Home Network problems

Question

I am having trouble setting up a home network between my laptop and desktop computers.   When I bought my laptop earlier this year, I was able to set up a network and share files and printers without any trouble using the Win XP home network setup wizard.  The other day, my desktop computer died completely, and I just finished setting up my new Dell desktop PC.   However, when I try to network the laptop and the new desktop computer using the wizard, it appears to set up properly, but each computer gives an error message that the other computer's shared folder is not accessible, and you might not have permission to view this folder.  I also can't print on the remote printer either.   Here's my setup: Dell Inspiron E1505 Laptop running Win XP SP2 Dell Inspiron 530 Desktop running Win XP SP2 Laptop is named 'Laptop' Desktop is named 'PC' Network is named 'Home' on both computers I have a wireless router connected to a DSL modem Both computers are wirelessly connected to the internet, and internet access is fine on both   So, any ideas what I'm doing wrong?  Why won't my network let me share printers and files?  I've tried renaming each computer, and renaming the network itself, and nothing works.

volcano11 · Answer

The most common reason for this situation is a third party firewall running on the computers that is not configured to allow local network access.  Do you have any third party firewalls (Norton, McAfee, Zone Alarm, etc.)?   Steve

daniel0777 · Answer

Thanks for your response.  I am only using Windows Firewall on both machines.  However, the problem seems to have vanished this morning.  Last night, it wouldn't work at all, but now the network seems to be stable.  And I didn't change any settings.  Very strange...

Networking, Internet, & Bluetooth

Was this post helpful?