Basic Windows Vista questions

Could someone please explain in plain English, exactly what has to be done to
get a Windows Vista machine to participate reliably in a home network?

I have 5 machines -- 3 wired and 2 wireless. 4 have Windows XP and the new
one has Vista -- I am sick of having to be constantly visiting the "Network
and Sharing Center" to get anything done with the Vista machine. What Is
required to get it to just boot with sharing on and *work*? Why does it take
so long to recognize the other machines in the workgroup (yes, I changed the
Vista workgroup name to match the others)?

Also, could someone please explain the "private" vs "public" network thing
-- the Help text implies that a home network should be private but my
experience is that Vista will always turn off discovery and sharing if you
say you're dealing with a private network.



For the record, I already changed the Vista Workgroupname to match the rest
of my machines -- and I still have all these problems.