Home Network error, Computers not showing up

HIya everyone, i read through a lot of the posts about making a home network...but none of the suggestions already made work for me...

I have 3 desktops and a laptop connected to my USR access point and router. All 4 computers access the internet fine. However, when i try to network them with XP Pro's home networking wizard...i can't see the other computers in the "network neighbourhood". None of the computers seem to be able to communicate with each other...

I have turned off all firewall, and firewall like software. My zonealarm is off and doesn't start with windows, my kaspersky antivirus is off and doesn't start with windows, and everytime i restart the computer, i go and re-disable windows firewall, as it likes to enable itself every time i restart.

So far nothing i've tried works...Oddly though...last night my laptop computer was able to see my desktop computer, and i managed to obtain 3gigs of files through the network transfer. however, my desktop was never able to see my laptop, and today, none of the computers are able to see each other.

Please, if anyone could help me, it'll be much appreciated.

 

First thing, make sure they are all in the same workgroup. You have to restart after making that change.

 

Yeup...same workgroup...named it HomeNet...
Restarted both computers multiple times, removed all semblance of a sofrtware firewall from startup..haven't uninstalled anything yet...
infact got some nasty HDD killin virus i think...oh..do you think it could be a result of the latest zonealarm pro? I hear people have a heck of a time even getting it allow you to surf.

I dunno..if no1 has any ideas as what's wrong...could someone do a run through of a step by step on setting up a home network? I'm not particularily sure about how to or why i have to access my isp given ip address to set up my computers... oh did i mention i can't connect to my isp's ip address, or any of the other ip adresses of the computers in my "network" lol.. I can still access my router, and the router is able to ping each computer's ip...

 

You most likely don't have NetBIOS over TCP/IP enabled.

Goto your network card's properties -> Internet Protocol (TCP/IP) -> Properties -> Advanced -> WINS -> Enable NetBIOS over TCP/IP

Give that a try.

Also, if you can ping via IP address, why don't you just access your computers via IP address rather than going into the Network Neighborhood?

All you have to do is go to Start -> Run -> \\192.168.1.1 (or whatever your IP address is of the computer you want to acess) -> Click OK

This will open a window that will show you your shared items. If you want to access the entire HDD, just add C$ to the end (eg. \\192.168.1.1\C$). What this will do is load the administrative share to the HDD, but you need to know the password of the administrative account on that system. Since these are your systems, you should have any problem in that area.

Now, if you have the Windows Firewall enabled, this will not work. You must disable it or configure it correctly to allow access.

Good luck!

-Vb-

 

Omg, i finally figured it out. After trying all the suggestions (thx everyone for helping!) I went turn off all possible safeguards, and found that the problem was i had Uninstalled client for microsoft networks for the adapter!!! I thought that client was for stuff like that butterfly thing webmsn or whatever...lol so after i installed THAT, everything was great. Computers were popping up and everything.

Once again, thanks to EVERYONE for all your help!!! You guys are great.

 

heh, 1 more question... When i try to log onto my desktop with my laptop as per the way you suggested venombite, with the \C$, it shows me a logon screen for the guest profile and not the admin profile... Is this normal? Is it because i turned off my guest login on my desktop? Is there some way I can access my desktop's entire hdd without manually having to share every folder on it...

 

map a drive to the adminisrative share... once you enter the correct username/password, you shouldn't have to do it again.

 

umm...sorry, but how do i map a drive to the administrative share?
oh and will doing so create an additional vulnerbility to outside attacks?