Ok, I'm going nuts. I'm trying to network my two computers so I can share files. Both are running Windows XP SP3. One is connected to the router via LAN cable, the other has a Wireless adapter. Both can connect to the internet and ping the router fine. The wireless computer can ping the wired computer, but not vice-versa. I can't see either machine in "My Network Places". I've tried running the Network Setup Wizard on both machines but it didn't work. Both are set to HOME as the Workgroup, and both have file and printer sharing enabled and have some folders set for sharing. The wireless computer has a fresh install of XP (3 days old), while the wired computer hasn't had a reinstall in about a year, if not more. I know I've done some performance tweaks to the wired computer in the past but I don't know if any of those are causing the problem, and damned if I can remember what they even were. Please help!

Double check the workgroup name. I have had issues with WinXP changing it back to the default names multiple times.

To access machine B from machine A, you have to install machine A's user name as a user on machine B, and vice versa. It's also necessary to right click any drives/folders that are to be shared, select 'Sharing and Security' and make it shareable. The inability to ping is usually a firewall problem. It's best to post networking problems in the Networking forum. The most knowledgeable people about networking are probably there.

I doubt that the Wizard is supposed to be ran on each computer, only the Host computer. In Windows XP HELP, click Index, then type: walkthroughs Below that double click "Networking" Tells all about how to connect computers, and setting up your network. Run the Wizard on the Host computer, make the floppy, and run the floppy on the Client computer. If each of two computers has an Ethernet card, you do not need a hub or router. Just an RJ-45 Crossover Cable.

Are you running ZoneAlarm? I had trouble connecting after updating ZoneAlarm recently. Disabled ZA on the machine that wouldn't connect and voila'... connected fine. I never did figure out what the ZA learning curve was all about? --

I forgot to mention that I don't have any Firewalls installed, and the one included with XP is disabled on both machines. I've double checked the workgroup name and both are definitely the same. I tried the walkthrough on Home Networking but it only seems to cover using one computer with the internet plugged into it for Internet Connection Sharing. The problem with the Network Setup Wizard is that it only lets you create a network floppy disk. I don't have floppy drives in either of my machines! I'm pretty sure the culprit is the wired computer. As I said I've done some tinkering to some settings int he past and may have screwed it up too much to recover. But I'm not willing to reinstall Windows quite yet. There's a program called Network Magic that supposedly works great, but it's not free and something like this should be fixable for free. Any other tips?

Oh, one other thing. "Use Simple File Sharing" is disabled.