I have a wireless network running and both the desktop and the laptops
can access the internet. However, while the desktop can view the
shared files on the laptop, the laptop's My Network Places is blank
and of course cannot view the shared files on the desktop. The
Workgroup name is same for both so why can one view it but the other
can't?

On 20 Apr 2007 13:42:53 -0700, softfingers3 (AT) hotmail (DOT) co.uk wrote:

And the respective operating systems are - what ?

On 20 Apr, 23:14, daytripper <day_tri... (AT) REMOVEyahoo (DOT) com> wrote:
Both computers are running XP Home

On 21 Apr 2007 08:47:42 -0700, softfingers3 (AT) hotmail (DOT) co.uk wrote:

Ok, is Simple File Sharing enabled on both systems?

softfingers3 (AT) hotmail (DOT) co.uk wrote:
You should try pinging each computer from each other. I suspect that the
laptop will not be able to reach the desktop, but the desktop will be
able to reach the laptop.

What I found seems to work (temporarily at least) is to ping the router
from the desktop, since that's the one not currently being seen. The
desktop will then wake up the router and the router will now cache the
desktop's MAC address in its ARP table. Usually within the network, the
two computers talk to each other directly over the subnet, bypassing the
router. However, in the case of WiFi, the router also acts as the
physical medium between the laptop and desktop wireless connections. If
these were both Ethernet connections then they'd have been able to talk
to each other directly through the router's built-in switch, bypassing
the routing functions. But in WiFi, the routing functions are still
involved.

Yousuf Khan

--
There is no failure, only delayed success

On 21 Apr, 21:32, daytripper <day_tri... (AT) REMOVEyahoo (DOT) com> wrote:
File Sharing is enabled

On 21 Apr, 21:42, Yousuf Khan <bbb... (AT) yahoo (DOT) com> wrote:
Done as suggested above. The laptop can ping the gateway but not the
desktop while the desktop can ping the laptop. What would I have to do
to the gateway?

softfingers3 (AT) hotmail (DOT) co.uk wrote:
Keep pinging the gateway from both computers and then try pinging each
other. The problem is trying to get the gateway's ARP cache to cache
both computers.

Another possibility, if you're trying to share files with each other,
why not setup an FTP server on your machines instead? A really simple
and easy to use FTP server is Cerberus FTP. I've found FTP often works
when Windows networking doesn't.

Yousuf Khan


--
There is no failure, only delayed success

On 22 Apr, 07:45, Yousuf Khan <bbb... (AT) yahoo (DOT) com> wrote:
Worked it out - it was the firewall on the desktop that was stopping
it. Once i put in the IP address of the laptop it worked. Thanks for
all your help