XP File Sharing Issue

[Aaron Bell]

Hi all,

I have just upgraded my machine and re-installed WinXP (Pro) w/ SP1.
All seems to be up and running.. except for file sharing over my LAN.
I have a couple of other computers on the network, one of which is
running an ICS service with a Cable Modem connection (again, working
fine with my computer). All computers can ping each other without a
problem.

My problem is that each computer has a couple of shared folders. I
can get to the shared folders on any of the other computers, but they
cannot get to any of mine. When browsing the network through
explorer, they can see my computer, but clicking on it brings up a
username/password dialog, and no matter what I enter, it won't
connect. Same thing goes if I try to do a 'net use' to map a drive.

The drives containing the shares are NTFS. The Share is set for Full
Control to Everyone, likewise for the NTFS permissions on the folder
itself.
Each computer is running software firewalls, but while testing I have
disabled both firewalls with no noticeable difference to the problem.

Any ideas on where I'm going wrong? Any suggestions on how to fix this
are welcome.

Cheers,
Aaron

 

[Ross Durie]

The Microsoft Networking credentials on the other machines have to match a
user account on the XP machine.

 

[Dick Ballard]

Have you enabled Simple File Sharing? In XP Pro, w/o that enabled, you
need ID's and passwords plus a lot of other stuff to make it work.

Dick Ballard
(e-mail address removed)

 

[Aaron Bell]

A couple of other details I forgot to mention..
The first thing I did was disable Simple File Sharing.
On my previous WinXP installation, I had a couple of folders shared,
and somehow it all just 'worked' without having to screw around with
creating any extra user accounts.
After posting my last message, I did manage to connect to my shared
drives in two ways, firstly by using Administrator with my password,
and secondly by locally creating another user to match the one being
used on the other machine (no password) and adjusting the Local
Security Policy to allow blank passwords (something like "Limit local
account use of blank passwords to console login only", disabled).

The thing that annoys me is like I said in my original message, Box1
can access the shares on Box2, but Box2 can't get to the shares on
Box1.
I've looked over all the settings, and as far as I can tell, I don't
think I'm doing anything differently on either box.
Each box has an Administrator account with passwords, and an
Administrators user account under a different name (eg. on my box
there is a user 'Aaron') without a password for the moment.

This problem really has me stumped.

Is there a way to create some local user accounts, but to disable
Local Logon rights for the accounts?

 

[Dick Ballard]

Did you miss my earlier post? I indicated that Win XP Pro has very
complex requirements for sharing if Simple File Sharing is disabled.
By using Simple File Sharing, no ID's or passwords are required. Other
Windows versions (XP Home, for example) have only Simple File Sharing.

I've been told that the default XP Pro sharing protocol (without
Simple File Sharing enabled) is full of traps to keep it from working
until you get everything just right.

Dick Ballard
(e-mail address removed)

 

[Dave]

Netbios over tcp/ip should be enabled