Ron said:
I have two computers, Desktop and Laptop. Both access internet via my Live
Box. Both are set up for Home networking. Laptop running IE7 works fine
accessing files on Desktop and printer sharing. Desktop running IE8 is
unable to show Laptop in My Network Places and fails to show workgroup
computers in ( View workgroup computers),therefore can't access files on
Laptop. Have run Home networking wizard several times. Might it be a IE8
issue and if so how do I revert back to IE7. Thank you. Ron.
What is a "Live Box"? An Xbox? In order to be able to share files among
computers, you need a Local Area Network (LAN) and the usual way to do
that is with a router.
You also need to reveal what version of Windows you have, including
service pack level.
You probably have a misconfigured firewall, but for more specific advice
you'll need to provide more specific information about your setup.
See MVP Malke's standard network troubleshooting advice:
<QUOTE>
Here are general network troubleshooting steps. Not everything may be
applicable to your situation, so just take the bits that are. It may
look daunting, but if you follow the steps at the links and suggestions
below systematically and calmly, you will have no difficulty in setting
up your sharing.
Excellent, thorough, yet easy to understand article about File/Printer
Sharing in Vista. Includes details about sharing printers as well as
files and folders:
http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/bb727037.aspx
Problems sharing files between computers on a network are generally
caused by 1) a misconfigured firewall or overlooked firewall (including
a stateful firewall in a VPN); or 2) inadvertently running two firewalls
such as the built-in Windows Firewall and a third-party firewall; and/or
3) not having identical user accounts and passwords on all Workgroup
machines; 4) trying to create shares where the operating system does not
permit it.
A. Configure firewalls on all machines to allow the Local Area Network
(LAN) traffic as trusted. With Windows Firewall, this means allowing
File/Printer Sharing on the Exceptions tab. If you aren't running a
third-party firewall or have an antivirus/security program with its own
firewall component, then you're fine. With third-party firewalls, I
usually configure the LAN allowance with an IP range. Ex. would be
192.168.1.0-192.168.1.254. Obviously you would substitute your correct
subnet. Refer to any third party security program's Help or user forums
for how to properly configure its firewall. Do not run more than one
firewall. DO NOT TURN OFF FIREWALLS; CONFIGURE THEM CORRECTLY.
B. For ease of organization, put all computers in the same Workgroup.
This is done from the System applet in Control Panel, Computer Name tab.
C. Create matching user accounts and passwords on all machines. You do
not need to be logged into the same account on all machines and the
passwords assigned to each user account can be different; the
accounts/passwords just need to exist and match on all machines. DO NOT
NEGLECT TO CREATE PASSWORDS, EVEN IF ONLY SIMPLE ONES. If you wish a
machine to boot directly to the Desktop (into one particular user's
account) for convenience, you can do this:
XP - Configure Windows to Automatically Login (MVP Ramesh) -
http://windowsxp.mvps.org/Autologon.htm
Vista - Start Orb>Search box>type: netplwiz [enter]
Click on Continue (or supply an administrator's password) when prompted
by UAC
Uncheck the option "Users must enter a user name and password to use
this computer". Select a user account to automatically log on by
clicking on the desired account to highlight it and then hit OK. Enter
the correct password for that user account (if there is one) when
prompted. Leave it blank if there is no password (null).
D. If one or more of the computers is XP Pro or Media Center, turn off
Simple File Sharing (Folder Options>View tab)
</QUOTE>
