the printer and click on "sharing," it's already set to share.

Any other thoughts?

Well, something just occurred to me, and it turned out to be the problem.  I don't know how to solve it, yet, but at least I know what the problem is.  I have Norton Internet Security on both PCs, and even though someone told me that if I have a hardware firewall on the router I just installed, I don't need the software firewall in NIS, these days it just seems like you just can't have too much protection, so I left them on.

So I just turned off the firewalls on both PCs and re-ran the network wizards, and BINGO, I can see both computers on my "workgroup."

The only problem remaining is that I'd like to turn those firewalls back on, and there's a way to tell Norton's firewall who a "trusted" computer is so it will let that one through, but Norton doesn't seem to "see" the other computer, or find it with its "wizard," so I can tell it to trust it.  All it finds is the wireless networking card or the router, but not the other computer.  I don't get it.

Anyway, the problem clearly is with my Norton Internet Security firewall, so unless any of you are familiar with that and can tell me how to tell it to trust the computers that Windows XP, at least, can see are networked to it, I'll "sign off" on this request.  And thanks for your thoughts!

Theophan,

The NIS Trusted Zone can be configured manually.  You should specify the IP address range being assigned by your router, typically 192.168.x 1 to 192.168.x.255, where x is dependent on your router.  If you are running NIS 2004, consult page 115 of the NIS user's guide.

Theophan,

Glad you got it working.  However, you would be better off entering the range of IP addresses being assigned by the router rather then the specific IP addresses.  There is no guarantee your PCs will always receive the same IP address when they boot.  If the router assigns a different address to one of the PCs you will lose File and Printer Sharing ability.  Entering the range will solve this problem.

Many thanks!

It wasn't the router I was needing to tag as "trustworthy," but my and my wife's PCs.  When I followed what I mistakenly thought were directions for identifying all computers on the local network, and only found one, that it must have been the router.  I eventually realized that instead it was identifying the IP address of the same computer that I ran that procedure on.  So I did that on both PCs, entered each other's IP address on each in NIS, and presto, everything worked!

I apologize for wasting the time of any who read this little thread, but I really was at a loss, and it just hadn't occurred to me that it was Norton Internet Security that was preventing me from setting up the network, and once I figured that out, it wasn't obvious to me how to solve it.  But eventually it worked out.

Many thanks again for the generous help of those who wrote to me!

Theophan

Paladin said, "...you would be better off entering the range of IP addresses being assigned by the router rather then the specific IP addresses.  There is no guarantee your PCs will always receive the same IP address when they boot."

Boy, that's interesting!  I just looked at the Router setup page and it looks like there's a DHCP server or something that has a range listed for IP addresses, so I guess that's what you're talking about.  I'll put that in, instead.

Thanks!

Theophan - don't think it was a waste!!!  Thanks for the education.  I am thanking God for getting this question answered!!  I had the same problem and now it is working (after several other resolution attempts.  Thanks again.

Braso

I would like to thank you all for this thread.  I had the exact same problem - that is connecting a desktop and a wireless notebook into a network.  The Dell Inspiron 6000 notebook came installed with Norton Internet Security.  I followed the procredures here and all is well after four hours of tedious trial and error.  The key was to configure the network on both computers with all firewalls off or disabled.  It seems that Zone Alarm on the desktop does not cause an issue.  Norton Internet Security on the Notebook was the big culprit.  I have configured the IP address range as exampled here and my problem is solved.  I am conerned though if someone nearby to my wireless router could connect and get a different IP address yet be in my range and be able to connect and see the Desktop and Notebook we have.  Is this possible?