Home Network - New to Vista

[Trevor]

ONly 24 hrs into using Vista. I have added my Vista PC to my Home Network. I
am trying to access the shared folder on my old PC that is showing on the
network but I am denied access. I did have a password/user account set up on
the old machine but have removed the password now.

How can I access the shared folder across the network?

 

[Robert L. \(MS-MVP\)]

Vista doesn't like blank password. You should set one. This search result
may help.

Vista Permission IssuesCan't access Vista because of password protection ...
Connectivity issue because of security software Error 5: You do not
currently have access to this file ...
www.chicagotech.net/vista/vistapermission.htm


--
Bob Lin, MS-MVP, MCSE & CNE
Networking, Internet, Routing, VPN Troubleshooting on
http://www.ChicagoTech.net
How to Setup Windows, Network, VPN & Remote Access on
http://www.HowToNetworking.com

 

[Mick Murphy]

http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/bb727037.aspx

Have a read of the above link re Vista File and Printer Sharing.

Permissions/Share info is there as well.

If using Norton, McAfee, Trend Micro I.S., make sure file and printer
sharing is enabled in THEIR firewall.

1st thing to do is make sure that the Workgroup Name of ALL the computers is
the SAME.

In Vista Network and Sharing:

Network Discovery: ON (So it can see the other computers)

Network set to Private (Public is for hotspots, airports, etc)

File Sharing: ON

Public Folder Sharing: ON (Vista’s Public Folder is the same as XP’s Shared
Docs)

Password Protected: OFF (unless you want to set up identical usernames and
passwords on ALL computers in your Network) If you have it ON, you will be
asked for a username and password when you try to access a Vista computer
from an XP computer.

Also, run the XP’s Home Network File and Printer Sharing Wizard to include
Vista in your “New†Network, even if you had an XP Network set up prior to
adding a Vista computer to it.

 

[Jacob2000]

Ok can you explain it here instead of providing a dead end link? I can not
find anything about fixing this password issue for myself either. I need
exact step by step directions on where to go to change this password. That
link you provide is useless in this regard! Thanks

 

[Malke]

Ok can you explain it here instead of providing a dead end link? I can
not
find anything about fixing this password issue for myself either. I need
exact step by step directions on where to go to change this password.

Do you not know how to assign passwords to user accounts in XP and Vista? It
is done through the User Accounts applet in Control Panel. It's pretty
self-explanation ("create a password") but if you do need help with it post
back.

Create matching user accounts and passwords on all machines. You do not need
to be logged into the same account on all machines and the passwords
assigned to each user account can be different; the accounts/passwords just
need to exist and match on all machines. If you wish a machine to boot
directly to the Desktop (into one particular user's account) for
convenience, you can do this. The instructions at this link work for both
XP and Vista:

Configure Windows to Automatically Login (MVP Ramesh) -
http://windowsxp.mvps.org/Autologon.htm

Malke

 

[Jacob2000]

Are you talking about assigning a password for use on bootup? I do not want
to have any sort of password on my machine that requires me to type it in
when I turn on my computer. Isn't there a way of assigning a password
somewhere in the computer so that I will never have to do this again for my
network? Thanks...

 

[Jacob2000]

Thanks.. I finally got it to work. Please, remind the MVP's to mention this
issue when they are asking people about what steps they did to check out
their settings. Most people do not work in a corporate environment and do
not assign LOGIN passwords since their computers are at home and no one will
be around it but them.

People should know that they need to login to their user accounts and assign
a password. Then they should be told about how to disable the automatic
login window at bootup. Too much security its too much!

Thanks for your help.. I guess that after months of trying to do this, I
finally blew my lid! Have a good day.

 

[Gordon]

People should know that they need to login to their user accounts and
assign
a password. Then they should be told about how to disable the automatic
login window at bootup. Too much security its too much!

No.
Dangerous advice. Yes, someone may be the only USER of the machine, but they
may NOT be the only person who might have ACCESS to the machine. If there is
sensitive personal data on the machine then it is ALWAYS advisable to set a
password and not to bypass this on boot-up.
It is far better to have (in your words, although I can't see why you should
consider a password "too much security") "too much" security than none at
all....

 

[Malke]

Thanks.. I finally got it to work. Please, remind the MVP's to mention
this issue when they are asking people about what steps they did to check
out
their settings. Most people do not work in a corporate environment and do
not assign LOGIN passwords since their computers are at home and no one
will be around it but them.

People should know that they need to login to their user accounts and
assign
a password. Then they should be told about how to disable the automatic
login window at bootup. Too much security its too much!

A simple search in Google Groups would have found this exact information,
often given by me.

Thanks for your help.. I guess that after months of trying to do this, I
finally blew my lid! Have a good day.

And now you're going around saying that MVPs didn't tell you to create
matching passwords when that's exactly what I did tell you to do and you
didn't understand it?

That's pretty swinish behavior. Oh, and it isn't my job or anyone else's to
"remind the MVPs" to do anything. We're volunteers helping people who are
often ungrateful like you. Makes me wonder why I bother sometimes.

Malke

 

[Jacob2000]

My problem is that this is not explained anywhere when you are trying to
setup a network. There is no help menus, nor anything that even give the
user an explaination of what to do (I even searched the error messages on the
support website without any results). So in that reasoning, I think that
Microsoft has made Vista way too secure, without giving the user any
explaination on what locks are on their computer. Worse still, Vista will
say that you dont have to have a password at all in the user password
section. No wonder people are confused on networking their computer! I
ended up tearing out EVERY security device, completely openning up my
computer to the outside world because I was trying to figure out what they
were blocking! That is wrong for MS to have forced me to have to do. Even a
little bit of security is better then what I have had to do to fix my basic
networking issues.

Besides these points, I as an advanced user, want my computer to boot
straight to windows with out a password! I will click my power button, walk
away for 2min to grab my coffee and then come back when its done loading.
The security that microsoft wants to force on me is otherwise done by me
using encrypting software once my computer boots up on the files I want
private. So in that sense, I do believe that Microsoft has gotten way
overbearing on security without 1) explaining what is secure 2) not
explaining how to setup a properly secure and easily setup network 3) plainly
lying to the user by saying in the user interface that you dont have to have
a password, but then blocks everything else because you didnt assign one.

Microsoft needs to 1) make a wizard to setup a home network, that could
assist them on setting up passwords for their entire network, thereby making
security part of the process, and 2) dont make it so hard that you have to
type in a password in every time you start your computer, or access your own
home network! Everyone wants security, but they need to make it so that the
average user wont be overly burdened by it.