Networking Desktop and Laptop XP & Vista 32??

I just bought a Dell Studio 1537 with Vista 32 for my wife as a gift and wanted to hook it up to share files (pictures and music) and an HP printer that are on our older Dell Desktop running XP Home before I give it to her. We have Roadrunner and a Belkin wireless G router. The desktop is connected via the Ethernet card and the laptop will be wireless. I am a bit of a novice at this so would appreciate any help in setting up both computers to share certain files and a printer

 

Ok, first off, make sure that the desktop has service pack 3 for XP installed. If it's not installed, the laptop running _Vista may not be able to "see" the desktop across the network.

 

I have roughly the same issue...

Vista-->XP works...

XP--->Vista does not.

XP SP3 and Ultimate x64

 

One customer at a time, please.

 

Sure...I will also add that my XP SP3 has an HP All in one printer installed and it is shared. My Vistas, see the printer and when I want to install they say "Wrong driver installed on the host machine"...or something like that.

 

Thank you, I will double check that when I arrive home, but I am about 99% sure I do have it installed on the desktop. If so, what would be my next steps for each computer?

 

yep, I checked and do in fact have SP 3 installed on the desktop with XP

 

First things first, share the printer under XP

Quoted from
http://www.microsoft.com/windowsxp/using/networking/expert/honeycutt_july2.mspx

On the Vista Laptop, fire up Explorer (press Windows key + E) and click the Network Icon. After a few seconds, you should see your desktop as an icon. Double click the icon and look for your printer name. Right click it, and click connect. It should ask you to install some driver.

That's it. It should show up as a printer when you go to print.

 

Thank you...but can I ask you something? Did you actually read what I posted? The Vista laptop sees the printer and wants to install the printer but it states that the HOST MACHINE HAS A WRONG DRIVER AND WON"T INSTALL THE PRINTER!!!


Should I use a bigger font next time?

 

I finally got the laptop out and running. I was able to see the printer and shared files from the desktop with XP on the laptop with Vista- when the firewall(s) were turned off. The desktop has the CA associated free offering from roadrunner and the laptop just has the windows firewall for the time being. I am not sure what step I need to take so I can have both firewalls on and still see the desktop as part of the network computers on the laptop?