My new computer has Vista. My old computer has XP. I want to set up an internet connection for the XP computer to connect with the Vista computer. They are both WiFi.

The problem seems to be that when I try to connect the XP computer to the Vista computer, the XP computer still thinks it is Numero Uno. It isn't. It's supposed to be the slave now and the Vista Computer has taken over the Numero Uno position. I followed the instructions on the Vista computer to load everything on to my flash stick and then transfer that to each computer that I want connected on my network.

But the XP computer won't accept that.

Am I doing something wrong or is it just that the two of them are not going to communicate with each other?

Earline, I just finished (I think) doing what you are doing. Your computers should be able to talk to each other but it does take some digging to figure out how. Are you able to access the internet from both computers? I did not have a problem with that. My Vista picked up the internet network immediately without any messing around. I just needed my password to do that.

Transferring the data from the one to the other was a little trickier. As soon as I was able to get the Vista to see the XP folders, I just pulled them both up on the screen and dragged them from the XP to the Vista. It was pretty easy. I know that there is a file transfer on Vista but for some reason the drag and drop was easier for me. I just dragged the document folder/picture folder/video/music. etc.

I had a problem in getting the xps (I have two), accessing the Vista. If you go to my thread about this, steves told me what to do and it worked perfectly.

Tonight I couldn't get the xps to connect to the printer on the vista but finally worked that out, too. If that is a problem for you, I will retrace what I did and try to walk you through it. Sometimes you just need to go pretty deep into all the little menu options until something that looks like it might be right pops up.

I know how frustrating this is. A few months ago I returned a Vista because it just was being so difficult. I think they have done somethings to make it easier now.

The next step is to explore vista to see what all it offers which seems to be a lot--I hope it isn't all bells and whistles.

See you next week.

Jane

Earline,

Do you have a wireless router?

If so, you DON'T need to use windows internet sharing. In fact, disable it if you already have it turned on. Just make sure your two computers can both connect to the internet, then we'll "talk".

Steve

Jane, I read your other post and have copied it so I can refer to it.

I don't need to share a printer as I have one dedicated to the XP machine. I don't have the 2 computers set up on a home network. I work primarily on the Vista machine and the few things that I want to share, I just use my flash stick to transfer the data. From the headaches I had when we networked the old laptop and the PC, I decided it just isn't worth it. After spending big bucks on a computer guy to come out and set it up and even he couldn't do it. I mainly want to connect to the internet.

Steve, you said to make sure my 2 computers can both connect to the internet. Do you mean "do they have the ability to do so" or "do they, in fact" connect to the internet. The main Vista computer is on the internet. The XP computer will give me my home page, but with a box saying that the server can't be found. They are both wireless and I have a router. I had no problems with getting the laptop on the internet. Vista worked like an absolute charm on that part of the process.

Earline, I meant the latter. "do they, in fact connect to the internet."

The XP should connect to the Internet +without+ having to go through the Vista, because you have a wireless router. I'm not sure what mean in the OP when you wrote about "a slave" computer.

There's no such concept of a slave/master computer when one uses a router. Both computers should connect to the Internet on their own, and be able to connect to each other.

Steve

Steve, the Vista computer connects to the internet. The XP computer does not. On the XP computer, I've tried poking around all over the place and the only difference I can see is that I've boogered up my screen saver. I don't know what happened there! Of course, that is not my major concern at this point in time. Like I said, the XP computer will connect to the web page, but then give me a message that it is not able to connect to the internet.

quote:

Steve, the Vista computer connects to the internet. The XP computer does not

This is not too helpful probably...but since the Vista computer connects to the internet and the XP doesn't, it sounds like somewhere--deep in the bowels of the XP network settings--there is something amiss.

You will probably have to call the tech support people of the router manufacturer who may be able to walk you through the process, hire someone to come in and find the problem or get a network savvy teenager to take a look at it.

Thanks, Jim.

I just have one more question. Where do these network savvy teenagers gain their knowledge???? It can't just be inborn. Are there courses us oldies can take to learn about networks?

That would probably be asking too much!

Jim is right.

Said it far more eloquently than I could have. I think the two issues (not connecting to the internet, and not seeing the vista computer) are in fact one.

did you do something to the xp machine? I assume it used to connect to the internet fine, right?

Just one question--I take it that the XP does have a wireless card or adapter, and that you are selecting the router generated network? One thing we discovered is that if a laptop is set up for file sharing, and if you ever set up an ad hoc network by accident (I did this, which is how I know), your second computer might connect to the ad hoc network vs connecting to the router.

That was an obvious dumb move on my part and easily rectified. But, a month later, my laptop automatically connected to a computer to computer network vs the WiFi that was available when I was at TPA airport. One nice feature with Vista is that it is easy to tell when you're only connected locally and not connected to the internet. Because of my past experience, I knew to look at the list of available networks to see which I was connected to, and sure enough, I was connected to a peer network, not the WiFi at all.

What is really scary about that idea is that somebody might use this kind of ad hoc network to get access to my computer data. I think.

So, what I've done is set up my laptop to never connect automatically, but to always require me to select the network and manually connect. A bit of a pain, but to my uneducated mind, it seems safer.