This fixed my XP and Vista Networking problems.

[Fajardo]

Hello friends, I came to share a small tip for people facing problem with Xp and Vista file sharing. I had this problem last week with my XP desktop and Vista laptop. Though both systems were connect on the same network, they were not able to see each other in my Network places and hence were not able to access or share files/folders. After lost of research, finally I found the way to fix it and enable file sharing successfully. Here is what I did:

• Start by launching Networking and Sharing Center
• Under Tasks on the left side of the window click on manage network connections..
• Right click on any of your active connections.
• In the list of services, clients and protocols there is something called Trend Micro Common Firewall Driver. Click on this and choose Uninstall.
• Once you have uninstalled the Trend Micro Common Firewall Driver restart your machine.
• You should now be able to see your other computers on the network no matter if they are XP or Vista.

That’s it. If you have the same situation, this will help you.

[Diggs]

Thanks for sharing such useful tip Fajardo. Even I had the same problem with Vista last month. In my case (even I suspected Antivirus as the cause of problem) I tried different antivirus programs such as Kaspersky, NOD32 and AVG. BTW, your steps helped me to get rid of the problem now. I must say that it is very difficult to write a virus scanner for Vista operating system.

[RaAbi]

In your case the problem would be surely your third party firewalls. You must always go into your user profile in that firewall, and make file and printer sharing an exception. This will make file sharing very easy.