Vista pc hidden from XP?

I have a Vista-based media center, and two XP-based desktop computers, all on a simple home WLAN network (DSL/WLAN router). The Vista computer can see all other computers and transfer/modify files shared on XP, but my XP computers see only each other and not the Vista computer -- why?

I can ping the Vista computer from the XP computers, using it's IP or even it's machine name ("cinema-pc"), but I can't browse to the vista computer using Windows Explorer (neither by IP nor by name): "Windows cannot find '\cinema-pc'. Check the spelling and try again..."

All three computers are using only the regular built-in Windows firewall software with default settings, and I believe the router sets no restrictions on the internal network.

The Vista computer has shares like \\cinema-pc\audio but even if there were no shares on Vista, I would still expect to be able to see the computer itself.

I've tried every trick I know but can't come up with a reason for this behaviour. How do I fix my network so that I can access my Vista computer from my XP computers?

Solution 1:

Vista and XP networks, in my experience, are quite incompatible. Interaction might work, or it might not. The network might work correctly today, but not work tomorrow.

The major problem is defining the master browser computer for the network. The article Computer Browser contains a good explanation of the problem, and how to assure that the right computer is elected as the master. If not enough, other articles are easy to google.

The problem to avoid is for your Vista machine to come up and decide that it's the master browser of its own network of one, while the XP computers elect one of themselves as master browser of their own network.

To make the XP machines discoverable by Vista, you should install on them the Link Layer Topology Discovery (LLTD) Responder.

You should think the problem through quite carefully, decide on the correct network architecture and define the right master browser (which you might need to enforce), and try very patiently to make it work correctly.

If everything fails, the last resort is giving all the machines fixed IP addresses and updating the hosts files on your network to contain all the addresses.

EDIT

Check this article : File and Printer Sharing in Windows Vista.

Other points:

• Workgroup Name of all the computers should be the same.
• In Vista Network and Sharing:
  Network Discovery: ON (So it can see the other computers)
  Network set to Private (Public is for hotspots, airports, etc)
  File Sharing: ON
  Public Folder Sharing: ON (Vista Public Folder is the same as XP Shared Docs)
  Password Protected: OFF (unless you want to set up identical usernames and passwords on all computers in your Network). If you have it ON, you will be asked for a username and password when you try to access a Vista computer from an XP computer.
• Run the XP Home Network File and Printer sharing Wizard.