Folder sharing in home network

[Guest]

I have set up a home network wireless network which works fine. I used the
"set up home or small office wizard" to network our computers. I am having 2
problems. One is that my laptop is in one workgroup and my wifes is in
another. I am sure it is my fault, but it does not appear to be a drag and
drop fix. The other, more immediate problem is that I can access my wifes
shared folders, but when she tries to access mine, she is prompted for a
password. I do not remember setting this and cannot find anything under
"sharing security" when I right click my shared folder that indicates a
password. Additionally, I have my firewall turned on, with folder sharing
set as an exception. She has hers turned off. I tried turning mine off, to
no avail. Any help would be appreciated.

 

[Jerry]

All computers on a network must be in the same workgroup or they cannot see
or interact with each other. Fix that first and try again.

 

[Guest]

Not quite correct. If they are in the same workgroup they can use the
"Network neighborhood" (a.k.a. the browser service) to find each other. They
can connect to each other no matter what.

If you have configured your laptop to allow sharing to everyone then it
should all work. If not, you must either configure that, or provide your wife
with a username and password to connect with. I'd probably go through the
Networkd Setup Wizard again if I were you.

And, please, do yourself a favor: if you plan to take this system outside
your home network leave the firewall on. As it is now, it would be off when
you take your laptop to the local coffee shop.

 

[Nepatsfan]

message

I have set up a home network wireless network which works
fine. I used the "set up home or small office wizard" to
network our computers. I am having 2 problems. One is that
my laptop is in one workgroup and my wifes is in another. I
am sure it is my fault, but it does not appear to be a drag
and drop fix. The other, more immediate problem is that I
can access my wifes shared folders, but when she tries to
access mine, she is prompted for a password. I do not
remember setting this and cannot find anything under
"sharing security" when I right click my shared folder that
indicates a password. Additionally, I have my firewall
turned on, with folder sharing set as an exception. She has
hers turned off. I tried turning mine off, to no avail.
Any help would be appreciated.

First off, if you're looking for help with networking issues,
you'll probably have better luck getting your questions
answered correctly by posting it in the Windows Networking and
the Web newsgroup. If you do post in that newsgroup, make sure
you indicate what version of XP each computer is using. The
solution to a networking problem can be different if you're
using XP Home Edition as opposed to XP Pro or Media Edition.

Here's the XP Networking newsgroup.
http://www.microsoft.com/windowsxp/...ft.public.windowsxp.network_web&lang=en&cr=US

That said, here's my take on your situation.

As Jesper has already suggested, leave your firewall on. Your
wife being asked for a password has nothing to do with your
firewall. As Jesper also stated, both computers don't have to
be in the same workgroup, but it does help.

If you want to have both computers be in the same workgroup, do
the following on whatever computer you want to change.

Right click My Computer and select Properties from the menu.
Click on the "Computer Name" tab.
Hit the Change button.
Enter the correct workgroup name.
Click OK twice.
Reboot.

Now, for the password request. What's entered in the User Name
box? If it's Guest, try the following.
Go to Start -> Run and enter cmd.exe in the Open box.
At the command prompt, enter the following command.

net user guest

Hit enter.
Look at the "Account active" line.
Does it say Yes next to it?
If not, enter the following command at the prompt.

net user guest /active:yes

Hit enter.
Reboot both computers and have your wife try to access whatever
you've shared on your laptop. When she does, have her go to
Start -> Run and enter \\computername in the Open box.
Substitute the name of your laptop after the slashes.

Good luck

Nepatsfan

 

[Malke]

I have set up a home network wireless network which works fine. I used
the
"set up home or small office wizard" to network our computers. I am
having 2
problems. One is that my laptop is in one workgroup and my wifes is in
another. I am sure it is my fault, but it does not appear to be a drag
and
drop fix. The other, more immediate problem is that I can access my wifes
shared folders, but when she tries to access mine, she is prompted for a
password. I do not remember setting this and cannot find anything under
"sharing security" when I right click my shared folder that indicates a
password. Additionally, I have my firewall turned on, with folder sharing
set as an exception. She has hers turned off. I tried turning mine off,
to
no avail. Any help would be appreciated.

The name of the Workgroup is irrelevant. There is no security with
Workgroups; Workgroup names are merely an organizational and cosmetic
device.

This is 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