Hello, searched around a couple hours so i hopefully this isn't the most common issue.. summary i've setup a WEP secured ad-hoc network between two laptops. they both are showing connected status to the wireless network. i have folders on both machines which are set to 'shared' status, however neither machine is showing the other machine in 'my network places' i have unique ips for each, and can ping the other machine from here. machine a: ip= 192.168.1.1 machine b: ip= 192.168.1.2 both have a subnet mask of 255.255.255.0 machine a connects using Broadcom 802.11b/g WLAN machine b connects using linksys instant wireless network pc card v3 machine b IS dell inspiron 1100 w 2.4gig processor 256mb ram running on XP home v2002 both machines have sp2 i did get machine b to show up in the workgroup on machine a but only for a minute and when i clicked on it it gave an error related to permissions. thanks in advance for your time file sharing is turned on in the wireless network properties spot.

It sounds like you did everything right but there is one more thing to check and that's the Windows Firewall settings. Disable the firewalls for testing and set the exceptions later.

Your IP Addressing is wrong: http://www.microsoft.com/windowsxp/...

There is nothing wrong with the ip addressing. Don't confuse using auto ip as in 169.254.x.x as a requirement for ad-hoc wireless. It isn't.

the exceptions ar set, i'll try with the firewalls all the way off.

On 192.168.1.1 click start, run, type \\192.168.1.2 and press enter. All the shares should appear. If not try \\192.168.1.2\c$ Do the same on the other machine.

excellent help. i deleted the whole network (settings) and made a new one, first without encryption and without any firewall. file sharing worked (did set the ips to 169.254.0.2, and ...3) two things as soon as i turn windows firewall back on the permissions error returned. they are both set to the exception for fileandprint sharing. the checkbox for 'share this internet connection' is checked but that connection is not available to machine b regardless of firewall on or off. when i select that box for the ad-hoc it becomes unselected for the internet connection as seen on the network connections. and vise versa.