Home network, simple 2 machine set up

[Roger R]

Hi,
Home network: new xp machine, old win98 machine, 4 port router modem.
Run network set up wizard, create floppy, run on win98 machine.
Results:
Internet connection from both machines ok.
Unable to see network on either machine.
XP machine:
Logged in as 'User name' with administrator rights.
My Network Places/Entire Network/Microsoft Windows Network/'my workgroup'
Nothing more.
Clicking the workgroup name I get error mssg: (workgroup name) is not
accessable. You might not have permission to use this recource. Contact the
administrator of this server to find out if you have the necessary
permissions....

Win98 machine:
Network Neighbourhood/entire network/blank
Network Neighbourhood/'name of win98 mach.'/shareddocs/photos

So where do I go from here?

 

[Chuck]

Hi,
Home network: new xp machine, old win98 machine, 4 port router modem.
Run network set up wizard, create floppy, run on win98 machine.
Results:
Internet connection from both machines ok.
Unable to see network on either machine.
XP machine:
Logged in as 'User name' with administrator rights.
My Network Places/Entire Network/Microsoft Windows Network/'my workgroup'
Nothing more.
Clicking the workgroup name I get error mssg: (workgroup name) is not
accessable. You might not have permission to use this recource. Contact the
administrator of this server to find out if you have the necessary
permissions....

Win98 machine:
Network Neighbourhood/entire network/blank
Network Neighbourhood/'name of win98 mach.'/shareddocs/photos

So where do I go from here?

If it's a visibility problem between 2 computers, Windows 98 and Windows XP, you
probably have a browser conflict. You'll need to disable the Browse Master on
the Windows 98 computer.
<http://nitecruzr.blogspot.com/2005/05/windows-9x-9598me-and-browser.html>
http://nitecruzr.blogspot.com/2005/05/windows-9x-9598me-and-browser.html

 

[Guest]

A few things to check:
Turn off the firewalls on both machines. I guess most firewalls do have the
feature to allow networking on the same subnet, but turn them off to get
started.
Make sure both are using the same workgroup: My Computer|Properties|Computer
Name tab. (It will force a reboot).
Can you ping each other? At the command prompt, e.g. C:\> ping
192.168.1.100. If you can't ping, then that's a big clue. If you can ping,
then it's a firewall problem.
Share a folder or the whole drive C, on _both_ computers. In XP, this will
set up the networking. (It seems a bit incorrect, but to connect to another
machine's resource (when connecting a workgroup), you first have to share a
folder on your own machine).
In My Network Places, on XP, under Network Tasks, click View workgroup
computers. If you don't see your own computer, then networking (workstation
service, let's not go there for now) is not enabled on the machine.
Create the same account on both machines, with the same password. There are
ways around this, but it's easier to have the same account on both machines.
Guest accounts can be turned off. It doesn't matter.
HTH.

 

[Roger R]

A few things to check:
Turn off the firewalls on both machines. I guess most firewalls do have
the
feature to allow networking on the same subnet, but turn them off to get
started.

Turning off the firewalls on both machines certainly resolved the problem.
With firewalls off each computer became visible on the other machine.
I was able to transfere files from the shared docs folder from one computer
to the other.
So the network set up is fine, it's the firewalls that is the problem. How
to overcome?
I'm using the third party 'Norton internet security' on both machines.

I'm also not sure I have the XP machine set up correctly for Users.
The plan was to have two users:
User 'name A' with administartive rights,
User 'My name' for every day normal use on the internet.
The idea being that when connected to the internet the user with admin
rights is not logged in. This doesn't seem to work out very well. But is
it the recommended thing to do?

 

[Guest]

How to overcome: using Norton Internet Security, but have network access to
each computer from the other. I don't use NIS anymore, but I remember there's
a place to allow network sharing on your own LAN (subnet), that is, the first
3 numbers of the IP addresses are the same. It's can be done. Look in the
online help or ask on a Symantec newsgroup.

Your other question about using a (safe) non-admin account, when connected
to the Internet, doesn't work out very well. You're right. Windows Vista
addresses this problem directly. Until then, you need a firewall (such as
NIS) which can detected whenever a program (e.g. spyware or trojan horse)
that you are not aware of, tries to use Internet protocols or ports. You can
be pretty safe then. You have your router which is giving you a hardware
firewall. Then you have Windows fireware or NIS which can detect programs
detected anything. It's not 100%, but very good.

If you are a bit paranoid (that may be too strong), you could get a tool
(it's free) from Sysinternals (purchased by Microsoft last month) called
TCPView. It shows you everything (including what's "listening") going on.
Very cool. You can see each time your email checks the postoffice.

Sysinternals also has a very useful tool called Process Explorer, which
shows/explains all the process that are running. Sort of like Task Manager
but more in depth.