I have several computers connected to a D-Link DIR605L router, two with ethernet cables and two through wifi. The Windows XP computer can see itself and nobody else. The Ubuntu (trusty) desktop and Ubuntu (lucid) netbook computers see nobody (unable to retrieve file list from server) and the Windows Vista computer only sees itself. Clearly, I have failed to configure something or a set of somethings.
Do I have to have one of the computers always on, acting as some kind of file server or can the router do this job? This is a new router. My old one (whose power supply went phut) connected everybody without arguing about it and we could share files around, even with a mix of OSs.
Since this is a local network only, I have no firewalls enabled, as far as I know ...
All of the network set-up posts I've found rabbit on about how to get your internet connection working through your router, which is not an option for me. I have dial-up working on the XP computer and a mobile wireless USB dongle for internet access on the trusty desktop.
I've installed samba and a few other packages, but so far, none of them have solved my problem. Can someone please tell me where to start and which tutorials to read? If I have to set up a computer as a file server, I guess it will have to be the XP thing, as it's the only one that is always running, but I'd like to avoid that, if possible, as I speak XP worse than I speak Ubuntu.
BTW, D-Link are no help at all, two hours on the 'phone and they were still trying to get me to connect to an ADSL service I don't have ...

Check these out
http://answers.microsoft.com/en-us/w...a-d34c17c760ea
http://www.control-escape.com/linux/lx-samba.html

Those links helped me to connect the XP and Vista computers, so thank you for that. The problem was different workgroup names.
I'm now reading some samba manuals to see if I can solve the issues facing the Ubuntu computers.

So far, I've found out that my distro is not like the ones discussed by control-escape. I had no inetd and it had no installation candidate, have installed xinetd and am trying to work out how to configure it. Of course, it does not end there. They speak of /etc/rc.d/ which is also only conspicuous by its abscence on my system. I'm now reading this: https://help.ubuntu.com/community/Samba and also this: http://en.wikiversity.org/wiki/Intro..._to_Networking and hope to bring my Ubuntu 14.04 (trusty) into line with the usual setup.
Wish me luck!

I think ubuntu moved to systemd.

Your router does not appear to have any storage capability so you will need to set up a computer as a file server. Unfortunately there is a lot of information based upon old distributions that may or may not be completely valid any more.

In addition some howtos are based upon a particular distribution which is configured differently then Ubuntu. samba does not run from inietd/xinetd anymore and swat is basically deprecated.

Ubuntu does not have a rc.d so do not try to bring it up since it isn't possible. Make sure that samba is installed, that the workgroup name is the same (via /etc/samba/smb.conf) as your Vista and XP computers and that it is running. This might be a bit confusing so will help when needed.

Ubuntu file browsers have built in networking so you can access the XP's/Vista's shares without actually running samba if desired. Just another option.

Several months later, much tweaking and fussing, it finally mostly works without having to use any computers as file servers. Last night I was able to copy files from one computer to another through the router and I was one happy little old lady.
Except for one minor problem. If I have the wired connection "on" then the Ubuntu Trusty system will not use its USB-Broadband modem and web pages will not load. This is the same problem as we had with the Ubuntu Lucid system that was running a dial-up connection and removing network-manager fixed that. However, if I want to apt-get remove network-manager, it wants to take network-manager-gnome and ubuntu-gnome-desktop with it and then the USB modem stops working. Aaargh!
There is something somewhere that prioritises the internet link and it expects me to have ADSL, not a USB modem. I wish I could get ADSL, but it's not an option where I live. Who can tell me what the something is and where somewhere is. please? Or can I maybe install a program that lets me set the priorities myself?
I have the Gnome version of Ubuntu Trusty, btw, not the Unity one. I found Unity too weird by half. Even this version of Gnome has strange ideas and acts oddly.