File Sharing W2K & XP Home

[Alan]

I have just set up a WLAN between my XP Home & W2K Pro
machines using a DSL 604+ wireless ADSL Router. I have the
internet connection sorted (which I though would be a
problem due to the attitude of my ISP) and both PCs access
the internet independently. On my W2k PC I can see and
share the XP shared folders (hoorah!)- however, the
workgroup cannot be accessed from the XP PC. I cannot even
see the W2K machine or workgroup from the XP PC.
I set up accounts with the same user name and password on
both machines, created a "Shared" folder on W2K, granted
(what I thought were) all the relevant permissions on the
W2K PC, but still this final part eludes me. I have tried
adding a Network Place, but I get error regarding server
permission.I disabled the freeware Sygate Firewall on the
W2K PC and now I get 2 messages in the dialogue box when I
attempt to view the network- one informing me that the
Workgroup is not accessable with permissions etc, and one
informing me that the user has not been granted the
requested logon type at this computer (on the XP PC).
I have reviewed the settings in the Local Security
policies in W2K, but cannot see anything obvious (I am
assuming that its the W2K machine that is the problem).
In User Rights Assignment I have enabled both named PCs as
able to access the PC from the network. I am also unsure
if the settings for the shares are correct.

I realise that permissions can be rather byzantine in W2K,
but if there is something in the security policies etc
that will resolve this I have missed?
(a few tutorials have helped, but most are aimed at XP-
98/ME rather than my combo).
[I posted this before but the reply just asked about
firewalls and since then has been unanswered]

 

[Moot]

couple of points ...

ensure you can ping each others IP address. if pinging the
name doesn't work then you probably have no name
resolution. if you can't "see" the share then browsing is
not working. browsing [nothing to do with web browsing] is
a slightly esoteric subject - suffice to say an easy route
is to just mapa a drive to the shared folder. if you have
a share called DATA on a server called BOB you can with
use explorer to map a drive, or from DOS prompt or run box
use

net use g: \\BOB\DATA

to map it - assuming G is not presently used.

other point is permissions. accessing a shared folder
means the client is navigating through up to 3 sets of
permissions - share permissions; folder permissions and
file permissions/ alternatively you can just called them
NTFS permissions and Sharing permissions. you'll need to
ensure you have appropriate share and NTFS permissions set
for you to be able to access the remote files!

Moot out ...

 

[Alan]

I have tested the ping by IP address and have managed to
ping the W2K PC from the XP PC, but the w2K machine still
doesn't show in my Workgroup from XP. The sharing is fine
from the W2K machine though, it has recognised the
workgroup and allows acess to the shared XP files

 

[moot]

if you can ping each machine from the other machine there
is definitely connectivity therefore that is working fine.
if you can only ping the IP address and not the
computername then it means name resolution is not working.
the real simple way to sort this out on a small home
network which doesn't change much is to use the lmhosts
file which you'll find a sample of in %systemroot%
\systems32\driver\etc. Just open this up in notepad and
add the bits you need for example

192.168.1.1 winxpbox
192.168.1.2 win2kpro

do this on both machines and you should now be able to
ping the name as it should use this file to "resolve" the
IP address from the name. if you have difficulty getting
this to work remember to save it as lmhosts and NOT
lmhosts.sam, and also dig around in your network
properties and ensure the tick box for enabling the use of
lmhosts is checked.

the workgroup no appearing is browsing. if you can simply
map a drive as suggested previously, this should get you
round the problem for now. otherwise I believe playing
with the PRE tag in the afore mentioned lmhosts file may
help you.

browsing works kinda like this .... the first machine to
be turned on looks to see if there is any other machines
about and if anyone is using its netbios name [same this
as computername]. when a second machine is turned on it
also checks to see what's out there. now it will find the
first machine. one of these machines wants to look after
browsing for the segment so they compare stats and
typically the newer OS will win, and a server is higher
than a workstation. if they can't decide who is the boss
they have an election. browse lists hold details of what
machines are where and who has what, like shares. when
machines are not turned off properly the browse list does
not get updated and things may still be there after
they've died. if you are using wifi and the network
connectivity is iffy you could be getting this problem.
personally i would play with the PRE tag and this PRE
loads on boot.

Moot out ...

 

[Alan]

I mis-understood, sorry- I can ping back and forth
between the machines by IP address and by name.
I can share the XP shared files from W2K
I cannot locate the workgroup PCs on the XP machine,
which appears to have a preset for nVidia LAN management
by ethernet which it tells me is disconnected (not
surprising on a wifi)
I am unsure if this is a factor or if the W2K security
permissions lie behind the fact that I am told that the
workgroup is not accessible when I try to view the
Workgroup Computers?

 

[moot]

permissions should not stop you from seeing the workgroup
called "workgroup" but they may prevent you from seeing
any members withint the workgroup. try this experiment ...

on both machines create the same username/passwd accounts.
so on each machine create, say,

username = bob
password = fred01

ensure this new user has permissions to enter the share
and the ntfs permissions on the folder anf files too

then log onto each machine as this user and see if you can
now see what you want

moot out ...