Network and File and Printer Share Center

[kakii]

Sorry for my naming conventions.
These are my own translation from German.
Therefore they might be inaccurate.

Vista Business 32Bits
Third Party Firewall

Some settings under Network and Share Center are grayed out. E.g.: File
Sharing, Network identity.
Why are they grayed out ?

I need only accessing an external USB disk connected to my router,
using network drive mapping.
I guess, for this purpose following settings don't need to be enabled at
all:
- file sharing
- printer sharing
- sharing public folders
- password protection for network shares
- Media files shares
All these points are described in the Network and Share Center
as being in use in case of accessing network shares from vista but not
on vista.
Am I rigth ?

Which Clients, Services and Protocols must be enabled for the related
LAN/WLAN connection in order to get access to this external disk working ?
Have recently find out that beside of MS file and printer share client
also Microsoft network client is necessary. What is the sense ?

 

[Mick Murphy]

Check your 3rd party firewall profile for file and printer sharing, and LAN
network permissions.

 

[Jack \(MVP-Networking\).]

Hi
Successful Sharing involves some general consideration in Network settings,
http://www.ezlan.net/sharing.html
As well as specific adjustment of each computer according to what it is
allowed to be shared.
Vista File and Printer Sharing-
http://www.microsoft.com/technet/network/evaluate/vista_fp.mspx
Windows XP File Sharing -
http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=kb;en-us;304040
Printer Sharing XP -
http://www.microsoft.com/windowsxp/using/networking/expert/honeycutt_july2.mspx
Windows Native Firewall setting for Sharing XP -
http://support.microsoft.com/kb/875357
Windows XP patch for Sharing with Vista -
http://support.microsoft.com/kb/922120
Jack (MVP-Networking).