I have a old XP laptop and recently bought a laptop that has Vista. I have been trying to connect the two laptops - even with the help from HP - but so far unsuccessfully.

I have a netgear router so we tried the wiresless connection first, however, either computer did not appear in the others workgroup. I don't know if I need to change any settings on the computer to have them see each other?

Then I tried it with both laptops connected to the routerwith ethernet cables. In the end (I don't know how I did it) I say the Vista laptop on the XP, but when I clicked on it I was denied access. I still couldn't see the XP on the vista laptop.

Can anyone give advice on how I get them to recognise each other (wireless or via ethernet).

Many thanks for your time.

On Vista try to open Control Panel->Network Sharing Centre->"Set up file sharing" and enable it. In my opinion don't be depending on computer icons in Network Neighbours, but better is to connect directly by IP:
\\x.x.x.x and in dialog enter username+password.

One more tip: Disable NetBios in TCP/IP properties of your WXP, it searches and refreshes your network neighbours by old way, and sometimes can display bad results. It is obsolete protocol.

Rooeus

Dear Rooeus, thank you for answering. I tried what you suggested, however, I am not a computer wizz and I was unsuccessful. Especially in connecting via IP - how do I do this?

If you have any additional advice I would be very greatfull.

What about ping utility ? Does answer second computer when you try ping x.x.x.x from first computer ?

Rooeus