x32 vista pc's full folders look empty from x64 win7 PC via network

g'day
I have a x32 Samsung laptop Win7 that quite happily works (via a wireless Cisco Linksys router) to my 5-yr old x32 Dell Vista machine but my new x64's (2 of, his & hers) hp touch-smart's, win7 home premium, will not.

In specifying the above I see that x32 to x32 works but x64 to x32 does not

From my hp's (over the net) I can see & select the Dell (called BADROBOT ) then 'Users' the my user folder ('Rob' which is bland folder though it really has a bunch of keys as a folder icon).

Clicking on it shows all the sub-folders but they too are all bland and EMPTY.
selecting them is doable but opening them is not.

Network Error dialogue box "windows cannot access \\BADROBOT .... You do not have permission to access \\BADROBOT ... contact your network administrator ... " etc I did, I am he and I am logged as he with full permissions .

I have been through windows networking file, put all machines on same workgroup, same private/home network location and ensured the firewall sharing settings are identical and given all the relevant permissions - what else is there ?

In short the only difference seems to be the 64bit-32bit dichotomy. I'm hoping someone can shed some light on this, it is so frustrating to spend more time fixing the machine than using it. I need them to work together to migrate the files I really need and leave the dross.

ooroo
RoB

way one - download to external hard drive
way to go - dump into the Public area - I could always ''see'' them