I am getting absolutely nowhere trying to network my Windows 7 desktop with a Vista Laptop and a new windows 7 laptop.
I could not get the Vista laptop to network with my Windows 7 Desktop so have always resorted to using a usb flash to transfer occasional files.
But I understand it is soooooo easy to network two Windows 7 computers but apparently not for me!!
Here is my set-up:-
Windows 7 desktop connected to a Netgear FS116 Fast Ethernet Switch. 12 connections from various rooms wired into the Ethernet switch.
Netgear DG834Gv3 ADSL Modem Router connected into the Ethernet switch.
Vista laptop and new Windows 7 laptop connected wirelessly to the Router.
Desktop and laptops are all on the Homegroup network (both Windows 7 computers have the same password). On the Vista laptop I just changed the name of the Workgroup to Homegroup which did not require me to use any password.
Each computer has PC Tools firewall installed on them and I have set the IP address's of the Router and computers to be Trusted IP address's on each computer.
No problem getting on the internet with any computer.
Although I have managed to transfer some files wirelessly between my new Windows 7 laptop and the Vista laptop, I find the connection is not there after shutting down and restarting both laptops.
Although they are all on the same Homegroup all computers do not always show up when I open up their respective Networking & sharing folders.
When they do show up I can usually see the shared folders I have set to share on each computer but I cannot open them as I apparently don't have permission to do so.
Also the the two laptops that are connected wirelessly via the Router are shown to be on the same named wireless network but the Desktop is always shown to be on Network 2.
Any help to input the correct settings to allow me to easily transfer data between laptops and Desktop or even just the windows 7 desktop and laptop would be very much appreciated.

disable homegroup, it's only for Win7 machines

_________________
"If you're good at anticipating the human mind. It leaves nothing to chance."
-Jigsaw

Then what? Even with Homegroup I cannot always connect between the 2 win 7 computers. I have managed to connect one way from my desktop to transfer files between each computer but on my Win 7 laptop the desktop only shows up as Media player and not the shared hard drive.
When I boot up the following day the connection is lost and I am either refused permission or the other computer cannot be found,
I don't understand why it is made so difficult to simply network home computers that I own and am logged on as the administrator on each computer.