Tonic
I can't follow the posts because you can't change the shared folder as the sharing tab is not there and as I don't want to make a change that I can't undo I am not going to convert to NTFS.
I might add that I've found that when you run the network setup wizard it turns on the internet connection firewall which can be reached by going to control panel, Network connections, right clicking on the appropriate lan icon, selecting properties then the advanced tab. When I uncheck the box for internet connection firewall I can now ping from one machine to the other.
After more messing around I have reached the point where my computer can see shared folders on my son's computer but not the other way round. I still don't know how I got to where I currently am at so I don't know how to get the rest of it going. I should also add that if I search for computers on my son's computer it does find my machine but if I try to access it from there it comes back with access denied
I will keep stumbling round in the dark till either I find it or one of you kind souls can lead me to it.
Thanks for trying to help.