dave_216 said:
Thanks, any idea what would keep a non-workgroup pc from showing up in My
Network Places ? In the example I gave, only 1 of the 3 workgrouped pc's
shows up in My Network Places of the other 2-pc work group.
I don't know what you mean by "non-workgroup". In the Windows world,
peer-to-peer networking is called a Workgroup. The only alternatives are
standalone or member of a domain. It is really unclear with what you
want help - having complete file/printer sharing between all your
computers or isolating some of them from each other. If the former, see
below. If something else, please post back with a better explanation of
what you really are trying to do.
If none of the computers are running Vista (which apparently needs the
same Workgroup name to share files/printers, unlike earlier MS operating
systems), then see the following general networking problem
troubleshooting comments:
Networking problems are most commonly caused by a misconfigured
firewall. Run the Network Setup Wizard on all computers, making sure to
enable File & Printer Sharing, and reboot. The only "gotcha" is that
this will turn on the XPSP2 Windows Firewall. If you aren't running a
third-party firewall or have an antivirus with "Internet Worm
Protection" (like Norton 2005/06) which acts as a firewall, then you're
fine. If you have third-party firewall software, configure it to allow
the Local Area Network traffic as trusted. I usually do this with my
firewalls with an IP range. Ex. would be 192.168.1.0-192.168.1.254.
Obviously you would substitute your correct subnet.
If one or more of the computers is XP Pro or Media Center:
a. If you need Pro's ability to set fine-grained permissions, turn off
Simple File Sharing (Folder Options>View tab) and create identical user
accounts/passwords on all computers.
b. If you don't care about using Pro's advanced features, leave the
Simple File Sharing enabled.
Simple File Sharing means that Guest (network) is enabled. This means
that anyone without a user account on the target system can use its
resources. This is a security hole but only you can decide if it matters
in your situation.
Then create shares as desired. XP Home does not permit sharing of users'
home directories (My Documents) or Program Files, but you can share
folders inside those directories. A better choice is to simply use the
Shared Documents folder.
If that doesn't work for you, here is an excellent network
troubleshooter by MVP Hans-Georg Michna. Take the time to go through it
and it will usually pinpoint the problem area(s) -
http://winhlp.com/wxnet.htm
Malke
