Trying to share files between computer running Windows Vista and Windows XP

Hi all,

Our office computers are all networked and up until recently were all running Windows XP Pro.  One of our computers recently crashed, and was replaced with one running Vista.  We have some specialized stats software that we run, and it runs through our network.  I am trying to set up the network so that the program, we'll call "Stats" for now, is in a shared folder and that folder is mapped as a network drive.  In the past, it was mapped as Z:  and was installed on the computer that is now running Vista.  The Z drive was mapped on two other computers that need to be able to access the program.  No problems, worked brilliantly.

Now, I am trying to set it up the same way and it's not working. I have shared the folder and mapped the drive on the Vista computer as letter R.  The Vista computer is connected to the network and can see all of the computers in the workgroup.  The Vista computer CANNOT access a shared folder on one of the XP computers.  The XP computers cannot map the drive letter R to the shared "Stats" program folder.  Every time I try, I receive the error message that the network path cannot be found.  I've given myself a user name to access the Vista computer and entered it when prompted before finishing the network mapping.  Still nothing

Any help would be appreciated.  If it would be easier to install the program on an XP computer and then share it with the Vista computer via network mapping, that would be fine as well.  because of the nature of the "Stats" program, it works best when assigned a drive letter and mapped for all network computers.

Andrea

There are allot of tweaks to make in Vista to enable simple file sharing, and there are many variations of how to successfully accomplish the task.  I did a Google search on vista file sharing

and came up with this link  Enabling Simple File Sharing in Vista that looks like it covered the bases.  I personally did not follow the steps to be sure it works, but take a look and see if it gets you where you need to get the file sharing covered.

Dave

Dwelp,

Thanks for the idea, but these are the steps that I have already taken.  You'd think that would be it and voila!  But the XP computers do not recognize the folder that is shared, cannot connect to it, and I get the error that the network place doesn't exist.  I have double checked that the folder is shared and that I have the address correct "\\Name of computer on network\name of shared folder" but to no avail.  I received the error "network path cannot be found" when I try to Map Network Drive and when I try to add a network place in XP.

You might need to Enable File and Print Sharing in Vista. <-- link provided.  Pay close attention to the firewall section at the bottom.

Thanks for all your help.  I had done all of these already, but even with the open sharing and simple sharing, it is requiring me to put in my user name and password.  Now that I've done that, it seems to be working correctly-ish.  Thanks again!

SASSMM:

Thanks for all your help.  I had done all of these already, but even with the open sharing and simple sharing, it is requiring me to put in my user name and password.  Now that I've done that, it seems to be working correctly-ish.  Thanks again!

I have a wireless network set up at home that connects my Vista machine to my XP machine.

Some of the confusion in setting up file sharing between Vista- and XP-based computers has to do with the fact that in XP the default name given for the workgroup is "MSHOME", whereas in Vista the default workgroup name has been changed to "WORKGROUP". So when you're setting up your network it's important to make sure all computers have the same workgroup name.  You can use a different workgroup name than the default ones above, but the key thing to remember is to make sure you assign the same name to all the machines you want to have networked.

Another difference that exists in Vista and XP, in terms of setting up file-sharing between both, is the fact that unlike Windows XP, Vista doesn't allow file sharing by default.  This is why it asks users for their password when trying to access the shared folders.

Yann

I'm pretty sure Vista will always ask for a password to access the folders - peer to peer networks do that unless they have the same username and password on each machine.  Does Vista always ask anyway?  It might, for enhanced security.