I can't see other computers on my home wireless network

[RangerWickett]

I and my two roommates have a wireless network. I connect to the internet through it. All our computers are XP, service pack 2. Now one of my roommates wants me to be able to access a movie he made from a shared folder on his computer, but I cannot see his computer. When I go to 'My Network Places,' all I see is "My Websites on MSN."

Any idea what's up? It would be a heck of a lot easier for me to just watch the movie this way than to burn it to DVD, seeing as I don't have a DVD player.

Help would be greatly appreciated.

 

[RangerWickett]

In the amount of time it took me to write that post, my computer spontaneously decided that it _could_ see the shared folder of one of my roommates, but not the one who I need to connect to. Weird. Help still needed.

 

[bbrough]

You might want to make sure that the computers are in the same work group. If you don't know how to do this, right click on my computer then to properties then slect the computer name tab. The bottom name will be the workgroup name. If you have to change one it does require a reboot.

Hope this Helps
Brad

 

[nick2]

I've had similar things happen in the past as well, where one computer could connect to another, but the second computer could not connect to the first computer. I just kept playing around with the workgroup, and I was able to get them both to connect.

 

[hong]

Try rebooting.

No, seriously. I think there's something in XP's networking that requires a reboot if you were the only PC on the local network, and then you add other PCs.

 

[Thanee]

And try a search for the computer's name (the one with the shared folder), sometimes you can't see the computer on the network neighborhood, but it's still there and you can find it this way.

Bye
Thanee

 

[Plane Sailing]

if both your computers have a firewire port, and you happen to have a firewire cable, the quickest way to get them to communicate is to connect them up with a firewire cable and *boom* they can see each other and communicate nicely.

(I discovered this after futzing around for ages trying to get two XP machines on the same network to see each other. They could ping each other, but I couldn't get shared folders to show up!)

The ip over firewire was removed from vista though...

 

[XCorvis]

Try rebooting.

No, seriously. I think there's something in XP's networking that requires a reboot if you were the only PC on the local network, and then you add other PCs.

There's a lot of weirdness in Windows sharing. Frequently, computers will simply not see each other until they've been running for a while. Sometimes they need a reboot. Sometimes they just never will without a little help.

To force it, try getting the IP address of the computer you want to connect to, and on your computer, go to Start->Run and enter "\\x.x.x.x" where "x.x.x.x" is the IP address. Hit enter, and see if you connect. If it works, the computer will probably show up in Network Places after that.

(To get an IP address, have the other person go to http://www.whatismyip.com on their computer. There are other ways, but that's easiest to describe.)

 

[SteelDraco]

(To get an IP address, have the other person go to http://www.whatismyip.com on their computer. There are other ways, but that's easiest to describe.)

If he's behind a router for the apartment, he'll want the internal IP, rather than the router's, which is what that site gives you.

If XCorvis's suggestion doesn't work, and you're behind a router, try this. At the computer you want to connect to, go to the Start menu, and hit Run. Type in "command", and then hit enter. It'll pull up a black box with an old-style DOS prompt. Type "ipconfig" in there, and it'll give you a bunch of numbers. Write down the number labeled "IP Address" - it'll probably start with 192.168, and then have two other numbers. Use that number for the IP in XCorvis's suggestion. It should connect you.

 

[azhrei_fje]

Visit www.ubuntu.org. They describe the process for fixing this permanently.