Help with home networking

[Peter Gambrill]

I have a problem with my home network, I cant accsess shared files or printers when my windows firewall is online even though file sharing is put as an exception. I cant see the other computers on the network even when the firewall is down, but I can maualy direct my computer to the others using the IP when the firewall is down and direct my laptop to shared files on other PC's but they do not automaticaly appear in my network places when I share them.

How can I get my networking working without having to disable my windows firewall and how can I get the computers to see shared files instead of having to show them where they are.

I can ping the other stations and file sharing has been enabled and I can share the internet connection fine.

 

[Peter Gambrill]

I have sortted out some of the problem. I can now accsess shared folders when my firewall is active the only problem I face now is the fact that the shared folders do not appear in my network places automaticaly and the other computer is not in the workstations list. However I can access the workstations but putting in their ip's and to find the shared folders I have to manualy direct my computer to where they are e.g. add network place -- \\home\music