Why can I not get my two computers to network (they will not see each other on my network)?

Have you made sure they are in the same workgroup?

Go to control panel > System > Up the top choose the tab Computer Name > Change...

Make sure that both computers are in the same workgroup, if not change it, you may have to reboot after doing this.

Look into the Properties settings on each machines LAN connection. Start - Control Panel - Network Connections

Right click on the Local Area Network icon.

Select Properties.

You should have File Sharing for Microsoft Networks listed in the main window. IF it is not there, then file sharing is not enabled, and you will not be able to see the files on the other machine.

IF it is there - then go into My Computer and right click on the C: drive. Select Sharing and Security and enable sharing on the drive. You can give it a network name so you can distinguish the C: drive on the laptop from the C: drive on the desktop. Such as C on laptop or something.

Do this on both machines. You may have to also enable sharing on the Documents folders as well, depending on how much control you want over the other machine.

One thing to check also, although the wizard should have taken care of it. Go into Control Panel - System - and look on the Computer Name tab. Look to see what the Workgroup is that is listed on each machine. They have to match, or you will not be able to see the other computer. IF they do not match, then you can click on the change button on the screen and change one to match the other.

Download the free version of Network Magic here:

http://networkmagic.com/

You will love this program. It makes file sharing so much easier. AOL actually gives away this software to their high speed internet customers because it is so user friendly.

If you want to figure out what you did wrong and you still want to set everything up the hard way, then check out this site for tutorial on how to install and configure netbeui:

http://www.homenethelp.com/web/howto/HomeNet-ether...

Are you sure you are on the same network? some people never change their router name. You may actually be on a network that isnt yours on one of your computers.

Have you tried pinging from one computer to the other? find out the ip of your target machine and type ping 192.168.1.xxx(what ever your target machine is.) That should be able to tell you if the target computer is even available to your computer for any type of connection

Have you enabled file sharing?

http://support.microsoft.com/kb/304040