Help! Networking Issues. WMP 11 and RDC, Vista

I just picked up an Aspire 5100 this weekend, and have been having a time trying to figure out these couple of issues. Im trying to connect to my desktop wirelessly, to share media through wmp 11 and also utilize Remote desktop connection. Desktop is running on Xp Pro, and Acer on Vista. Laptop is connected to the wireless network but cannot detect the desktop and cant find any shared media from the desktop. I have disabled firewalls on both pc's and turned on media sharing on both, enabled rdc on the desktop and Im at wits end as to what to do next. My PS3 and Xbox pick up the media library just fine, and my sisters Dell notebook does as well with no hassles other than ticking "Pick up files that are being shared" option, and I have no idea whats wrong w/ my Acer. Please Help.

 

Make sure both the XP and Vista PC's are in the same Workgroup and have different names for the PC's. If you have the same name for both and they are in the same network you will not be able to see the other one. If they do have the same name and that is what is causing the issue you should simply need to rename one. One time mine wasn't work because I had a typo on the Workgroup name and accidently flipped two letters.

To see the Vista shared files from the XP machine you may need to patch the XP one with a download from Microsoft. The Vista one should be able to see th files being shared on the XP machine after enabling sharing on both PC's however, so that is why I am guessing it may be a name or workgroup issue.

I have a similar file sharing set-up working and I remember clicking a few different sharing options on the Vista one to get it to work. I don't have it in front of me now to look at it but verify your computer names and workgroup names and post back if it is still a problem. Then I or someone else may be able to post some more details about the set-up procedures in Vista to ensure everything is properly enabled.

 

Thanx for the reply Shluep, I checked the workgroup names and they were different. I changed them to both be the same and Im still having the same issues.

 

Check you firewall do you have norton installed??

 

No, I have zonealarm on laptop and mcaffee on desktop, but i have disabled both to try to connect.

 

Did you set up a network using the Windows network manager. Wireless networks don't seem to setup automatically the same way as if you were wired to an Ethernet cable. Did you go through the whole USB stick process?

 

No I used linksys software to set up the network. No i didnt use a usb stick. What exactly is the usb stick process?