Geek help needed re home wireless networking

[mattSV]

I have tried to set up a wireless network at home between my pc & laptop but failed miserably Both are running Vista Ultimate with AVG.

I have got my PC connected via a lan cable to a Belkin wireless router (model F5D7230-4).

The laptop already connects wirelessly to t'internet via the router, however I cannot see the laptop on the network when on the PC and vice versa.

So far, I have done the following on both laptop and PC:-

Set folder properties to 'shared'
Set network discovery to ON
Set filesharing to ON
Set public folder sharing to ON
Set printer sharing to ON
Set password protected sharing to OFF
Set media Sharing to ON

Both Laptop and PC show as connected to the network (have checked that network name is same on both) however still cannot see each other on the network.

Anyone got any ideas?

PS - please keep it simple as I am not a techie!

Thanks

Matt

Have you tried turning it off and on again?

[fizzwheel]

Originally Posted by diamond

Have you tried turning it off and on again?

This is good advice

[fizzwheel]

OK serious hat on...

Is the windows firewall turned on, on either or one of the machines ?

Do an IPCONFIG on one of the computers to get its ip address, and then try pinging that address from the other one.

I had similar issues when I was building my network and the solution I eventually came up with was to give all my stuff fixed IP addresses.

What are you intending to do once they can see each other? Share files back and forth?

[mattSV]

On the Laptop:-

Windows Firewall Settings are:-

Domain Profile ON
Private Profile ON
Public Profile ON

Can't even find firewall on the PC though

[mattSV]

Originally Posted by metalangel

Do an IPCONFIG on one of the computers to get its ip address, and then try pinging that address from the other one.

I had similar issues when I was building my network and the solution I eventually came up with was to give all my stuff fixed IP addresses.

What are you intending to do once they can see each other? Share files back and forth?

Yeah, that's the theory.

How do do an IPCONFIG and then ping? I know the theory with doing this, just don't know how??

Get a command prompt open (Start Menu -> Run -> Type "cmd")

Then do "IPCONFIG" and it'll tell you the computer's IP address, which will be 192.168.x.x (there'll also be your router's IP address, which will be 192.168.1.1 or 192.168.0.1)

Open a command prompt on the other computer and type "ping (the first computer's IP address)". If it just says 'timed out' then your computers aren't able to comminicate at the most basic level. If it gives a more detailed response, they can at least see each other and you now need to work out why you can't file share.

[fizzwheel]

Just to double check, you can get on the internet from both laptop and PC ?

[fizzwheel]

Having a quick read around t'internet I reckon it might be the windows firewall causing your problem.

Matt, I reckon this is worth a read, might point you in the right direction.

http://windowshelp.microsoft.com/Win...003111033.mspx