Hello. thanks for taking the time to look at my problem in advance .

me and 4 roommates are living in a house, and wanted to set up a network, so we could all share our videos, music etc.. we have a wireless router, and everyone is able to access the internet. here's where the problems start. i have a PC with XP, the rest of my friends have laptops, two with vista, one with XP, and the other one is a mac. I've read this shouldn't be a problem, but we are encountering some none the less. I have set up a folder to share on my XP PC, and everyone seems to be able to see and access it. The mac guy set up a folder to share, and only my friend with Vista can see/access it. My friend with Vista also set up a folder to share, and no one can see it. The guy with a mac, was able to put files into my 'Shared Documents' folder though..

A note: I tried typing in the file location for the folder that my friend with vista is sharing under 'run'. His folder is named 'downloads' and his laptops name was Johns-laptop so I typed in \\Johns-laptop\downloads and it brought up a log in screen. he tried typing in his user name and password, but it didn't seem to do anything. We're not the MOST computer savvy although we're not new to them either. we thought we were going to be able to do this no problem.

Just a verification. The place I would go to see their shared folders would be Control Panel>Network Connections>My network places>View Workgroup Computers? If this is correct, I can only see the folders that I am sharing.

Thanks again.

This post has been edited by Zylocks: Sep 12 2008, 12:45 AM

I would say it's safe to assume you don't have a domain setup. DON'T WORRY you don't need one. First things first, make sure everyone is in the same Workgroup: being that the Windows PC's don't seem to have a problem I am assuming you are all in the same default name. I don't know squat about MAC's but find out it's network settings and see about setting up the workgroup to be under the same name as the PC's.

Hrm, alright, I changed my workgroup, and now I can see the computers under the 'view workgroup computers' tab . There is one problem, and another inconvenience though. When I try to open up the folder of my friend who has vista, it asks me to log in, both a username and password. We thought this meant the username ans password that he uses when logging onto his laptop, although that doesn't work. Also, why would we have to do this O_o? The inconvenience that I now have is when I try to go into the mac's shared folder. It loads up but it takes a ridiculously long time, and if I click anywhere too early, it says its not responding, and I have to exit it.

This post has been edited by Zylocks: Sep 12 2008, 05:03 PM

That's a security/validation issue. I would have to be at the computer to mess around with. But if you want, I would Google security validating workgroup and other keywords to see if you can find an answer on that.