View Full Version : workgroups
boofhead
6th Dec 2008, 07:21
Bought mrs Boof a new computer using Vista. Want to see the workgroup (my own wireless network) so I can log on and transfer files etc. I don't know anything about Vista and cannot find the appropriate buttons to push. When I ask to see the network it shows me the LAN connection to the internet and not the workgroup so I cannot see the other computers on my wireless network. I tried to do a new setup using the old computer, which is still connected, but it asks me to make a floppy disk to transfer the settings and the new computer does not have a floppy drive.
I am lost, can anyone point me the right direction?
Spitoon
6th Dec 2008, 07:47
I'm no expert on this stuff but I had the same problem at one time.
As I recall, in my case it was necessary to tell the firewalls that the machines in question were 'trusted' and then they were visible to each other.
Next step was to set sharing privileges on the files/folders that you want to be able to access from the remote machine.
Forget that "create a floppy" stuff - it was always an option, not a requirement.
Spitoon is basically right: a machine might not be visible unless it has one or more Shares created, a directory with the files on it that you want to share. On XP or Vista, doing that also opens up the required ports on the firewall, so you should not need to do anything more than that.
Hint: if you want a share to be invisible to others browsing the network, end the share name with a dollar sign e.g. private$. Others will only be able to open it if they know that name - but you'd still need to set the appropriate security on it.