Trying to connect 2 PC's

[Gunblade]

Have an old XP machine and a new Vista machine.
Trying to get access to the entire drive on the old machine and transfer files over but can't seem to be able to get into it.

the hard drives have been shared enabled (small hand sign underneath the drive) and attempted to create a network as well but no success. Both PC's connect to a router, I've also tried a direct connection between the two but can't find a way to access it. Any help would be appreciated thanks.

[rio_bugarin]

when you tried to connect the two computers vi direct connection, did you use a crossover cable?

[jlreich]

Can you see the old computer on the network?

What firewall are you using on each machine?

[Gunblade]

Just a standard network cable. Cat 5 is it? Can't remember name :/

for the firewalls both windows firewalls are off and zonealarm are used. Maybe I should turn them off actually.

but in the case that doesn't work is there actually any specific thing that i should be doing/should have done?

[rio_bugarin]

Just a standard network cable.
I am assuming your cable is straight-thru.

Crossover and Straight-thru cables looks the same. They use the same cables. Their difference is the configuration.

check this site to give you an Idea on what I'm talking about.
http://www.duxcw.com/digest/Howto/network/cable/cable5.htm

You can use a crossover cable to connect two computers directly. The problem with this is, you can only connect two computers. another problem is, if you have a dsl connection, you won't be able to use it since you will need to use the nic card on where the dsl modem is connected.

Now back to your problem.
Did you set up TCP/IP on both computers?

[Gunblade]

I've just noticed. I got it to work. Then when I did something to the old pc it stopped working again :/

I'm gonna have to try tinkering once more. Thanks for the help :)

[Paul Komski]

If it worked once and you haven't changed any network or firewall settings you may just not be giving the network long enough to establish "proper conversations". It can take at least a couple of minutes (particularly on older NICs or iffy cabling) after both PCs have been rebooted for the connection to become established. Reboot everything including the router and go and have a cup of coffee - or two. Then try and see.

[Gunblade]

Deleted client for netware from the old pc. Was gonna delete a few other things I had previously installed because the old pc had decided to stop at net activity once it was all installed. Thought the cable would be fine, guess not.

Reinstalled it and now i can't get it back again :(

doing things the hard way now and just connected my old hdd into the new pc to transfer files.