Home network problem deleting ntwork places on startup

[PhilipA]

I have a wireless network via Belkin using one computer on "Vista Home Basic" as the server and an "XP Home" computer as the slave.
The problem I have is that shared folders seem to expire on shut down of the XP.
Last week I reset up "shared" and "public" network places on the XP machine using the wizard.

"My Pictures" are all shared on my Vista OS machine/server.

My wife tried to access today and both "shared" and "public" icons were missing from "My Network Places. " However the printers are all OK.

I re ran the wizard to incude new network places and strangely one of the paths "\\my-PC\public" was available in the drop down list but not the other "shared".
I did a google which suggested to tick a box which does not exist on either of the operating system drop downs.LOL.

I have now ticked the box XP "Show Old folders on startup" in My Network places ,view,Advanced and rebooted the XP once and the icons remain.

The icons are present in Vista in "Network my-PC" and have been all along AFAIR.

I feel it is an XP problem . I wonder if an upgrade which I installed last week negated the icons?
Any ideas?

Regards Philip A

[milld]

Networking on a Vista home basic is not really a good idea from what I've been told, might be time to upgrade to windows 7 or stick with xp professional. I think there are some network features missing from home basic.

[haydent]

networking in windows can at times be difficult. but it sounds like yours is working ok.

firstly it can be sometimes more difficult to network dfferent versions of windows together but before you start thinking that is your problem try these suggestions.

a- try making a shortcut from the shared folder to your desktop, and see if you have better luck accessing it that way, without having to rely on going into My Network Places.

b- another very similar option is to map a network drive to the shared folder and choose for it to reconnect on startup. this will make the shared folder from the other computer appear as a drive on your pc. (though i dont think threres much difference between this and the first suggesiton, just a little more difficult)

c - install the IPX networking protocol on both pc's. i know its in XP but not sure about Vista. you may not beable to work this out though..

id say in summary that hopefully the first option is all youll need. as you say your printers are still working. and sometimes it can take time to populate my network places shares, if at all. so a shortcut to the direct address is best. ie. \\computer_name\shared_folder