Wi-fi home networking problems

Hi

i've my home network setup where two of my centrino laptops (one is personal and the other is my work laptop that i plug into my home network when am working from home) connect to the internet via a linksys router. Internet access works fine from both computers but what has been a problem is that am not able to access the shared files and printer on my personal laptop from my work laptop. But am able to access shared files in my work laptop from my personal laptop. Ping (using IP address) from my personal laptop to work laptop goes through but not the other way around. Can someone help me debug this problem?

Sri

Reply to
sri
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"sri" hath wroth:

  1. If your laptops are running XP, set the Windoze firewall to allow file and print sharing. Control Panel -> Windoze Firewall -> Exceptions -> File and print
  2. If you're using a different personal firewall such as Norton Internet Security, Zone Alarm, McAfee, Kerio, etc, configure it to allow for file sharing.
  3. Make sure you have XP file sharing enabled. The easiest way to do this is to select a random folder, right click, and select sharing. Select "I know what I'm doing. Just enable sharing".
  4. If none of the above work, go to:
    formatting link
    see if you missed anything.
Reply to
Jeff Liebermann

Thanks Jeff for your prompt reply. The steps you outlined did not work. I believe the problem that i've in the first place is that my work laptop is not able to even see my personal laptop (i.e.ping does not go through). If I can get the two computers to see each other, that would be the first step in the debug (I think). Do you have any pointers to that end?

Sri

Reply to
sri

"sri" hath wroth:

Sure. You state that: Ping (using IP address) from my personal laptop to work laptop goes through but not the other way around. as well as both laptops access the internet. That means that both have properly assigned IP addresses.

If your unspecified wireless router happens to be a WRT54G or GS, then check the advanced wireless settings and make sure that "AP Protection" is turned off.

The inability to ping from the work laptop to the personal laptop is the major problem. Things should work if that gets fixed. Assuming you are pinging the correct IP address (check with IPCONFIG), the problem has to be on the personal laptop. Try disabling whatever firewall you're using. If that fixes it, play with the firewall configuration.

There's not much else that can prevent ping responses. You might want to try the same thing using a wired connection from either or both laptops to the wireless router. That will eliminate the wireless as a possible culprit.

If you can get the personal laptop to respond to a ping, then the next step is to check sharing using the command line instead of the Network Neighborhood browser thing. Try: Start -> Run ->

\\\\IP_address_of_other_laptop That should open a list of available shares. Also try: Start -> Run -> CMD net view which should list both machines if sharing is enabled.

Reply to
Jeff Liebermann

Jeff

So far no luck with getting ping to work (even after the firewall on my personal laptop is turned off. But am yet to hook up the laptops on wired network. Will try that and see if wireless is the culprit.

Also, my router is not WRT54G or GS. It starts with BF.

Thanks a heap Sri

Reply to
sri

I have very similar problems. (3 individual systems, 2 x XPHome and 1 x

98SE, access the net fine wirelessly, but I'm having a heck of a job enabling file-sharing, which I mainly use for mutual back-up, and therefore wish to get running again as soon as possible). This thread has been really helpful, especially the link to windowsnetworking. Lots to try now! Thanks guys. Miles
Reply to
MilesG

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