Adding a new computer to existing home office network

[Guest]

I am tring to add a brand new laptop running XP Professional to an existing
network. Other machines also running XP. Both wired & wireless connections
available & good.

I have a strange situation. The new computer can 'see' & access other
computers on the network, while the other computers can see but can NOT
access the new one! The new computer has shared folders and wizards have
been run correctly etc I think. Singed into all machines as Administrator.

Message I get (in Explorer) when I try to access shared drive on the new
computer from one of the others is '...is not accessible. You might not have
permission to use this network resource. Contact the Administrator (me) ....
The network path was not found.'

Grateful if anyone has any suggestions please!

Thank you, Peter

 

[Malke]

I am tring to add a brand new laptop running XP Professional to an
existing network. Other machines also running XP. Both wired &
wireless connections available & good.

I have a strange situation. The new computer can 'see' & access other
computers on the network, while the other computers can see but can
NOT
access the new one! The new computer has shared folders and wizards
have been run correctly etc I think. Singed into all machines as
Administrator.

Message I get (in Explorer) when I try to access shared drive on the
new computer from one of the others is '...is not accessible. You
might not have permission to use this network resource. Contact the
Administrator (me) .... The network path was not found.'

Check for a misconfigured firewall. Run the Network Setup Wizard on all
computers, making sure to enable File & Printer Sharing, and reboot.
The only "gotcha" is that this will turn on the XPSP2 Windows Firewall.
If you aren't running a third-party firewall or have an antivirus with
"Internet Worm Protection" (like Norton 2005/06) which acts as a
firewall, then you're fine. If you have third-party firewall software,
configure it to allow the Local Area Network traffic as trusted. I
usually do this with my firewalls with an IP range. Ex. would be
192.168.1.0-192.168.1.254. Obviously you would substitute your correct
subnet.

If one or more of the computers is XP Pro or Media Center:

a. If you need Pro's ability to set fine-grained permissions, turn off
Simple File Sharing (Folder Options>View tab) and create identical user
accounts/passwords on all computers.

b. If you don't care about using Pro's advanced features, leave the
Simple File Sharing enabled.

Simple File Sharing means that Guest (network) is enabled. This means
that anyone without a user account on the target system can use its
resources. This is a security hole but only you can decide if it
matters in your situation.

Then create shares as desired. XP Home does not permit sharing of users'
home directories (My Documents) or Program Files, but you can share
folders inside those directories. A better choice is to simply use the
Shared Documents folder.

If that doesn't work for you, here is an excellent network
troubleshooter by MVP Hans-Georg Michna. Take the time to go through it
and it will usually pinpoint the problem area(s) -
http://winhlp.com/wxnet.htm

Malke

 

[Pop`]

Check the new pc's firewall logs if any, and Event Viewer logs; there may be
hints there. And check anything else that might be monitoring comms, if you
have any.

Malke's advice seems sound also but the first thing I usually do is -prove-
it's not a firewall issue.

Pop`