Pat said:
I have a home network set up with the host computer (running Vista),
printer and IBM laptop (running XP). I found that I have to disable
both the Windows firewall and McAfee firewall on the host computer in
order for my network to recognize my IBM laptop. Is there a workaround
other than turning the firewalls completely off?
The solution is to have only one firewall running on a computer and to
configure it correctly. I can't tell from your post if you have the WF
and McAfee on one computer or WF on one machine and McAfee on the other.
For WF, all you should need to do is allow File & Printer Sharing.
McAfee is another story and you should look in its Help files or just
poke around for configuration settings.
Here are some links for networking which cover both Vista and XP:
File/Printer Sharing Vista -
http://www.microsoft.com/technet/network/evaluate/vista_fp.mspx
http://www.ezlan.net/index.html
http://nitecruzr.blogspot.com/
And some information on networking with XP Pro (which you probably have
on the IBM laptop):
If one or more of the computers is XP Pro or Media Center:
a. If you need Pro's ability to set fine-grained permissions, turn off
Simple File Sharing (Folder Options>View tab) and create identical user
accounts/passwords on all computers.
b. If you don't care about using Pro's advanced features, leave the
Simple File Sharing enabled.
Simple File Sharing means that Guest (network) is enabled. This means
that anyone without a user account on the target system can use its
resources. This is a security hole but only you can decide if it matters
in your situation.
Malke
