Home networking fighting back at me

[Oley]

Hope someone can help and that this is the right group...

I have just setup a 2 pc home network, connected via a netgear fireall
to the internet.

Both machines have the same workgroup name, each pc has a different
name. Each PC can ping the other via IP address or computer name. Both
PCs can access the internet - one of the PCs - lets say PC-B has
windows firewall installed, the other - PC-A - has McAfee firewall
installed.

Now, from PC-B I can see and access the shares on PC-A, no problems.

HOWEVER from PC-A as soon as I double click the icon for PC-B in the
"view workgroup computers" screen I get a login prompt appear and no
matter what I enter here I cannot get access to the PC!

This is very frustrating, both PCs had home networking setup using the
home setup wizard that comes with XP.

Anyone got any ideas?

Oh, one other thing, if I right click on the shared folders icon on
PC-A I get a completely different screen to that I get on PC-B, there
are still sharing options on both machines but they are diferent - I
could post some images if it would help.

(Both machines, XP PRO SP2 - both legit installs with their own
CD-Keys etc)

Thanks

G

 

[Chuck]

Hope someone can help and that this is the right group...

I have just setup a 2 pc home network, connected via a netgear fireall
to the internet.

Both machines have the same workgroup name, each pc has a different
name. Each PC can ping the other via IP address or computer name. Both
PCs can access the internet - one of the PCs - lets say PC-B has
windows firewall installed, the other - PC-A - has McAfee firewall
installed.

Now, from PC-B I can see and access the shares on PC-A, no problems.

HOWEVER from PC-A as soon as I double click the icon for PC-B in the
"view workgroup computers" screen I get a login prompt appear and no
matter what I enter here I cannot get access to the PC!

This is very frustrating, both PCs had home networking setup using the
home setup wizard that comes with XP.

Anyone got any ideas?

Oh, one other thing, if I right click on the shared folders icon on
PC-A I get a completely different screen to that I get on PC-B, there
are still sharing options on both machines but they are diferent - I
could post some images if it would help.

(Both machines, XP PRO SP2 - both legit installs with their own
CD-Keys etc)

On any XP Pro computer, check to see if Simple File Sharing (Control Panel -
Folder Options - View - Advanced settings) is enabled or disabled. With XP Pro,
you need to have SFS consistently set on each computer.

On XP Pro, and with SFS disabled, check the Local Security Policies (Control
Panel - Administrative Tools). Under Local Policies - Security Options, look at
"Network access: Sharing and security model", and ensure it's set to "Classic -
local users authenticate as themselves".

On XP Pro, and with SFS disabled, if you set the above Local Security Policy to
"Guest only", enable the Guest account, using Start - Run - "cmd" - type "net
user guest /active:yes" in the command window. If "Classic", setup and use a
common non-Guest account on all computers. Whichever account is used, give it
an identical, non-blank password on all computers.

On XP Pro with Simple File Sharing enabled, make sure that the Guest account is
enabled, on each computer. Enable Guest with Start - Run - "cmd" - type "net
user guest /active:yes" in the command window.

You need to configure McAfee and Windows Firewalls for file sharing, by opening
ports TCP 139, 445 and UDP 137, 138, 445, by enabling the File and Printer
Sharing exception, and / or by identifying the other computers as present in the
Local (Trusted) zone. Firewall configurations are a very common cause of
(network) browser, and file sharing, problems.

Cheers,
Chuck
Paranoia comes from experience - and is not necessarily a bad thing.