can't see other computers on network

have new laptop, connected to wireless router network fine, but can't connect to other computers, they show up when I click "map network drive" but they don't show up in network. just recently connected two other laptops, did not have this problem

thanks for any help

 

make sure file and printer sharing is enabled on all the computers on the network. Open an explorer window, and try typing in the i.p. address of the computer you want to connect to. Windows file sharing is real finicky, especially on vista and xp. It's a little better on Windows 7

 

Also, make sure that your network ID is the same on the new machine as on the rest. Sounds like a little thing, but I've found any number of times that checking that first saves me a whole lot of headache later.

~C

 

I think that was kind of the problem. When i first logged onto my network router with the new machine, I think i opened a new homegroup instead of joining the one already open. When i clicked "leave the homegroup" the other computers showed up.

thanks for your help

 

homegroups are only for windows 7 i think. and you have to set it up with an automatically generated number that windows provides. It won't work with xp.

 

I run XPpro on my machine, 2kserver on her machine (don't ask, it's the longest running OS she hasn't killed yet...), 2k on my old laptop and XPhome on my son's laptop. Plus a Wii... lol. I'm constantly checking my workgroups to make sure we're all on the same one. As soon as I can't see someone from my desk (I have everyone's hdd mapped on my rig so I can access, scan, install, whatever right from here... such a geek I am) the first thing I check is their workgroup, and 99% of the time, that's the case. You may need to do a home network setup on your new laptop... not sure how that works in Win7 as I have only recently started to dabble with it at my parents' to keep them all up and running.

Glad it's working for you though.

~C

 

I thought I had it working but now I don't

I have one desktop(vista) connected directly to my router, and three laptops (all windows 7) connected by wireless,

on one of the laptops, im connected to the router and using internet just fine, but im not able to connect to the other computers, the weird thing is when i view the network map, all three are there, but when i open the network to share files it is not,

i have compared sharing settings on all three, everything seems to be the same

ive fought this for a week,

any suggestions
thanks

 

As thesmokingun suggested, try typing \\ followed by the i.p address or name of the computer you are trying to connect to into the address bar of any file management window. It should end up looking like this: \\192.168.0.0 although any of the digits could be any number, with a length of up to twelve digits overall.

 

oops, i forgot to mention the \\

 

figured it out, all the other computers were running trend antivirus, the newest one had defender pro, i uninstalled defender pro and it worked immediately, must be a permissions setting on it some where but i havent found the right one yet

thanks for all your help