Can't access shared folders on home network

[Guest]

I have a 3 computer home network. All 3 computers run XP and have no problem
acessing the internet, and wirelessly printing to either of 2 printers. 1 of
the the 3 computers however can not access shared drives on the other 2
computers, and the same 2 computers can not access the 1 computer's shared
folders.

I have checked the Windows Firewall on the 1 computer. A radio button
indicates it is disabled, and all the selecions are grayed out so I couldn't
turn it on if I wanted to. The Exceptions tab says that the Firewall is
turned off and that the network administrator is using Group Policy to
control the settings. I am the closest thing to a net admin in this house,
and I don't no what they are talking about. A similar subject was covered in
a July 17 posting. I attempted to follow one of the suggestions regarding
Admin Tools, but could not find the Local Security Policy(>Security
Options...) choice.

Any help available? ...thanks

 

[Steven L Umbach]

Are these computers XP Home or XP Pro? Try to ping that computer by name and
IP address from the other computers and try to use ping on it to the
computer name and IP address of the other computers. Ping is very easy to
use in the command box by entering ping computername or ping IP address. You
can run the command ipconfig /all to find the IP address of your computer.
See below for an example if you have never used it that shows there is
network connectivity. Also see the link below on basic network
troubleshooting to get you started.

Steve

http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?kbid=308007

D:\WINDOWS\system32>ping 192.168.1.251

Pinging 192.168.1.251 with 32 bytes of data:

Reply from 192.168.1.251: bytes=32 time<1ms TTL=128
Reply from 192.168.1.251: bytes=32 time<1ms TTL=128
Reply from 192.168.1.251: bytes=32 time<1ms TTL=128
Reply from 192.168.1.251: bytes=32 time<1ms TTL=128

Ping statistics for 192.168.1.251:
Packets: Sent = 4, Received = 4, Lost = 0 (0% loss),
Approximate round trip times in milli-seconds:
Minimum = 0ms, Maximum = 0ms, Average = 0ms