Hi...I'm a novice and I can't seem to get my workgroup working (i have it set so that I have a wireless router that is connected to my cable internet connection, and I have a desktop computer connected to that using an ethernet cable. The other computer i have is a wireless laptop (w/ toshiba wireless LAN mini PCI card)) I ran the "network setup wizard" on both computers, and chose "this computer is connected to internet through hub" option for both...the strange result right now is that - i CAN connect to my laptop using my desktop by "\\laptop", however, on my laptop, i can't seem to connect to my desktop. And when i view workgroup computers on my laptop i SEE the desktop computer...but when i connect, i get the "\\desktop is not accessible, you might not have permisssion...the network path was not found" message. Can anyone please help me? (BTW, i did disable the firewall in the local area connection setting on my desktop, and as well as on my wireless network connection on my laptop) Thanks! I really appreciate your help =)
oh...actually...i only get the "not accessible" message when i click on "desktop" in view workgroup computers. If i type \\desktop in the address bar, i get the "windows cannot find '\\desktop'..." message... and i should mention as well ....that i CAN'T get a ping from the laptop on the desktop, while i CAN get a ping from desktop to laptop =(
Few things to clarify. Both pc's using XP as OS? You have created user account on xp which is same as other pc uses to log in to lan and created permissions to that account as well? Also, you might want to browse few sites: http://www.tipsdr.com/windows-xp-networking.html
Definitely check out Easycola's suggestion first. It's one of the most common Windows networking problems, and the easiest to solve. I've also seen problems similar to yours caused by 2 other things. First of all you can never discount the fact that Windows networking just does this sometimes. On the other hand this usually causes the connection to not work in either direction so that doesn't sound like your problem. If this is the problem the best solution would probably be to uninstall the driver for the card (on the laptop), reboot, and then reinstall the driver. Then run the Network Setup Wizard again. As for the other potential problem, I have a friend who got a Netgear wireless NIC for his laptop and kept his wired connection for his desktop. He was able to connect to the laptop fine from the desktop, but the connection from the laptop to the desktop never worked correctly, although he was usually able to make the initial connection. The problem turned out to be the crappy Netgear card. The first thing I would try to figure out (after Easycola's suggestion) is whether the problem is between the 2 computers or between the laptop and the router. Do you have problems with the internet connection as well or just the connection to the other PC? One way to test this is to try connecting to a few web pages (make sure to refresh the pages to make sure you are actually downloading a new copy) and also make sure to try downloading a couple of big files to see if any errors occur. If at all possible you should also try to find out more information about the wireless NIC, like who made the actual chipset for it. Most companies that aren't big names in networking (and many that are) buy the chips for their cards from a handful of manufacturers like Intel, AMD, and DEC, and it helps to know whose components are actually being used. My Belkin laptop card, for example, uses a Realtek chip, and my Linksys desktop card uses one made by DEC. Assuming you don't have this information you can try looking in the Network Control Panel (in XP open the control panel, open Network Connections and just hold your mouse over Local Area Connection and see what name pops up) or you may need to find another laptop to put the card into and see what network card it says it finds. It will normally try to load the generic driver for the actual chip manufacturer and that will tell you who made it. Also, what brand of router is it and have you been using it for a while or is it new?
