[Wiltshire] Probable noob question

[John Callam-Anderson]

- - 8< - - - SNIP - - - 8< - -

 > > A couple of questions.
 > >
 > > 1) What are you trying to achieve by having both computers talk to 
each other?
 > > 2) The first step in diagnosing the problem, can the two computers
 > > ping each other? I don't know your level of experience with Linux so
 > > if you need help with ping, please let us know.
 > >
 > > Good luck.
 > >
 > > Simon
 > >
 > >
 > Thanks Simon
 >
 >My knowledge is on the limited side.  Running ipconfig on the windows
 >machine comes up with an address of 192.168.1.6           l've tried to
 >ping it from my machine but it doesn't return anything.
 >
 >My main reason was so that l might be able to print from her machine
 >
 >Dave Fletcher ( Thanks !) has suggested that it maybe easier to set the
 >printer up on my machine and try to get the windows box to find the
 >printer.. We shall see

Andy, are you running a firewall on the windows box? Most block file and 
printer sharing by default, some even "steath" all the PCs ports so it 
won't even respond to a ping. You may need to allow file and printer 
sharing in the firewall if you are running one.

Can the windows machine ping the linux one out of interest?

Might also be worth checking if the printer definitely is shared. If you 
enter \\192.168.1.6 in the address bar of Internet Explorer or any other 
Explorer window you should see your printer listed there.

Also, I notice your email address is with BT Internet. Do you have the 
Home Hub? If so I believe it's possible to connect a USB printer to one 
of its ports and have any machine connected to the network print to it. 
So you don't need to turn on the other PC to print. I'll dig out the 
instructions to if you have the Hub and are interested...

All the best,

-- 
John C-A