I'm posting here the 5 major steps I went through to get my Vista-WinXP network running 
seamlessly. If you are having problems with yours, perhaps one or more of the below 
5 steps will do the trick. Step 5 was the most obscure - changing a registry setting 
in one of my WinXP machines so that my Vista pc could see its shared folders.

Windows Networking – Vista and WinXP

Ok. First take a deep breath and gather your patience. I wrote-up the below thread 
after my recent experience in networking a new Vista laptop with two existing WinXP 
machines. It wasn't quick but it did work, eventually. Try some of these steps:

1) Firewall settings - one of the biggest hassles. To get started I suggest you FIRST 
disconnect your network from the internet (for your protection), then disable ALL 
firewalls (including Windows firewall) on ALL machines, and then work to get your 
home network operating internally. What I learned on my home network is below. 
1.1)    My WinXP machines have ZoneAlarm and I needed to ensure that all machines 
on the network were in the trusted zone. Go to the Zone tab of Firewall settings 
in ZoneAlarm free version. Ensure all of your machines’ IP addresses are listed, 
as well as that of your router or wireless access point.
1.2)    My Vista laptop came loaded with Norton Internet Security. Go to Norton Internet 
Security tab, open settings, scroll to bottom, open internet security and firewall 
options, open advanced settings, open configure, change default inbound NetBIOS, 
inbound NetBIOS name, and Block Windows File Sharing to ALLOW. Configuring this beast 
of an app required a lot of trial, error and googling the Symantec site and others. 

2) Ensure sharing is enabled on all machines. It is quite different for Vista vs 
WinXP. The procedure is fairly straightforward and is well documented on the MS site 
and elsewhere. In Network and Sharing Center it is critical on Vista machine that 
you have your network configured as Private and that the Sharing and Discovery Settings 
are set to ON except for Password Protected Sharing. 

Link for Vista: http://www.microsoft.com/technet/network/evaluate/vista_fp.mspx

Link for WinXP: http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?familyid=FD7FD48D-6B4A-448E-A632-076F98A351A2&displaylang=en

3) Workgroup name. Ensure you are using the same workgroup name on all machines. 
WinXP and Vista machines have different default workgroup names. 

WinXP:  http://www.microsoft.com/resources/documentation/windows/xp/all/proddocs/en-us/windows_network_changename.mspx?mfr=true

Vista: http://windowshelp.microsoft.com/Windows/en-US/Help/5723d061-b884-40da-b5e7-94a55f6fcead1033.mspx

and

http://windowshelp.microsoft.com/Windows/en-US/Help/baab4f1a-2461-482d-bb2e-c996a197e35f1033.mspx

4) Download and install Link Layer Topology Discovery (LLTD) onto the WinXP machines. 
Just a nicety, this enables the network map in Vista to show all machines on the 
network.

http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?FamilyID=4f01a31d-ee46-481e-ba11-37f485fa34ea&DisplayLang=en

5) And the final step: check the registry on your WinXP machine per MS article 913628 
that I found by searching MS for "error message when you try to access a Windows 
XP-based network computer: "You might not have permission to use this network resource". 
See the article at: http://support.microsoft.com/kb/913628. This finally did the 
trick for my network.

Keep pounding away at it. It will eventually be worth it. It took me almost a week 
to get everything working right.

Best of luck to you …






On Friday, July 6, 2007 at 7:23 am, Dan Sarandrea, MCSE wrote:

>Disabling third party firewalls doesn't always absolutely positively guarantee that 

>they are not affecting the situation.

>

>The XP and Vista firewall are integral to the OS so they automatically set themselves 

>when you turn on or turn off file and/or printer sharing.

>

>Some AV programs have a rudimentary firewall.

>

>It helps to install the XP Network Responder:  

>http://technet2.microsoft.com/WindowsVista/en/library/409fb2fa-8eb8-45af-b063-4f50f5a77b291033.mspx?mfr=true 

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