help needed to network XP Home Edition and Win 2000

[Guest]

I have connected my XP Home Edition desktop and my Win 2000 Pro laptop via
cables to a router, with ICS running on the desktop but no firewall as far as
I know on the laptop. Each of them is able to access the web without any
problem.

Please tell me in as much detail as you can what I need to do next to enable
file and printer sharing between them. Each has a printer connected
directly to it via its parallel port.

Note that the desktop has four user accounts on it and the laptop has two
(none of which has the same user name as any of the four on the desktop).
In addition, the the laptop is set up for use at my office LAN so the login
prompt includes a Domain field. What do I need to do about that when using
it at home and when I bring it back towork?

Also, in case it matters, the desktop has VPN on it for intermittent use
when I want to connect to my work LAN via my home internet connection. and
the laptop is set up for intermittent wireless internet access (when I put
the wireless card in it) at work and elsewhere (but I don't use it at home as
I don't have a wireless router at home).

I have read the answers to various previoius posts related to mine and
looked at the web sites they referred to but didn't find this info able to
help me. Thanks very much.

 

[Steve Winograd [MVP]]

I have connected my XP Home Edition desktop and my Win 2000 Pro laptop via
cables to a router, with ICS running on the desktop but no firewall as far as
I know on the laptop. Each of them is able to access the web without any
problem.

Please tell me in as much detail as you can what I need to do next to enable
file and printer sharing between them. Each has a printer connected
directly to it via its parallel port.

Note that the desktop has four user accounts on it and the laptop has two
(none of which has the same user name as any of the four on the desktop).
In addition, the the laptop is set up for use at my office LAN so the login
prompt includes a Domain field. What do I need to do about that when using
it at home and when I bring it back towork?

Also, in case it matters, the desktop has VPN on it for intermittent use
when I want to connect to my work LAN via my home internet connection. and
the laptop is set up for intermittent wireless internet access (when I put
the wireless card in it) at work and elsewhere (but I don't use it at home as
I don't have a wireless router at home).

I have read the answers to various previoius posts related to mine and
looked at the web sites they referred to but didn't find this info able to
help me. Thanks very much.

Since both computers connect to a router, there's no reason to run ICS
on the desktop. If you've enabled Internet Connection Sharing,
disable it.

Run the Network Setup Wizard on the desktop, and tell the Wizard that
the computer connects to the Internet through a residential gateway
(router). The Wizard will make all the necessary settings for file
and printer sharing and will share the attached printer.

The Network Setup Wizard won't run on Win 2000, so make the network
settings on the laptop manually:

1. Go to Control Panel > Network and Dial-up Connections.

2. Right-click the LAN connection and click Properties.

3. Put check marks in the boxes for "Client for Microsoft Networks"
and "File and Printer Sharing for Microsoft Networks".

4. Click Close.

5. Go to Control Panel > System.

6. Click Network Identification.

7. Click the Properties button.

8. Set the workgroup name to the same name that the desktop uses.
XP's default name is MSHOME.

9. Click OK.

After that, you can right-click and share any desired disks, folders,
and printers on each computer.

To make it easy to access the laptop's shared resources from the
desktop, create a user account on the laptop that has the same user
name and password that you use to log onto the desktop. If you don't
do that, every time you try to access the laptop from the desktop
you'll be prompted to enter the user name and password of one of the
laptop's accounts.
--
Best Wishes,
Steve Winograd, MS-MVP (Windows Networking)

Please post any reply as a follow-up message in the news group
for everyone to see. I'm sorry, but I don't answer questions
addressed directly to me in E-mail or news groups.

Microsoft Most Valuable Professional Program
http://mvp.support.microsoft.com

 

[Guest]

Thanks very much for your help. This definitely is a big help although I
still have a ways to go.

After following your directions, I was able to use the laptop to print on
the printer connected to the desktop and use the laptop to access the Shared
Documents sub folder of the All Users subfolder of the desktop's Documents
and Settings folder. This is very helpful and I appreciate your showing me
how to get this done..

I can also access all of the subfolders in one of the four desktop users'
account . (I wasn't prompted for a password, by the way, even though they
don't have the same user name.) However, I can't access any of the other
three account's folders. When I logged into each of those accounts and tried
to put checkmarks next to "Share this folder on the network" and "Allow users
to change my files" in the Sharing tab of these folders' Properties windows,
they were grayed out.

Please tell me how to put the checkmarks there so each of these desktop
folders can be accessed via the laptop.

Also, afterI followed your steps #5-8 to "Set the workgroup name to the same
name that the desktop uses", I found that I was unable to log in on the
laptop again using the login credentials I had previously used, which I need
to use to log in to access the network domain at the office. This profile
is also the only one I have a password for that has "power user" privileges.

How can I restore that? Is there a convenient way to go back and forth
between being set up to use my home network and the office network?

 

[Steve Winograd [MVP]]

Thanks very much for your help. This definitely is a big help although I
still have a ways to go.

After following your directions, I was able to use the laptop to print on
the printer connected to the desktop and use the laptop to access the Shared
Documents sub folder of the All Users subfolder of the desktop's Documents
and Settings folder. This is very helpful and I appreciate your showing me
how to get this done..

I can also access all of the subfolders in one of the four desktop users'
account . (I wasn't prompted for a password, by the way, even though they
don't have the same user name.) However, I can't access any of the other
three account's folders. When I logged into each of those accounts and tried
to put checkmarks next to "Share this folder on the network" and "Allow users
to change my files" in the Sharing tab of these folders' Properties windows,
they were grayed out.

Please tell me how to put the checkmarks there so each of these desktop
folders can be accessed via the laptop.

Also, afterI followed your steps #5-8 to "Set the workgroup name to the same
name that the desktop uses", I found that I was unable to log in on the
laptop again using the login credentials I had previously used, which I need
to use to log in to access the network domain at the office. This profile
is also the only one I have a password for that has "power user" privileges.

How can I restore that? Is there a convenient way to go back and forth
between being set up to use my home network and the office network?

Hi, Steve. I'm sorry, but I didn't notice that your first message
said that the laptop logs onto a domain. If I had noticed that , I
wouldn't have asked you to change any network settings on the laptop.
I would have suggested that you ask the network administrator at work
to help you set up the laptop for use at home

Please tell the network administrator what happened and ask for help
in rejoining the domain. I apologize for the inconvenience that my
mistake has caused you.

I'm not sure why sharing isn't working the same on all of the
desktop's user accounts. I'll do some testing and will post another
reply if I find anything.
--
Best Wishes,
Steve Winograd, MS-MVP (Windows Networking)

Please post any reply as a follow-up message in the news group
for everyone to see. I'm sorry, but I don't answer questions
addressed directly to me in E-mail or news groups.

Microsoft Most Valuable Professional Program
http://mvp.support.microsoft.com

 

[Guest]

I was able to solve the problem by using the Dell Network Assistant program.
I can now use the laptop to access all the folders that I want on the desktop.

Now that I can do that, can you tell me how to set up password protection
so that each user can only access his own files?

The way things are right now, after you log in the the laptop itself, it
never asks for a password when accessing the shared folders on the desktop,
even though tehy all reside in password-protected, limited accounts on the
desktop directly (except for the one "Computer Administrator" account.)
Thanks again.

 

[Steve Winograd [MVP]]

I was able to solve the problem by using the Dell Network Assistant program.
I can now use the laptop to access all the folders that I want on the desktop.

Now that I can do that, can you tell me how to set up password protection
so that each user can only access his own files?

The way things are right now, after you log in the the laptop itself, it
never asks for a password when accessing the shared folders on the desktop,
even though tehy all reside in password-protected, limited accounts on the
desktop directly (except for the one "Computer Administrator" account.)
Thanks again.

The desktop has Windows XP Home Edition, which wasn't designed to give
the type of access control that you want. As you have described,
Windows XP Home Edition allows all users on all computers to access
all of its shared folders, without prompting for a user name or
password.

The only Microsoft-approved solution I know of would be to upgrade the
desktop to Windows XP Professional, which has very powerful access
control features.

Here are three possible ways to get access control in Windows XP Home
Edition. They're not supported or documented by Microsoft. They've
been recommended to me by people I trust, but I haven't tried them and
don't know whether they're safe. If you want to try them, at your own
risk, back up your important data and create a system restore point
first:

1. Start Windows XP in "Safe Mode with Networking", share the desired
folder(s), set the permissions, and reboot normally.

2. Use the CACLS command, as described here:

http://groups.google.com/group/microsoft.public.windowsxp.network_web/msg/6faf782867cba46f

3. Follow the procedure shown here:

http://www.dougknox.com/xp/tips/xp_home_sectab.htm
--
Best Wishes,
Steve Winograd, MS-MVP (Windows Networking)

Please post any reply as a follow-up message in the news group
for everyone to see. I'm sorry, but I don't answer questions
addressed directly to me in E-mail or news groups.

Microsoft Most Valuable Professional Program
http://mvp.support.microsoft.com