1) Home-built standalone desktop PC running Vista Home Premium and
Zone Alarm, accessing the net through a wired router (Netgear DG834).
2) Asus Eee 901 running XP Pro and Zone Alarm.

I bought the 901 recently, stripped Xandros off and installed XP. It
runs fine. The network wizard has been run on each machine and each
machine's IP address put into the Trusted Zone in the other machine's
Zone Alarm settings. The appropriate folders have been shared with
"everyone" on each machine. The machines have different names and are
on the same workgroup.
On the Vista machine the laptop's name appears in Windows Explorer's
Network tree, if I click on it a warning appears on the laptop that
ZoneAlarm has blocked Internet access NetBios session from the desktop
IP address and quotes port number and flags. I have checked that the
address shown is that entered in the Trusted Zone.
On the XP machine the workgroup name appears in the Microsoft Windows
Network tree but the machine reports that it is not accessible. There
is no sign from the desktop machine that access has been attempted.

As you've probably gathered I have no experience with networks and no
idea what I'm doing here. I have googled around, read everything I can
find, set everything mentioned but it feels as if there are several
things I'm missing.

Anyone got time to help me?

Geoff

"Geoff Bayes"  wrote in message 
news:kh8vc492qjjqom7cd8lkc5ie678qq77dgn@4ax.com...
> 1) Home-built standalone desktop PC running Vista Home Premium and
> Zone Alarm, accessing the net through a wired router (Netgear DG834).
> 2) Asus Eee 901 running XP Pro and Zone Alarm.
>
> I bought the 901 recently, stripped Xandros off and installed XP. It
> runs fine. The network wizard has been run on each machine and each
> machine's IP address put into the Trusted Zone in the other machine's
> Zone Alarm settings. The appropriate folders have been shared with
> "everyone" on each machine. The machines have different names and are
> on the same workgroup.
> On the Vista machine the laptop's name appears in Windows Explorer's
> Network tree, if I click on it a warning appears on the laptop that
> ZoneAlarm has blocked Internet access NetBios session from the desktop
> IP address and quotes port number and flags. I have checked that the
> address shown is that entered in the Trusted Zone.
> On the XP machine the workgroup name appears in the Microsoft Windows
> Network tree but the machine reports that it is not accessible. There
> is no sign from the desktop machine that access has been attempted.
>
> As you've probably gathered I have no experience with networks and no
> idea what I'm doing here. I have googled around, read everything I can
> find, set everything mentioned but it feels as if there are several
> things I'm missing.
>
> Anyone got time to help me?

First suggestions:

1. Try temporarily disabling both PCs' firewalls and see if this cures the 
problem. If it does, at least you've narrowed the problem down to Zone 
Alarm. If ZoneAlarm is anything like Norton, I think you want to trust the 
whole private network, either by specifying the router's MAC address onto 
the LAN or by trusting the whole subnet eg 192.168.0.x.

2. Try pinging one PC from the other:
a) on PC1, Start | Run | cmd and then run the command "ipconfig" to give 
that PC's IP address; do the same at PC2
b) at PC1, in a "cmd" window again, run the command "ping 192.168.0.2", 
substituting PC2's IP address; you should get four "reply from" responses; 
repeat at PC2 using PC1's IP address

Do the ping tests both with and without the firewall disabled.

Geoff Bayes wrote:
> 1) Home-built standalone desktop PC running Vista Home Premium and
> Zone Alarm, accessing the net through a wired router (Netgear DG834).
> 2) Asus Eee 901 running XP Pro and Zone Alarm.
> 
> I bought the 901 recently, stripped Xandros off and installed XP. It
> runs fine. The network wizard has been run on each machine and each
> machine's IP address put into the Trusted Zone in the other machine's
> Zone Alarm settings.

This is only of use if the machines have a static IP address, if they 
obtain their IP from a DHCP server on the router you will probably need 
to input the DHCP IP range into the trusted zone in both Zone alarm 
settings. You will also need to set the Trusted Zone Security, Firewall 
main page, in both Zone Alarms to "Med" to allow sharing.


  The appropriate folders have been shared with
> "everyone" on each machine. The machines have different names and are
> on the same workgroup.
> On the Vista machine the laptop's name appears in Windows Explorer's
> Network tree, if I click on it a warning appears on the laptop that
> ZoneAlarm has blocked Internet access NetBios session from the desktop
> IP address and quotes port number and flags. I have checked that the
> address shown is that entered in the Trusted Zone.
> On the XP machine the workgroup name appears in the Microsoft Windows
> Network tree but the machine reports that it is not accessible. There
> is no sign from the desktop machine that access has been attempted.
> 
> As you've probably gathered I have no experience with networks and no
> idea what I'm doing here. I have googled around, read everything I can
> find, set everything mentioned but it feels as if there are several
> things I'm missing.
> 
> Anyone got time to help me?
> 
> Geoff
>

On Tue, 16 Sep 2008 13:27:57 +0100, Geoff Bayes
 wrote:

>1) Home-built standalone desktop PC running Vista Home Premium and
>Zone Alarm, accessing the net through a wired router (Netgear DG834).
>2) Asus Eee 901 running XP Pro and Zone Alarm.
>
>I bought the 901 recently, stripped Xandros off and installed XP. It
>runs fine. The network wizard has been run on each machine and each
>machine's IP address put into the Trusted Zone in the other machine's
>Zone Alarm settings. The appropriate folders have been shared with
>"everyone" on each machine. The machines have different names and are
>on the same workgroup.
>On the Vista machine the laptop's name appears in Windows Explorer's
>Network tree, if I click on it a warning appears on the laptop that
>ZoneAlarm has blocked Internet access NetBios session from the desktop
>IP address and quotes port number and flags. I have checked that the
>address shown is that entered in the Trusted Zone.
>On the XP machine the workgroup name appears in the Microsoft Windows
>Network tree but the machine reports that it is not accessible. There
>is no sign from the desktop machine that access has been attempted.

Following up my own post.
I did all the above network setup this morning and, as reported, it
didn't work. So, after three hours of checking and rechecking I banged
off the request for help above, made some tea and thought about it.
Then I checked it all again and, when it still didn't work, shut both
machines down because I had to go out. But they didn't shut down. Both
halted with dialogue boxes from Zone Alarm asking, essentially, did I
want to save the changes I had made? After standing there for a moment
with my mouth open I said yes and then I did really have to go out.
I've just come back in and booted the machines up. You've probably
guessed that the network is fine, both machines see each other, files
are available, everything works.

I've used Zone Alarm for years on standalone machines, giving
applications permission to access the net, denying others permission
and and always the changes were acted on immediately, never have I had
to "save" any before they became effective.

My deepest apologies to Mortimer and LR, and indeed to anyone to took
the time to read the post.

Geoff

"Geoff Bayes"  wrote in message 
news:dhuvc4dkg19e963p90qbr8acsiv2ucgtp7@4ax.com...
> On Tue, 16 Sep 2008 13:27:57 +0100, Geoff Bayes
>  wrote:
>
>>1) Home-built standalone desktop PC running Vista Home Premium and
>>Zone Alarm, accessing the net through a wired router (Netgear DG834).
>>2) Asus Eee 901 running XP Pro and Zone Alarm.
>>
>>I bought the 901 recently, stripped Xandros off and installed XP. It
>>runs fine. The network wizard has been run on each machine and each
>>machine's IP address put into the Trusted Zone in the other machine's
>>Zone Alarm settings. The appropriate folders have been shared with
>>"everyone" on each machine. The machines have different names and are
>>on the same workgroup.
>>On the Vista machine the laptop's name appears in Windows Explorer's
>>Network tree, if I click on it a warning appears on the laptop that
>>ZoneAlarm has blocked Internet access NetBios session from the desktop
>>IP address and quotes port number and flags. I have checked that the
>>address shown is that entered in the Trusted Zone.
>>On the XP machine the workgroup name appears in the Microsoft Windows
>>Network tree but the machine reports that it is not accessible. There
>>is no sign from the desktop machine that access has been attempted.
>
> Following up my own post.
> I did all the above network setup this morning and, as reported, it
> didn't work. So, after three hours of checking and rechecking I banged
> off the request for help above, made some tea and thought about it.
> Then I checked it all again and, when it still didn't work, shut both
> machines down because I had to go out. But they didn't shut down. Both
> halted with dialogue boxes from Zone Alarm asking, essentially, did I
> want to save the changes I had made? After standing there for a moment
> with my mouth open I said yes and then I did really have to go out.
> I've just come back in and booted the machines up. You've probably
> guessed that the network is fine, both machines see each other, files
> are available, everything works.
>
> I've used Zone Alarm for years on standalone machines, giving
> applications permission to access the net, denying others permission
> and and always the changes were acted on immediately, never have I had
> to "save" any before they became effective.
>
> My deepest apologies to Mortimer and LR, and indeed to anyone to took
> the time to read the post.

No problem. Glad it's all working again. I too have never heard of having to 
save anything in Zone Alarm to make the changes work.

I've had problem with older Dlink routers (eg G604) which often don't 
process changes until you save and reboot the router, unlike other routers 
(Netgear, Belkin) where the changes take effect immediately. So I'm familiar 
with this annoying feature :-(