[atvrdan]

We just bought a laptop for use around the house. It has a wireless card in it so we also bought a netgear wireless g router. Ive got the internet working on the laptop via a wireless connection, and have my desktop wired into the router also. My problem is that i cannot get either the laptop or the desktop to recognize each other unless it is hardwired into the router. Also when i run the network setup wizard and use my flashdrive to transfer wireless settings it always comes up with an error. I have also tried this both ways. Is it even possible to network one computer wireless and one computer hardwired through the same router?

[TuNiX]

Yes it is, what do you mean by you cant get the desktop to recognize the laptop? do they both have internet?

[atvrdan]

sorry for the delay, but what i mean is that on the laptop when i click on the networking center and it displays everything its connected to, it doesnt say anything about my desktop. All that it displays is that the computer is connected to the router, and the router is connected to the internet.

Ive got my network set up so that my desktop is hardwired to the router and the laptop is connected wirelessly. Internet works on both machines.

Also, i can get the windows media player centers to connect, but i cannot get the operating systems to connect to eachother. My ultimate goal is to be able to share a printer and documents between both computers, with the laptop being wireless.

one more thing, the desktop is windows xp home, and the laptop is vista home basic.

thanks in advance.

[Ops_Tech]

Your first step I think would be ping the other PC you are trying to reach. First you will need to get the IP address to each PC. Being a netgear it will be something like 192.168.0.x. You can get the IP address on the XP machine by going to start - run - type "cmd" without "" and hit enter. This will bring up a command prompt - type " ipconfig/all " hit enter. You now have the IP to the XP machine. Now open the command window in Vista and type ping x.x.x.x where x equals the ip address of the XP machine. Do you get a reply? If you dont let us know.

Next step is setup a share on the XP machine. I recommend turing simple file sharing off. You can do this by opening a folder ex. My Documents - then click tools - folder options - view -scroll down to the bottom and uncheck use simple file sharing. Now find a folder you want to share on the XP machine and right click and select sharing and security - then check the share this folder. By default it will allow everyone read only access, but you can change this by clicking the permissions button. Now that you have a share setup go back to the Vista laptop and go to the start menu and then the search area type //x.x.x.x where x.x.x.x equals the IP address of the XP PC.

[atvrdan]

alright thanks man, ill try that when i get home and let you know if it worked.

[atvrdan]

alright i finally got around to attempting to ping the xp machine with my laptop. It attempts to ping, but it says "request timed out". Then it displays: packets sent 4, packets lost 4, 100% loss.

What do i do now?

also, i am having trouble running the netgear setup cd on both machines. I get to the part where i activate the network and a screen comes up like this one: TinyPic - Share The Experience!™

I have not set any username or password yet. What username/password should i use to get through this screen so i can secure my network? The internet still works, its just not offically installed or w/e on either pc.