Hi there, I have recently moved house and set up a small home network (Workgroup) of around 5 PCs, some connected wirelessly and some with wired connections. My new Orange Livebox acts as an internet router and as a DHCP server. Each PC has its own internet security package on it with virus checking and firewall. I have configued file and print sharing on each machine and made firewall rules where appropriate to allow each computer to connect. For the most part it works really well but I'm having a couple of problems that I really cannot solve. 1) I have a laptop with the latest version of Norton Internet Security installed. The problem is the firewall which will not allow me to share files with other PCS unless I disable it. I have added a windows file sharing rule which should do the trick but unless I actually disable the firewall it will not work. In fact it won't even show me other computers on the network unless I disable it. It blocks both ways, not allowing me to connect to other machines and not allowing other machines in either. Can anyone help, perhaps I have set something wrong somewhere. The rule I created is placed at the top of the list and so should override the other rules - it allows connection from any PC with an IP address between 192.168.1.1 and 192.168.1.255. 2) This second problem is even more bizarre and annoying as it is on my main PC which i use as a filestore. It is running F-Secure Internet Security 2007 and again I have created rules for it which allow other computers access to shared folders. The rules used to work fine at my old house with a different router and older veersion of F-secure. But since I've set this new network up I have having no luck with it. The computer can access files on other machines but will not allow connections from other machines. The folders all display in My Network Places but it gives cannot access/permissions errors when you double click on them. The really strange thing is that this happens regardless of whether the f-secure firewall is turned on or not which makes me think that something else must be blocking connections, especially as I have the same f-secure software set up on another machine with the same rules and it works fine. Does anyone know what could be blocking access for the other PCs if it's not F-secure? I would be grateful if anyone has any insight into why I'm having these problems. You should be aware that all PCs are running XP Pro or XP Home and I don't have Windows firewall running on any of them. They have different logins but all users are administrators and so there should not be any problems. Also I don't think it is the Livebox which is at fault as it seems to make no difference whether its firewall is turned on or not. However I am going to check with a different router tonight just to be sure. I really have no idea where to start to troubleshoot these problems. I have tried various things like connecting the PCs in different ways but alas no luck so far. Any help greatly appreciated.

Hopefully all computers have some firewall on all the time. The norton is almost too secure. I had a hard time with it. I forget what I did but it was a setting that differed from older versions. Darn Norton. I suspect the other firewall is the same. Either the IP or service or protocol is being blocked. I read it wrong and answer it wrong too. So get off my case you goober.

Thanks for your reply. Will have a further look with Norton. To be honest that is less urgent than the other problem. I'm a novice to networking can you explain what you mean about the service and protocol being blocked? What would be blocking it? Where is it being bloacked? Remember this occurs with the firewall disabled as well. I assume it's not the IP as I have enabled it in the firewall. Is there any way to test and locate where in the chain the blockage is occuring? many thanks for your help.