Can't view workgroup folders???

[Guest]

My friend has a home network at his house with a laptop and a Dell Dimension
connected wirelessly. We were wondering if I could access his network shared
folders from my house, a street away, without having to wire a cable from his
house to mine (aka. access his workgroup via the internet). I have set up a
home and office network at my house and at his both using the same workgroup
name and I just cannot see any of his folders.

I have tried Hamachi and that didn't work.

I have Windows XP with a dial-up connection and a soon-to-be installed DSL
connection. I have been trying to access his folders from my dial-up
connection; Should I try using a DSL connection?

Does anybody have a solution, a program or an idea to help me make this work.

 

[Doug Sherman [MVP]]

The best way to do this is with a VPN connection. Your friend's firewall(s)
will have to be configured to allow this. If you do it over a dialup
connection, it will be very slow. See:

http://www.microsoft.com/resources/documentation/windows/xp/all/proddocs/en-
us/conn_incoming.mspx?mfr=true

Doug Sherman
MCSE, MCSA, MCP+I, MVP

My friend has a home network at his house with a laptop and a Dell Dimension
connected wirelessly. We were wondering if I could access his network shared
folders from my house, a street away, without having to wire a cable from his
house to mine (aka. access his workgroup via the internet). I have set up a
home and office network at my house and at his both using the same workgroup
name and I just cannot see any of his folders.

I have tried Hamachi and that didn't work.

I have Windows XP with a dial-up connection and a soon-to-be installed DSL
connection. I have been trying to access his folders from my dial-up
connection; Should I try using a DSL connection?

Does anybody have a solution, a program or an idea to help me make this

work.

 

[Chuck]

My friend has a home network at his house with a laptop and a Dell Dimension
connected wirelessly. We were wondering if I could access his network shared
folders from my house, a street away, without having to wire a cable from his
house to mine (aka. access his workgroup via the internet). I have set up a
home and office network at my house and at his both using the same workgroup
name and I just cannot see any of his folders.

I have tried Hamachi and that didn't work.

I have Windows XP with a dial-up connection and a soon-to-be installed DSL
connection. I have been trying to access his folders from my dial-up
connection; Should I try using a DSL connection?

Does anybody have a solution, a program or an idea to help me make this work.

If you're connecting your networks thru the Internet, using either dial-up or
DSL, you need a Virtual Private Network. Opening file sharing in your networks,
to anybody on the Internet, would be extremely foolish.

Here's a good starting point to learn about VPNs in general:
<http://www.dslreports.com/faq/vpn>
http://www.dslreports.com/faq/vpn

Hamachi is a simple VPN. It's not the only one, though, and there's not one
software product (of any function) out there that works for everybody.

Of course, maybe Hamachi is not the problem. Windows Networking is a lot of
fun, and there are a lot of reasons why it might not work. Do each of you have
file sharing working, on your own LANs?

One of the most common causes of a file sharing problem would be a misconfigured
or overlooked personal firewall, or other security component. There are several
other possibilities too, and any might be the cause of your problem. Read this
article with an open mind.
<http://nitecruzr.blogspot.com/2005/10/irregularities-in-workgroup-visibility.html>
http://nitecruzr.blogspot.com/2005/10/irregularities-in-workgroup-visibility.html

If you like, provide "browstat status" and "ipconfig /all" from each computer,
so we can diagnose the problem. Read this article, and linked articles, and
follow instructions precisely (download browstat!):
<http://nitecruzr.blogspot.com/2005/05/troubleshooting-network-neighborhood.html#AskingForHelp>
http://nitecruzr.blogspot.com/2005/05/troubleshooting-network-neighborhood.html#AskingForHelp

 

[Guest]

Thanks...

My fiewall is configured correctly and all the windows components are also
configured correctly. I will try a VPN, though.

Thanks again!!

 

[Chuck]

Thanks...

My fiewall is configured correctly and all the windows components are also
configured correctly. I will try a VPN, though.

Thanks again!!

Pleasure. Let us know how it works out for you. We might learn something from
you, or you from us.