Member Avatar for Steph102

Hello everyone. My mom recently bought a new HP desktop PC that came with Windows Vista. We are trying to set up a new network to share printers and files. I go through Windows Vista to setup the Network and it saves the settings on a USB flash drive. I plug it in to my Mom's Windows XP laptop and it seems things go through. But the problem is it doesn't work. I go the the desktop and the laptop is not shown in the network. Also I can not get my Mac Book Pro to find the network and printer as well. Can someone please help.

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Dani AI

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Short primer tied to this thread: has a Vista desktop, an XP laptop and a MacBook; already pointed in the right direction. The most common causes when one device can see the wireless but not the others are IP/segment mismatches, router "isolation" features, name-resolution vs. direct-IP access, and third-party firewall rules. The steps below avoid repeating the checklist already discussed and focus on concrete tests that isolate the problem quickly.

  • Verify basic IP reachability first. On each machine get the local IP (Windows: ipconfig /all, Mac: Network prefs or ifconfig) and confirm they share the same subnet (e.g. 192.168.1.x with mask 255.255.255.0). If IPs differ substantially, the devices are on different networks or a guest/isolated SSID.
  • Do a ping test. From each client try ping <other-device-IP>. If pings fail but web access works, check the wireless router for “AP/client/guest isolation” and disable it. If pings succeed but network names don’t resolve, connect by IP instead of name.
  • Connect to shares/printer by IP. Use a UNC path or SMB URL rather than relying on browsing: for example \\192.168.1.10\ShareName from Windows or smb://192.168.1.10/ShareName from the Mac. For a USB printer shared from Vista, adding it on clients by host IP/UNC often bypasses discovery problems.
  • If a third-party product (Norton) changed network trust, test with it temporarily off; if that fixes things, open SMB ports (TCP 445 and 139, UDP 137-138) or mark the network as trusted rather than leaving protection disabled.
  • XP notes: if Simple File Sharing or account mismatches are in play, create a matching local user/password on the Vista host or allow the specific account access to the share.

Security note: re-enable firewalls once testing is done and restrict exceptions to the minimum required ports/services.

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Member Avatar for hughv

On the XP machine, run the Network Wizard and enable File and Printer sharing. Select a Workgroup name that will be the same on the Vista Machine.
on the Vista machine, open the Network and Sharing Center and set up a private network with file and printer sharing.
You'll need to share the printer. In Settings/Printers and Faxes. Just right-click/Share.
You'll have to reboot for this to take effect.
The Mac should be easy-just open the Network control and enable Windows sharing. I haven't done this in a while, but it's a lot easier than Windows.

Member Avatar for Steph102

My macbook see's the network but I can only select the network put the main computer doesn't show up that the printer is attached to.

Member Avatar for hughv

What OS is the main computer?

Member Avatar for Steph102

The main computer is running Windows Vista Business. I got my Macbook to work with it. I had disable the Windows Firewall, but my Mom had installed Norton Internet Security and it's firewall took over. I approved my Macbook. I have to try it on the Windows XP laptop as well and see if that is the problem. Thanks for the help.

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