Networking woes (file & printer sharing)

IP? Are you referring to the local IP, or something? I didn't know that devices were given their own IP. I know the local IP of XPMACHINE2, but I don't know if the printer has its own, separate IP.

About the folder sharing: I got a bright idea and went and looked at my Public folder. It had a bunch of permissions (including permissions for BATCH, INTERACTIVE, and SERVICE) that my other folder didn't, so I decided to create permissions in C:\Users\Me to match those in C:\Users\Public, and give them all full control. When I add those permissions, they add fine until I hit "Apply". At that point, it pops up a dialog box saying "Applying permissions to C:\Users\Me\<various folders>\<various filenames>." However, it pops up a bunch of dialog boxes during the process saying, "An error occurred while applying security information to C:\Users\Me\<folder>. Access is denied." It gives me this error every single folder in C:\Users\Me, telling me that acess is denied. Now, I am the owner of this folder. I don't see why my access is denied.

By the way, I have encountered this problem before (access being denied). I couldn't just go in and delete my Windows.old folder; I had to actually do the whole Disk Cleanup thing. Would changing the permissions on my whole C: drive help? (When I go in to change the permissions for "Users" to full control, it tells me "You are about to change permissions for the root directory. This can result in unexpected access and security problems. Do you wish to continue." I thought I'd better ask you people before going through with it.)

Depend on the printer, most nowadays comes with network capabilties and these will be given an IP when connected to the network. What is the model of the printer?

Other than use sharing the printer through w7 Homegroup, connecting to the printer which is on the network with different OSs i can only think of adding it through tcp/ip. Your Xp/Vista machines need to be able to connect to it through and IP address or name.

However i want to see a screenshot of your Printers and Faxes, USB the printer to your w7 machine, set it up and make sure it's working. Go into Devices and Printers, in Control Panel. Locate the printer which is listed under Printers and Fax. Highlight it. On top task bar click Print Server properties> Ports. Can you do a screenshot and show us?

Your problem is one that the vista machine cannot connect/ping the printer, if the printer is actually ON the network (though direct connection to another machine or standalone networking) it can be connected to. Like all network printers you can connect to it from remote machine through "Adding a printer using a tcp/ip address or hostname". The key here is ip or hostname and i'm most certain this needs to be the case for you. If the printer doesn't have ANY networking capabilties then you might need to look for one that has so you can printer over the network.