File Sharing on a LAN of 3 XP Home computers

  • Thread starter Thread starter Guest
  • Start date Start date
G

Guest

I have 3 systems with XP Home. I pick one of them (Computer 3) to act as my
'server'. I share a directory for the other systems to work in to keep all
my data in one place.
On both Computer 1 and Computer 2, I have mapped drive 'Z' to the share on
Computer 3.
At this point, all is working fine.
After powering up all of the computers the next morning, I find the
following problems:
The application that I run needs to use a file on the share on Computer 3.
On start of the application, it says that drive 'Z' cannot be found.
I open Windows Explorer, and I can see the Z drive on the bottom of the left
column. At this point there is NOT a red 'x' on the connection icon. If I
look at the My Network Places, I can see the share on Computer 3.
After checking these thing, the application still says it cannot find the Z
drive.
NOW, if I use Windows Explorer and double click the Z drive in the left
column, the right side blanks out and the searching flashlight waves back and
forth for almost a minute and then the screen fills with all the files from
the shared directory on Computer 3.
OK, Now if I run my application, it has no problem finding the Z drive and
everything works OK again. If I leave the systems up all day, the
application has no trouble, but as soon as I power the 3 computers up again
the next day, I have the same problem.

What is happening?

Rich
 
Rich
I do something similar with XP Pro.

Mine not a server but I can see all the others and map drives as per you.
Sorry but have no problems.

Check protocols, maybe turn off Netbui
Check shares of course. You need to assign shares to each hard drive. Name
each uniquely. You may see the HDD name as say SAMSUNG80GB in explorter, but
in its share it may be WIN4PMAIN. You need to tick boxes to allow network
users to see and change files as well.
Also I guess its a not a firewall issues as it would never work.
Make sure you computer names are unique and all in the same workgroup.

The timing you mention sounds strange. Mine can find the other files quite
quickly.
I assume you have a DHCP server with Dynamic IPs assigned.

Greg H
 
This is one of many annoyances with XP Home. It doesn't automatically
restore network connections. To work around it, you can launch a batch
file in the startup folder to connect the drives at start up.
See the Tech Tips and Downloads page at
http:// [Remove this and spaces] www. gtscomputerservice. com
I have a sample batch file there called "EasyMap" that might help.
 
Back
Top