PLEASE HELP! Vista / XP networking issues
I have a desktop with XP that is connected to a USB Lexmark X5270 printer and to a router/internet.After much pain,I have a new laptop with wireless connection to the internet through my router. I am trying to set up a peer-to-peer connection to my printer. I have tried to make my printer and desktop files accessible to my laptop.I have followed what I think are all the XP things I need to do to make the files public, accessible, etc. Same with the printer. However,I can still only see the router on 'network' in explorer (on the vista laptop), not my desktop or printer. I wasn't sure if I needed the printer driver on my laptop to 'see' it, so I decided to download it anyway since it is different than the xp version. The installation walked me through several steps and when it came time to 'find' the desktop computer, it couldn't find it either. It only allowed me to type in the computer name. XP says I need a computer name and a workgroup name. I contacted Lexmark. They told me I have to have the same operating system on both computers to set up the peer-to-peer connection to the printer. I don't buy that since several posts on the forum have to do with successful connections between XP and Vista machines. (I just can't get there!) I could use any *DETAILED* help. If you tell me to ping or anything like that, please tell me how. I do not know how to connect the computers (outside the internet sharing). On the flip side, if I can get this to work, I also have an external usb drive on the Vista computer that I would like to share with the desktop. Thanks!
June 10th, 2008 6:25am

Hi, If the Lexmark support engineer told you that you have to have the same operating system on both computers to set up the peer-to-peer connection to the printer, I am afraid that it may have such limitation on the product. However, there are some actions you can perform to try to install the network printer before we make that conclusion. First, I suggest checking the following points: 1. Please make sure the printer is shared on the Windows XP machine, and appropriate permission has been configured (such as Every has read permission). 2. Please temporarily turn off the firewall on both the Windows XP and Windows Vista machines. After that, on the Windows Vista machine, please try to ping the Windows XP machine using the command ping ip_address_of_XP_Machine. If the ping command finishes without any error, try to add the network printer by following these steps: 1. On the Windows Vista machine, click Start, click Control Panel, and then click Printers. 2. In the Printers folder, click Add a printer. 3. In the Add Printer wizard, select Add a network, wireless or Bluetooth printer, and then click Next. 4. If the printer is not found, select The printer that I want isnt listed. 5. Select Select a shared printer by name option, and type \\ip_address_of_XP_machine\printername. After that, click Next to add the network printer. Please let me know if there is any error message prompted during performing the steps. Hope it helps.
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June 13th, 2008 8:35am

Thanks. I did figure out the problem last night after days of agonizing over every post that had to do with XP-Vista sharing issues. I had done everything to allow sharing, and then some. The problem turned out to be a firewall built into my ISP's antivirus software - F-Secure. I THOUGHT I had turned off all the firewalls but the software for F-Secure is not very intuitive and it was not obvious that I had firewall security through it. So, once I turned it off, everything worked fine. I did have to download a Vista driver for the printer, but it does work (so the tech from Lexmark was wrong). I do have to keep the F-Secure firewall off (it doesn't work while on), but I turned the Windows firewall back on and it is still working. I am still getting some issues trying to get to my Vista files from the XP desktop, but at least I can see everything now!
June 13th, 2008 5:15pm

Hi, I am glad that the root cause has been determined. Regarding the file sharing in Windows Vista, you can refer to the following article: File and Printer Sharing in Windows Vista http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/bb727037.aspx Hope it helps.
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June 16th, 2008 6:27am

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