Hi. last weekend (1/9), I installed a new Linksys router. Currently, I am wireless with good access to the Internet and my Canon printer. My new Dell desktop runs Windows 7. It is directly connected to the router. I has excellent connection to the Internet and printer (also hardwired). The Windows desktop can see everything on my XP laptop. I can see nothing on the desktop. Both BILL and BEVERLY-PC (Names of the XP and W7, respectively) are in workgroup MSHOME The Windows 7 machine says it can see my laptop(BILL), but it is not part of the Network 3 network. Looking at my Network Places, I can see MSHOME. Clicking on it, it errors saying MSHome is not accessible..... I attempted to use the Network Setup Wizard but the networksetup USB disk file failed in providing parameters to the Windows 7. Phew. That is about it. How do I complete my network so that I can access files on the Windows 7 machine. Thanks in advance for your time and effort. 1 person got this answerI do too

Problems sharing files between computers on a network are generally caused by 1) a misconfigured firewall or overlooked firewall (including a stateful firewall in a VPN); or 2) inadvertently running two firewalls such as the built-in Windows Firewall and a third-party firewall; and/or 3) not having identical user accounts and passwords on all Workgroup machines; 4) trying to create shares where the operating system does not permit it. In Windows 7, go to Control Panel>All Control Panel Items>Network and Sharing Center. Click on "Change advanced sharing settings". You don't want to use Homegroup unless you have all Windows 7 machines. If you do and you want to use Homegroup, see Windows 7's Help & Support. Otherwise, in the Advanced Sharing: Turn ON network discovery Turn ON file and printer sharing Turn ON sharing in the Public folder sharing section Turn ON password protected sharing A. Configure firewalls on all machines to allow the Local Area Network (LAN) traffic as trusted. With Windows Firewall, turning on Window's File and Printer Sharing as above will take care of this for you. If you aren't running a third-party firewall or have an antivirus/security program with its own firewall component, then you're fine. With third-party firewalls, I usually configure the LAN allowance with an IP range. Ex. would be 192.168.1.0-192.168.1.254. Obviously you would substitute your correct subnet. Refer to any third party security program's Help or user forums for how to properly configure its firewall. Do not run more than one firewall. DO NOT TURN OFF FIREWALLS; CONFIGURE THEM CORRECTLY. B. For ease of organization, put all computers in the same Workgroup. This is done from the System applet in Control Panel, Computer Name tab. C. Create matching user accounts and passwords on all machines. You do not need to be logged into the same account on all machines and the passwords assigned to each user account can be different; the accounts/passwords just need to exist and match on all machines. DO NOT NEGLECT TO CREATE PASSWORDS, EVEN IF ONLY SIMPLE ONES . If you wish a machine to boot directly to the Desktop (into one particular user's account) for convenience, you can do this: Start>Search box>type: netplwiz [enter] Click on Continue (or supply an administrator's password) when prompted by UAC Uncheck the option "Users must enter a user name and password to use this computer". Select a user account to automatically log on by clicking on the desired account to highlight it and then hit OK. Enter the correct password for that user account (if there is one) when prompted. Leave it blank if there is no password (null). XP - Configure Windows to Automatically Login (MVP Ramesh) - http://windowsxp.mvps.org/Autologon.htm D. If one or more of the computers on your network is XP Pro or Media Center, turn off Simple File Sharing (Folder Options>View tab). E. Create shares as desired. In Windows 7 I usually share out the user's Desktop and the Public directory. F. After you have file sharing working (and have tested this by exchanging a file between all machines), if you want to share a printer connected locally to one of your computers, share it out from that machine. Then go to the printer mftr.'s website and download the latest drivers for the correct operating system(s). Install them on the target machine(s). The printer should be seen during the installation routine. If it is not, install the drivers and then use the Add Printer Wizard. In some instances, certain printers need to be installed as Local printers but that is outside of this response.MS-MVP - Elephant Boy Computers - Don't Panic!

Hi. Thank you for your rapid response from last Tuesday!! I am usually busy most evenings and haven't been able to do much work with your explanation other that to just read thru it. I have done the items prior to your item A. It looks like my firewall situation is as follows: On my XP machine, I have the Windows Firewall on. On the Windows 7 machine, I have both the McAfee firewall and the Windows firewall on. So that seems to be a candidate!! I could turn the Windows firewall off. However, further exploring seems to indicate (and even a warning message in the Control Panel display of the Windows options) that the McAfee has some relationship with the Windows firewall. McAfee controls the Windows firewall. I will shut off the Windows firewall if that seems OK. O yes, the control panel display says that the Windows firewall is CONNECTED for the purposes of home or work networks and NOT CONNECTED for Public Networks. I believe that is OK. I would propose testing the effect of switching the Windows firewall to NOT CONNECTED. Thanks. Bill

Actually I would propose ditching the garbage McAfee and just using the Windows Firewall and a better antivirus. I recommend NOD32 (commercial); Avast, Avira, or MS Security Essentials if you want something free.MS-MVP - Elephant Boy Computers - Don't Panic!

I installed MS Security Essentials and got it working. Then I removed McAfee. I checked that the Windows Firewall was on. I checked my XP machine and voila!!! I can see the Windows 7 desktop. Thanks very much. Hope you enjoy your helping -- this is a big help. Bill

I'm very glad to hear that your problem was solved. Thanks for taking the time to let me know.MS-MVP - Elephant Boy Computers - Don't Panic!