Vista in Domain and Workgroup environment

  • Thread starter Thread starter cdavis82
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cdavis82

I've got a Vista laptop that normally resides within my company domain. I
take it home periodically and I'm trying to print to my home computer. The
laptop is Vista Ultimate and the home PC is Vista Home Premium. For some
reason I can't see the home computer from the laptop. I also can't ping the
home PC, but I can connect to the Internet. The laptop is on a WAN
connection. If I click on the full map view in Network and Sharing center
the laptop can see the home computer there.

I assume this has to do with the laptop not being in the same workgroup as
the home computer, but I'm unsure on how to work around that.

Thanks,
Casey
 
You have to set up the Network 1st as per below info.

Then in Laptop vista'a Network and Sharing>Add Network Device>Browse to
Desktop printer>install making sure you have a Printer driver that is vista
compatible installed in the laptop as well as in the Desktop computer.

http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/bb727037.aspx

Have a read of the above link re Vista File and Printer Sharing.

Permissions/Share info is there as well.

If using Norton, McAfee, Trend Micro I.S., make sure file and printer
sharing is enabled in THEIR firewall (or LAN allowed, depending on how their
Exceptions are worded in their Firewall)

1st thing to do is make sure that the Workgroup Name of ALL the computers is
the SAME.

In Vista Network and Sharing:

Network Discovery: ON (So it can see the other computers)

Network set to Private (Public is for hotspots, airports, etc)

File Sharing: ON

Public Folder Sharing: ON (Vista’s Public Folder is the same as XP’s Shared
Docs)

Password Protected: OFF (unless you want to set up identical usernames and
passwords (passwords can be different) on ALL computers in your Network) If
you have it ON, you will be asked for a username and password when you try to
access a Vista computer from an XP computer, or a Vista computer.
 
If you do this the laptop will be disjoined from the work domain. Depending
on how the computer was setup you may not be able to login at all if you
disjoin it from the work domain.
 
I suspect the firewall on one of the computers is causing a problem. Can you
ping the home PC by it's IP address? In the Network and Sharing Center is
the network Public, Private, or Domain?

Do not change the workgroup on the laptop. This will disjoin it from your
work domain. You may be unable to login and thus lose all access to the
laptop until it is rejoined to the domain.
 
Hi Kerry, perhaps you could answer a vexing networking issue for me. While I
started on Banyan VINES and regressed to Novell NetWare, I have never
understood Microsoft Networking. We have two Vista Business 32 laptops on a
WLAN. Our desktops are XP Home and Windows 2000 SP4. While I can see the
other Vista laptop, I cannot see the XP Home nor W2K desktop. We're
connected via a ZyXel Router. We are all in the same workgroup "HOME" and
can all see the internet, but not each other. No firewall issues here that I
know about. I will try to PING the other machines when they are on - off now
due to time (22:05 local). So, I have no idea why Microsoft Networking is
SOOOO difficult. The help files are singularly unhelpful as is anything I
have tried to search on on the MSFT website.

Can you please throw some light on this vexing issue??

Thanks.

Ian Samson Sound Studio
http://www.lp2cd.za.net/
(e-mail address removed)
 
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