XP to Vista Ad-Hoc wireless link woes re internet sharing

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I've wasted about 8 hours trying to get my XP computer to use the internet connection on my Vista computer.
I have finally succeeded in getting the ad-hoc wireless connection between XP and Vista working but XP just doesn't want to know about the internet connection that I've made available on the Vista computer.

I've given up for the day. This would probably be a 5 minute task for someone who knew what they were doing.

I'm sick of roaming forums and web sites trying to sort this out. As usual Microsoft documentation is useless. All the sites I've come across show how to share an internet connection between XP-XP-Internet or between Vista-Vista-Internet but nothing useful regarding XP-Vista-Internet. Something somewhere is throwing a spanner in the works.

I'm sick of going around in circles trying this and that. Anyone got any suggestions please? The first person who says Linux gets slapped.

Linux.

Better to connect both to a router/switch set up

Get a Mac!

And put Linux on it!

Even the ad-hoc network doesn't want to play today. I'm giving up on this time wasting venture. I've got a lot of files to transfer from one computer to the other and it looks like doing it via USB stick!

Getting a couple of computers talking to each other that are situated next to each other, that both have wireless technology should be as easy as plug and play.

I have to say this situation is totally ridiculous. Surely with today's technology it should simply be a case of specifying a user name and password on both computers and for the computers to then talk to each other using the best encrypted protocol they both have in common and job done. Microsoft have made this process so convoluted and user hostile that it is the job of a specialist - who would probably do the job in five minutes flat.

If your main concern is to transfer files, there are alternatives to floppies (oops... sorry... I meant CDs, no... DVDs, no... 16Gbyte memory sticks, whatever).

MS has been pretty good about maintaining support for parallel port cables - but I wonder if that is another of the things that have gone out the windows? (Pun vaguely intended.) I have a cable I cobbled together from an old printer cable and a spare plug. It's been handy, once in a while. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/LapLink_cable

Even serial ports still have their uses - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Null_modem

If the wireless is working, maybe one machine could offer itself up as an FTP server? Or even an Apache web server? (for one-way file transfer.) Naturally, I'd suggest disconnecting from the internet while you do this option.

Another of the little quirks that MS like to throw at you is the "workgroup" name. IIRC, the default changed between XP and Vista. If you've tried the simple "File sharing" option, this could be why it didn't work. Both ends mumble that they can see the other machine, but steadfastly refuse to share files.

I came across that little quirk yesterday and set the XP workgroup to match Vistas new name of "WORKGROUP". Oddly the file sharing worked yesterday. Both computers are now in the state you describe where they can see each other and according to both Vista and XP they are also connected - but each computer is not visible to the other on Windows Explorer > network > workgroup.

I see the connection screen in XP also has a bug - it contradicts itself sometimes on the same screen saying "Connected" and elsewhere "not connected". Also the button for Connect/Disconnect sometimes gets out of step with reality and shows the wrong caption - so you have to click 'Connect' to disconnect and 'Disconnect' to connect. I can see Microsoft put a lot of effort testing this feature.

My real aim was to get the XP computer to use the Vista computers internet connection to save me from constantly switching the internet connection from one computer to the other. I've given up on that ambitious goal now. I've all but given up on the ad-hoc network too - I've spent far too much time trying to get this working consistently.

You don't need to set the group-name the same. It is possible to have different ones, it just means they all appear in one location for ease of use. if you want to network, Vista and XP, just use a network card and connect them cable to cable, and enable file sharing with read/write privileges.

I have Vista x64 Ultimate networking very well to Windows XP x86. Just damned annoying that I have to put in my password to access the computer. Even though I set it to SAVE credentials.

Actually, my mention of Linux wasn't quite so silly. Should you choose to grab a cheap modem/router, the software in it will almost certainly be Linux - and will naturally solve your problem. You will not need to have both machines running, as the internet connection will be on neither.

Of course, you could always run the XP one under VirtualBox, under Linux, like I happen to be doing here, at this moment. Then you would get a clean shared internet connection for the Vista box.

I have to say I don't think I've had any problem, in the past, when I've shared an internet connection out from an XP box. However, then also accessing files across the link did prove a bit iffy, IIRC.

I had a similar problem with Vista. I found out that I had to disconnect and reconnect to the wireless network if my computer fell asleep. I have had no problems since.

I gave up in the end, it was so unreliable. I just used a USB stick to keep transferring files between the two machines. Silly really considering the machines were next to each other. In this technological age this sort of thing should just *work* without a huge amount of messing about. Microsoft have made the process so convoluted and security ridden that it is unusable in any convenient / practical way.