Can't access folder in user account over network

[Lobster]

I have a small home network of 3 PCs running Windows XP Home edn. One
PC (the kids) is configured with two user accounts, one specifically for
my kids (which is a 'limited' one) and my own (which is an administrator
account).

Up till now I have been able to share resources and folders between the
PCs perfectly OK, but after a reformat and Windows reinstall on the kids
PC, I am unable to access folders within the limited account from the
other computers.

I have enabled sharing of "My Documents" in both user accounts on the
kids PC.

I can see the kids PC on the network from my own PC, and can see the two
folders which I have enabled for sharing. I have RW access over the
network to "My Documents" in the admin account, and to the "Shared
Documents" folder; however when I try to open "My Documents" in the
limited account I get:

"\\KIDS_PC\My Documents is not accessible. You might not have
permission to use this network resource. Contact the administrator of
this server to find out if you have permissions. Access is denied"

Finally, I've tried changing the kid's limited account into a full
administrator account. Guess what - makes no difference! I have checked
all the Properties/Sharing tabs for both user accounts and they are
identical AFAICS. Just that one can be accessed, the other can't!

BTW I am running Windows Firewall on both machines, both configured to
enable LAN access.

Please help - this is driving me nuts!

Thanks
David

 

[Chuck]

I have a small home network of 3 PCs running Windows XP Home edn. One
PC (the kids) is configured with two user accounts, one specifically for
my kids (which is a 'limited' one) and my own (which is an administrator
account).

Up till now I have been able to share resources and folders between the
PCs perfectly OK, but after a reformat and Windows reinstall on the kids
PC, I am unable to access folders within the limited account from the
other computers.

I have enabled sharing of "My Documents" in both user accounts on the
kids PC.

I can see the kids PC on the network from my own PC, and can see the two
folders which I have enabled for sharing. I have RW access over the
network to "My Documents" in the admin account, and to the "Shared
Documents" folder; however when I try to open "My Documents" in the
limited account I get:

"\\KIDS_PC\My Documents is not accessible. You might not have
permission to use this network resource. Contact the administrator of
this server to find out if you have permissions. Access is denied"

Finally, I've tried changing the kid's limited account into a full
administrator account. Guess what - makes no difference! I have checked
all the Properties/Sharing tabs for both user accounts and they are
identical AFAICS. Just that one can be accessed, the other can't!

BTW I am running Windows Firewall on both machines, both configured to
enable LAN access.

Please help - this is driving me nuts!

Thanks
David

David,

With Windows XP Home, and Simple File Sharing, all network access is
authenticated as Guest, which is a non-administrative account.

Make sure that the Guest account is enabled, on each computer. Enable Guest,
with Start - Run - "cmd", then type "net user guest /active:yes" in the command
window. Ensure that the password for Guest is blank, with Start - Run -
"control userpasswords2"; select Guest, click Reset Password, click OK without
entering a new password.

Remember, with Simple File Sharing, you'll not be able to access "C:\Program
Files", "C:\Windows", or any of the profile related folders such as "My
Documents". All of those folders require individual user, or administrator
access, and Guest access gives you neither.

--
Cheers,
Chuck
Paranoia is not necessarily a bad thing - it comes from experience.
My email is AT DOT
actual address pchuck sonic net.

 

[Lobster]

Make sure that the Guest account is enabled, on each computer. Enable Guest,
with Start - Run - "cmd", then type "net user guest /active:yes" in the command
window. Ensure that the password for Guest is blank, with Start - Run -
"control userpasswords2"; select Guest, click Reset Password, click OK without
entering a new password.

Thanks - have tried this to no avail (but all was set OK anyway)

Remember, with Simple File Sharing, you'll not be able to access "C:\Program
Files", "C:\Windows", or any of the profile related folders such as "My
Documents". All of those folders require individual user, or administrator
access, and Guest access gives you neither.

But I'm trying to connect *from* a PC where I do have admin access, so
surely that should work? Certainly I can connect fine to our 3rd PC in
this way. And also, as I mentioned I temporarily set the "Kids" user
account to "Administrator", but that makes no difference either!

Thanks
David

 

[Chuck]

Thanks - have tried this to no avail (but all was set OK anyway)


But I'm trying to connect *from* a PC where I do have admin access, so
surely that should work? Certainly I can connect fine to our 3rd PC in
this way. And also, as I mentioned I temporarily set the "Kids" user
account to "Administrator", but that makes no difference either!

Thanks
David

David,

With XP Home and Simple File Sharing, network access is authenticated (granted)
to the Guest account only. Regardless of the access you have on the client,
server access will be as Guest and no more. And Guest has to be active, and
have matching (or no) password on both client and server.

More about file sharing, in the definitive Microsoft document:
<http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/...db-aef8-4bef-925e-7ac9be791028&DisplayLang=en>

--
Cheers,
Chuck
Paranoia is not necessarily a bad thing - it comes from experience.
My email is AT DOT
actual address pchuck sonic net.

 

[Lobster]

With XP Home and Simple File Sharing, network access is authenticated (granted)
to the Guest account only. Regardless of the access you have on the client,
server access will be as Guest and no more. And Guest has to be active, and
have matching (or no) password on both client and server.

More about file sharing, in the definitive Microsoft document:
<http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/...db-aef8-4bef-925e-7ac9be791028&DisplayLang=en>

I'm still struggling with this big time.
I've enabled the Guest account on both PCs (although I never used to
have them active).

I can access \\KIDS_PC\My Documents fine for the account "Admin", but
not in the account "Kids" (that one gives me the Access Denied error).

Since I changed the account type, the "Kids" account is a Computer
Administrator as well as the "Admin" one. There is no difference between
them! Yet I can access the My Documents folder in "Admin" over the
network, but not "Kids".

I've just tried setting the server root directory as a share.
So now I can access:

C:\
C:\Documents and Settings\
C:\Documents and Settings\Admin
C:\Documents and Settings\Admins Documents
C:\Documents and Settings\Guest
C:\Documents and Settings\Guest's Documents
BUT NOT:
C:\Documents and Settings\Kids

H E L P ..............!!

David

 

[Chuck]

I'm still struggling with this big time.
I've enabled the Guest account on both PCs (although I never used to
have them active).

I can access \\KIDS_PC\My Documents fine for the account "Admin", but
not in the account "Kids" (that one gives me the Access Denied error).

Since I changed the account type, the "Kids" account is a Computer
Administrator as well as the "Admin" one. There is no difference between
them! Yet I can access the My Documents folder in "Admin" over the
network, but not "Kids".

I've just tried setting the server root directory as a share.
So now I can access:

C:\
C:\Documents and Settings\
C:\Documents and Settings\Admin
C:\Documents and Settings\Admins Documents
C:\Documents and Settings\Guest
C:\Documents and Settings\Guest's Documents
BUT NOT:
C:\Documents and Settings\Kids

H E L P ..............!!

David

David,

With XP Home, you can temporarily disable Simple File Sharing by starting up in
"Safe Mode with Networking".

A Description of the Safe Mode Boot Options in Windows XP:
http://support.microsoft.com/?id=315222

With Simple File Sharing disabled, right click the desired folder, click Sharing
and Security, and share the folder. Then, click the Permissions button to
specify network access permissions, and click the Security tab to specify NTFS
file system permissions. A network user needs both permissions in order to
access the share.

For details how to set permissions:
http://www.practicallynetworked.com/sharing/xp_filesharing/index.htm

Compare permissions in the Admin and Kids folders.

 

[Lobster]

With XP Home, you can temporarily disable Simple File Sharing by starting
up in
"Safe Mode with Networking".

A Description of the Safe Mode Boot Options in Windows XP:
http://support.microsoft.com/?id=315222

With Simple File Sharing disabled, right click the desired folder, click
Sharing
and Security, and share the folder. Then, click the Permissions button to
specify network access permissions, and click the Security tab to specify
NTFS
file system permissions. A network user needs both permissions in order
to
access the share.

For details how to set permissions:
http://www.practicallynetworked.com/sharing/xp_filesharing/index.htm

Compare permissions in the Admin and Kids folders.

Woohoo! Unbelievably (!) it now works!
I checked under the Security tab in both folders, and found a user called
"Everyone" in the permissions table under the Admin folder; but this was not
present under the Kids folder. So I created a new user "Everyone", gave him
full r/w access, and rebooted in Normal Mode; and all is now fine. Does
this make sense, as a solution?!

I'm naturally extremely grateful to you, Chuck - I wouldn't have been able
to sort this out myself in a million years. But what on earth's going on?
How did Microsoft expect me, as a mere mortal, non-networking expert ever to
get my PC networked properly, having to delve so deep into Windows? Had
something in my setup become corrupted, and I've put it right now?

Thanks again
David

 

[Chuck]

Woohoo! Unbelievably (!) it now works!
I checked under the Security tab in both folders, and found a user called
"Everyone" in the permissions table under the Admin folder; but this was not
present under the Kids folder. So I created a new user "Everyone", gave him
full r/w access, and rebooted in Normal Mode; and all is now fine. Does
this make sense, as a solution?!

I'm naturally extremely grateful to you, Chuck - I wouldn't have been able
to sort this out myself in a million years. But what on earth's going on?
How did Microsoft expect me, as a mere mortal, non-networking expert ever to
get my PC networked properly, having to delve so deep into Windows? Had
something in my setup become corrupted, and I've put it right now?

Thanks again
David

David,

That's great news! That absolutely makes sense, and it's good to confirm the
effectiveness of the Safe Mode - SFS disabling procedure etc. Thanks for the
feedback!

You ask a good question too. I went thru an experience like yours, and this is
where I got help. Read my blog article:
<http://nitecruzr.blogspot.com/2005/04/windows-xp-file-sharing-anything-but.html>.

 

[johnsuth]

David,

That's great news! That absolutely makes sense, and it's good to confirm the
effectiveness of the Safe Mode - SFS disabling procedure etc. Thanks for the
feedback!

You ask a good question too. I went thru an experience like yours, and this is
where I got help. Read my blog article:
<http://nitecruzr.blogspot.com/2005/04/windows-xp-file-sharing-anything-but.html>.

I printed this post, and your web pages, and stepped through my system in the hope of correcting whatever I had previously done wrongly. However it made no difference. (I wrote down in sequence every icon, menu, tab, list and button that I clicked, but I won't reproduce it here unless you ask)

My task is to:-
Create a limited user on each of the peers
Create a directory on each of the peers
Share the directory among each of the peers
Permit limited user on any peer to access shared directory on any peer

I previously attempted this by running the following batch file on each peer:-
net user student /add /passwordreq:no /passwordchg:no /active:yes
md c:\netfolder
net share netfolder=c:\netfolder /unlimited
cacls c:\netfolder /t /e /g student:c

Using mouse clicks or using commands, the share works for Administrative users but not Limited users. Am I doing something wrong, or is XP Home SP1 not able to deliver what I want?

Thanks,

 

[Chuck]

I printed this post, and your web pages, and stepped through my system in the hope of correcting whatever I had previously done wrongly. However it made no difference. (I wrote down in sequence every icon, menu, tab, list and button that I clicked, but I won't reproduce it here unless you ask)

My task is to:-
Create a limited user on each of the peers
Create a directory on each of the peers
Share the directory among each of the peers
Permit limited user on any peer to access shared directory on any peer

I previously attempted this by running the following batch file on each peer:-
net user student /add /passwordreq:no /passwordchg:no /active:yes
md c:\netfolder
net share netfolder=c:\netfolder /unlimited
cacls c:\netfolder /t /e /g student:c

Using mouse clicks or using commands, the share works for Administrative users but not Limited users. Am I doing something wrong, or is XP Home SP1 not able to deliver what I want?

Thanks,

John,

I'm not really sure what you did wrong, if anything.

But asking for help, at the end of another, un related thread is probably not
the best way to start asking for help. For several reasons.

Please start a new thread, with a unique and descriptive subject, describing
your problem, and your environment, and relevant detail about each. With a new
thread, everybody here will be more likely to be able to contribute effectively
to solving your problem. It's in you own interest to do this.