Can't browse My Network Places - please help

[mark]

Hi,

I'm having a very strange problem trying to browse from a XP Home system to a XP
Pro system in My Network Places on a peer to peer network.

XP Home system \\XPHOME

XP Pro system \\XPPRO, with simple file sharing enabled. The computer browser
service is running. The guest account is enabled. "Accounts: Limit local account
use of blank passwords to console logon only" is disabled in Local Security
Policy.

Here's the problem:

When you go into My Network Places on \\XPHOME, you cannot browse to \\XPPRO.
When you double click on XPPRO in My Network Places, you get an error:

\\XPPRO 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 access
permissions.
Access is denied.

Strangely enough, you CAN map a network drive to XPPRO using UNC (Universal
Naming Convention). I.E. going into Tools / Map network drive, and entering
\\XPPRO\sharename works with no problem at all. It's just browsing in My Network
Places that doesn't work.

Also, browsing for a shared printer in the Add Printers dialog works too. Weird.

And the reverse direction, browsing to XPHOME from XPPRO works just fine.

It's just trying to browse to XPPRO from XPHOME in My Network Places that
doesn't work.

I've gone down the checklist and I can't figure out what the problem is. Any
ideas / suggestions?

Thanks!

 

[Jack Gillis]

I had the same problem a few days ago. Found out I had the XP Firewall
enabled on one, or maybe it was both machines. Apparently, the firewall
prevents file and printer sharing through a router.