Bobby said:
I've been read through several topics on networking Media Center and
Windows Home Editions and the headaches people are having. My
headache
has turned into a tumor. I'm trying to set up file sharing with
between: Computer A (Home Edition) and Computer B (Media Center). I
have tried everything, created new work groups, enabled file sharing,
and I even begged with the laptop. Please help me or point me in the
right direction. Has Microsft even addressed this issuse? Thank you
There is no "issue" for Microsoft to address. You're doing something
wrong. Since you haven't told us any hard details of what you've done,
here is my general "network problems" boilerplate. The section on "if
one or more of the computers is XP Pro" is applicable to you because
MCE is a super-set of Pro. BTW, Workgroups are just a cosmetic and
organizational naming device and have nothing to do with local area
network access.
Run the Network Setup Wizard on both 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:
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. XP Home only uses Simple Sharing.
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
