Troubleshooting network connection

[RikForgo]

I was halfway there, but now back to square one. I have two XP PCs ... one XP Pro (DELL) and the other XP Media Edition (SONY). They are connected via a Linksys wireless router/hub (I'm only using the hub right now). Both the computers are operating with different computer names, but under the same workgroup. Both login/passwords are the same.

Earlier today, I changed the workgroup name for SONY to match DELL. At that point I could see DELL from the 'Workgroup Computers' dialog, but could never map a network drive to it or any of the shared folders in it. I never was able to see SONY from DELL.

I tried reading through some of the issues in this forum that were similar, tried changing the TCP/IP settings from the 'Default' to 'Enable NetBIOS', and checked my firewall software to make sure that it wasn't interfering (Norton Internet Security, which I adjusted to accept the IP address for DELL). No luck. In fact, when I made those changes, I lost DELL on the 'Workgroup Computers' dialog and was never able to get it back.

I just tried running the Files and Settings Transfer Wizard but ran into a wall because the wizard keeps hanging up trying to find the proper serial port (it wouldn't accept COM1 or COM3, both of which are NIC cards on DELL).

Now I'm lost. I just want to share files between the PCs. Any help is appreciated.

 

[NJcow]

Try 2 things.
Disable the Norton, then try to browse the LAN, that will rule that out. Also, ucheck to see if ICF is enabled.

 

[00071491]

Why aren't you using the router? less stress, and a lot faster for setting something like that up.

 

[noellees1]

Use the Router.
Also i would follow NJcow's advice because the ICF firewall deny's access to my Win 98SE pc.
I would also delete the other registry key in this folder

HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Explorer\RemoteComputer\NameSpaceIf nothing else it will speed up the network connect speed between the PC's

I had a problem with one of my PC's that the IP i had tried to assign using windows wasnt alowed by the router.
I had to let it assign it using DHCP
i would also try
ipconfig/renew
ipconfig/release
see if this fixes anything.