I cant get this to work! ARGHHHHHHHHHHHHHH...

OK well I have a linksys WRT54G wireless router, my NTL 250 is connected to this via Ethernet cable and I have my desktop PC hardwired into Ethernet port 1...

I have a laptop that connects wireless so I can surf the net anywhere around the home but I want to be able to share files and printer between the two but I cannot seem to do it.

I can only seem to surf the net using the wireless connection on my laptop, if I leave my PC and printer on and try and setup the printer located on my desktop PC as a shared printer then sod all happens I have tried googling but if anyone can help I would be grateful!

[MovedGoalPosts]

This will be the networking mode you have set up. When you first run the Linksys setup for the router, you needed to use "infrastructure" mode, not "ad-hoc.

I'm not sure how you change it, I've looked on my own router's controls and can't see how you do it, thus I suspect it's something you change with the linksys install CD.

---------- Post added at 12:48 ---------- Previous post was at 12:47 ----------

Make sure you have also run the windows File & Printer sharing wizards, to put both PCs on the same network.

Well I never run the CD in the first place so that explains it!

Damn I hope I still have it somewhere!

[grandmaster]

you need to make sure that file and print sharing is enabled on your desktop (the one with the printer attached)
Also make sure that both pc and laptop are in the same workgroup.
And also make sure any firewall is set up to allow local traffic.

Done & Done but yet they still will not find each other!

Weird, I have disabled all firewalls on both computers. I have run the network setup wizard for each machine but I am unable to share anything but the internet!

Arghhhhhhhh

[Cobbydaler]

Make sure the NICs in each machine are set to use infrastructure mode as well...

[Graham M]

Oh is Windows Firewall turned off on both?

Yes no firewall at all on either one at the moment, I have made sure my laptop's wirelless card is set to infrastructure mode. Can't find any option to do the same when in the WRT54G's menu system so I guess that is where the problem lies.

Maybe I should put DD-WRT on the router instead of Linksys's firmware?

[Graham M]

If you have a router, it'll always be infrastructure mode

OK I managed to get it sorted although it was a weird fix!

I set my laptops wireless card to infrastructure mode but it would not work so I decided to delete the connection and re-scan this time it automatically set it up in infrastructure mode...

Weird but at least it is working!

Thanks for all the advice!

---------- Post added at 15:07 ---------- Previous post was at 14:46 ----------

Ahhh found out that once I enable NTL netguard their firewall blocks both computers from talking to each other. There does not seem to be any options or settings you can change in order to allow communication between them so I have disabled NTL's Firewall and have enabled windows firewall as it's better than nothing right?

Anyone know how I can set up NTL's Firewall to allow file and printer sharing?