Media sharing? (little networking experience...)

[ace_master]

Hey, I hope someone cant help me out here...

I've got 2 computers and 1 Stereo Receiver hooked up to a modem/router.
PC 1 - Windows Vista Eternity 2009
PC 2 - Windows XP Home edition
Receiver - Denon 3808

All of these devices connect to the internet just fine on their own.


I'm trying to set up media and printer sharing between the three of them. The only success I have had is that my receiver will now play the music that I have set to shared on PC1. PC2 seems to be all on its own out there, it won't even show up on my other PCs "view full map" in the network settings. Nor does it seem to recognize PC1, or my receiver in its network settings.

I've done some searching around, and found a couple sites suggesting I download an update regarding the network mapping on PC2 (XP computer)... which I tried to do, and upon installation, it told me that the service pack I have installed is newer than the update I was trying to install.

I wouldn't be so worried about computer 2 if it wasn't for the fact that it is where our printer is located.

 

[david90]

From my experience, sometime the network map doesn't work consistently.

Anyway, you should ping PC1 and Denon from PC2. If the ping is good, then you know that they are connected and could talk to each other.

If you could ping from PC2 then try to map PC1's shared network drive by entering the network path instead of browsing for it. To map PC1's network drive by path, go to explorer, tool and the map network drive. In the folder field type in: "\\"PC1's name"\"shared folder"

Replace "PC1's name" with the PC1's name and "shared folder" for the name of the shared music folder on PC1.

Sometime you can't see the computer in your network map but you could still connect to it. From experience, firewall can be the culprit.

 

[ace_master]

I tried to ping from PC2 and it timed out on me. Yet the internet still works on that PC... so obviously there's no direct connection issue.

- I then tried pinging my receiver from PC1, and it worked fine from there.
- I also tried the "\\PC1\shared" path you suggested, but it didn't find anything.


Why can't everything just play nice? lol.

 

[david90]

I tried to ping from PC2 and it timed out on me. Yet the internet still works on that PC... so obviously there's no direct connection issue.

- I then tried pinging my receiver from PC1, and it worked fine from there.
- I also tried the "\\PC1\shared" path you suggested, but it didn't find anything.


Why can't everything just play nice? lol.

In order to share files, the network devices need to be able to talk to each other. If you can't ping PC1 from PC2 then that's a problem.

If you can access the internet on PC2, then I assume that DCHP gave out the right info to PC2 (DNS, IP, Default gate etc).

Do you have a firewall software like zonealarm? I use zonealarm and it blocks ping command from the command console. If not configured properly, it will also block file sharing and the discovery of network devices.

 

[jmacavali]

Did you solve your issues? Here's my 2 cents:

There are always issues when trying to network between Vista and XP. It is really quite a pain.

1. Make sure they are in the same workgroup.
2. On the Vista machine you need to make sure you go into the Network and Sharing Center and pretty much turn ON all of the sharing features.
3. Then on the XP machine you need to also make sure that File and Print Sharing is turned on.
4. As stated, make sure your firewall will allow exteranl devices to connect.