File sharing problem in Vista

Not sure if I am doing something wrong here, or if it just cant be done.

The situation is that I want to transfer some files from my desktop to my notebook or vice versa. Both machines are using Vista as a primary OS.

I figured they are networked together in some way and that I would just need to enable sharing in the file sharing center and "poof" it would all happen. However I cant seem to find the other computer no matter what.

The network setup is this:

My main switch with my pc hooked to it, and a wireless AP hooked to it, and another switch hooked to it for some other of the house connections.

On the desktop I just see a private network, on my notebook I see the network as my wireless network.

So some magical small detail slipping my mind and causing the problem, or will I need to hardwire the notebook with LAN to do this and not be able to use wireless unless I put the desktop on the wireless network too.

 

Mind you the fastest you'll be able to go is probably...what 1 gigabyte a second. Any large files will be useless over the network.

I HIGHLY recommend you use the network creator device. Create the settings and make sure to use "Current network" as your source of the internet. Save the settings in a USB. Load in other computer. PROFIT!

Seriously, after spending a week off and on trying to get it to work and giving up...I tried this a few weeks ago. Simple yet so easily missed.

 

Along with what Waveblade said,check your firewall setting too.

 

I got past the first problem, it was a simple one.

the fact that I use the same logon name for my notebook and my desktop gave both machines the same computer name by default so when I was going to find the shared computer I would only open the one I was on. Changing the name fixed this.

Now I am on the next problem. I just shared the "documents" folder temporarily with no protection, full access to "everyone" however when browsing the folder from the network it says access denied. I can however open any of the "public" folders from the network now.


edit: fixed that problem too everything is fine now. Seems a conflict between advanced sharing and general sharing had me thinking it was shared for everyone but I had to manually add "everyone" to the share list.

 

Thanks for sharing your solution,I was thinking something totally different,I'm sure it will help others out in the future.

 

Make sure to have a WEP/WPA2 key on your network.

 

One more thing guys, besides the actual network and sharing working perfectly the speeds seem wrong.

I belive I have a 10/100mb switch for the network, a 10/100mb card in the desktop and a 10/100/1gb wireless card in the notebook. I can easily get the full 15mb/s down 2mb/s up speed in a speed test while using the internet.

Both HDD's in each machine can reach well over 40mb/s average but when I was sharing files from one to the other 2.5mb/s was about the highest speed I was able to get. I was expecting atleast 15 or so.

Is this normal or is there some kind of fix I need to look into (btw full signal strength to the wireless and pretty close to it)

 

If your trying to share them wirelessly remember that g, is 54Mb at its peak.Your're not going to get those speeds, more like 24 to 30 I would guess. And with all the devices that can interfer with wireless IMO I would say your speeds are about right, depending on the file size.Ethernet net cable would be your best bet if you want more speed.