Basic home network help

Try the general instructions below to network and share your computers:

If you're using a Vista machine in the mix, make sure too install LLTD on the XP machine. (Vista "finds" the XP computer better when it's installed.)
http://support.microsoft.com/kb/922120/en-us

Make sure that identical usernames with identical passwords are on both computers and that particular user has admin privileges on both machines.

Enable/CHECK "File and Printer Sharing" on both computers in the "Control Panel/Network Connections" section.

Make sure that such sharing is allowed through your firewall. (On the Windows Firewall, there should be an "Exception" for "File and Printer Sharing" which is CHECKED.)

Share out all the files correctly. (RIGHT click on each file or printer, choose "Sharing" or "Sharing and Security".) (Usually it's easiest if you start by sharing the entire C drive first which gives all the correct permissions, then add printers and maybe a specific shared folder on the C drive..Once that's done, since the entire C drive isn't really safe to share entirely, UNshare the C drive.. After that's done, the printer and individual shared folder should remain.)

Hope this helps.

Grif

...really appreciate the response! Here's where I'm at with this thing:
After un-bridging all the connections on the vaio, the 2 computers finally started "seeing" each other. Awesome. However, clicking on the shared docs folder for the opposite machine caused a freeze ("program not responding" after a ctrl+alt+del). Turned off the Sygates, and viola, access granted. Sygates back on - denied.
Fumbling around as I do, I went into sygate and made my way to an "Advanced rules" section. Heh, just the kind of thing someone with no idea of what they're doing should be toying around with, eh? Anyway, on each machine I defined a rule concerning the opposite machine's IP: "Allow both ingoing and outgoing traffic from/to all hosts on all ports and protocols. This rule will be applied to all network interface cards."
Long and short, with the sygate activated on each machine, I'm able to get into files on the opposite computer. This seems like "problem solved," but considering I DON'T know my head from my ASCII when it comes to this kind of thing, I'm wondering if that blindly cobbled definition is trouble waiting to happen? Particularly worrisome is that whole "all hosts on all ports and protocols" thing. Any feedback and sage advice is welcome.
Thanks again for taking time to help, instead of the obligatory "**** n00b."

...there's an option to let ONLY the preferred computers through the firewall.. What you've done will work but as you've surmised, it lets all computers through the firewall which is against the basic tenants for it in the first place.. Instead, I'm guessing that Sygate has an option to allow specific IP addresses or maybe create a "Trusted" zone which allows only the specific Host computers through.. Check the IP addresses of the other computers on your network and setup an IP address range which only includes your shared computers.

Keep checking those settings.

Hope this helps.

Grif

Actually, there isn't, but thats what I thought I was doing when I set that advanced rule for the specific IP of the opposite machine.

However, what there IS, apparently, is an iddy-biddy check box under 'Tools > Options > Network Neighborhood' where you can toggle the permission to "Allow others to share my files and printers." Why in the world the default setting for this is "off" is beyond me, but whatever, there it was, problem solved without any special definitions. If Symantec (the company that bought out Sygate) hadn't shut down the Sygate forum, I probably could've found a sticky or tutorial on this with no problem. Nevertheless, thanks a lot, Grif, for your constructive comments and encouragement - its appreciated for sure!
Now I'm going to tackle the printer sharing - wish me luck.

...the printer actually did like it was supposed to, set-up was cake! However, I was curious about one thing. When I click on "My Network Places," the shared folders for the workstation I'm at appear under the "Local Network" banner, but the opposite machine's resources show up under "Internet." Is that normal? I thought if 2 machines were networked they would both be part of a local network - am I just a moron?

p.s. Did "Network Neighborhood" change its name to "My Network Places" on XP?

..and yes, what you're seeing is normal for a small home network. Sometimes things may act a little different when one is XP HOME vs XP PRO but YES, they are still part of the same Local Network. (It also looks quite a bit different if XP PRO is connected to a domain type of LAN.)

On a small home network, with either HOME or PRO, looking on the left side of "My Network Places" window, if you click on the "View Workgroup Computers", you should see all the networked computers that are currently running..

Hope this helps.

Grif

...that's what I was thinking, but its always better to ask if you don't know. Thanks for the answer, and all the previous help grif - you're a class act.

Actually, what would be better than making an advanced rule by using machine's IP address would be to use the MAC address. Use the MAC address and then you set the rule to allow, which will allow all traffic to/from that machine to the other.