Hello I am trying to set up a network between my two home computers one with XP the other has vista. I have tried a few things but I cant even get the 2 to recognize the other exists. how do i go about setting the network up so i can pull files from one pc to the other .

what things have you tried?
are both machines on the same workgroup?
is file sharing turne don in the vista computer?
are you using a router?

i am on a router, the vista machine is set up for sharing.
i tried to make a new profile with my windows xp that has the same name as my profile on my vista machine, not sure about the workgroup

> i tried to make a new profile with my windows xp that has the same name as my profile on my vista machine,

that won't do any good. To check for workgroup right click my computer, then go properties. then to computer name. thats for xp and vista. make sure they both have the same workgroup name, you can change it to whatever you want, but it has to be the same.

i have switched my workgroup names on both pc's so that they a identical. still cant find eachother on the network not sure what to do next

I have both computers running through the router, they have the same workgroup name
all file sharing is on but no network is established between the 2.

can you ping them? to ping go to start, run, cmd, ok, then type ipconfig. this will tell you the ip address of the computer, then you type ping 192.168.1.1 or whatever address it is.

i pinged my xp machine should i do the same for the vista machine. Im sorry if i am a pain I thought that this would have been an easy task for me to figure out but i guess i was wrong i appreciate all your help

>Im sorry if i am a pain

that's alright, we're all here to learn.
Now you should ping the xp machine from the vista one.