Newbie needs help with Win2k to Win95 home network

[John Komar]

Hi. I am trying to set up a home network. I am using a D-Link DI-604
router. The router seems to be set up OK. I am able to share my
broadband connection on both my Win2k SP4 Pro machine and my Win95
machine just fine.

I can also go into My Network Places on my Win2k machine and see an
icon for my Win95 computer and I can access it's files.

However, the reverse is not true. When I click on Network Neighborhood
on the Win95 PC, I see an icon for the other computer but when I click
on it I am prompted for a password. I tried entering the password for
the Win2k's machine's administrator account and it said that password
was incorrect. I also tried leaving the password field blank and that
didn't work either. BTW, I made sure that both PC's are in the same
workgroup.

I tried to do a Google search about the problem and found a web site
which talked about this problem. It said I should create a user
account on the Win2k machine using the same user name and password
that I use on the Win95 machine.

So, I set up a new user account on my Win2k machine according to those
instructions, then logged on to that user account I had just created.
While logged on to that account, I still couldn't get it to share
files with the Win95 computer. When I tried, I got that same icon
representing my Win2k machine and when I clicked on it it still
prompted me for a password, and when I tried the password for the user
account I created on the Win2k machine, it still didn't work.

BTW, I selected my Win2k machine's LAN properties from the Network
applet on the control panel, and it said that File and Printer sharing
was enabled, but when I selected properties for the connection there
was no "sharing" tab available. I also have a dialup connection and in
it's properties there is a "sharing" tab available but that won't help
me in this case.

On my Win2k machine, I have enabled sharing on some folders and these
folders show up in My Network Places on the Win2k machine, but on the
Win95 machine I am still stymied by that password prompt.

So, my question is, how can I fix this? Is it possible to log on to
the Administrator account form the Win95 machine, or can I only log on
to user accounts on the Win95 machine? And if that's the case, what do
I have to do to make that work?

Thank you very much for any and all help.

John

 

[Bruce]

Hi. I am trying to set up a home network. I am using a D-Link DI-604
router. The router seems to be set up OK. I am able to share my
broadband connection on both my Win2k SP4 Pro machine and my Win95
machine just fine.

I can also go into My Network Places on my Win2k machine and see an
icon for my Win95 computer and I can access it's files.

However, the reverse is not true. When I click on Network Neighborhood
on the Win95 PC, I see an icon for the other computer but when I click
on it I am prompted for a password. I tried entering the password for
the Win2k's machine's administrator account and it said that password
was incorrect.

I'm surprised this didn't work.

I also tried leaving the password field blank and that
didn't work either. BTW, I made sure that both PC's are in the same
workgroup.

I tried to do a Google search about the problem and found a web site
which talked about this problem. It said I should create a user
account on the Win2k machine using the same user name and password
that I use on the Win95 machine.

So, I set up a new user account on my Win2k machine according to those
instructions, then logged on to that user account I had just created.
While logged on to that account, I still couldn't get it to share
files with the Win95 computer. When I tried, I got that same icon
representing my Win2k machine and when I clicked on it it still
prompted me for a password, and when I tried the password for the user
account I created on the Win2k machine, it still didn't work.

You got half-way there, you need to create a user account on the Win2K
machine with the same username and password as on the Win95 machine.
Then (on your Win2K machine) you need to create a new folder, share
it. If your volume is NTFS formatted and then set the share
permissions to Everyone, Full Control and set the File Security
permissions to the username you created with Full Control. If the
volume is FAT formatted then set share permission to the username you
created with Full Control.

You should now be able to access that shared folder from your Win95 PC
without a password prompt. It doesn't matter who is logged onto the
Win2K at the time.

As an aside, it might be tempting to share the C drive on in your
Win2K thinking you could access the entire C drive from the Win95 PC.
The problem is that if it is formatted to NTFS I've noticed it wont
work that well because certain files and folders have security
permissions set so that you cannot access them from your Win95 PC.

BTW, I selected my Win2k machine's LAN properties from the Network
applet on the control panel, and it said that File and Printer sharing
was enabled, but when I selected properties for the connection there
was no "sharing" tab available. I also have a dialup connection and in
it's properties there is a "sharing" tab available but that won't help
me in this case.

I think that sharing tab is for Internet Connection Sharing not File
Sharing. You don't need it because you are using your broadband router
for Internet sharing.

On my Win2k machine, I have enabled sharing on some folders and these
folders show up in My Network Places on the Win2k machine, but on the
Win95 machine I am still stymied by that password prompt.

So, my question is, how can I fix this? Is it possible to log on to
the Administrator account form the Win95 machine, or can I only log on
to user accounts on the Win95 machine? And if that's the case, what do
I have to do to make that work?

Thank you very much for any and all help.

John

Hope this helped,

Bruce.

 

[John]

You got half-way there, you need to create a user account on the Win2K
machine with the same username and password as on the Win95 machine.
Then (on your Win2K machine) you need to create a new folder, share
it. If your volume is NTFS formatted and then set the share
permissions to Everyone, Full Control and set the File Security
permissions to the username you created with Full Control. If the
volume is FAT formatted then set share permission to the username you
created with Full Control.

You should now be able to access that shared folder from your Win95 PC
without a password prompt. It doesn't matter who is logged onto the
Win2K at the time.

As an aside, it might be tempting to share the C drive on in your
Win2K thinking you could access the entire C drive from the Win95 PC.
The problem is that if it is formatted to NTFS I've noticed it wont
work that well because certain files and folders have security
permissions set so that you cannot access them from your Win95 PC.

Thanks a lot Bruce. I followed your instructions, and it worked
perfectly.

If have noticed one thing though. On my Win95 PC, it takes a long
time, about 50 seconds, for the icons to appear in the Network
Neighborhood window. I realize that this is an old PC with only a
Pentium 150 and 64 Mb of RAM, but it usually isn't that slow when it
performs other tasks.

So, do you think it's normal for it to take that long, or might there
be some mis configuration of some sort that is causing this? BTW, the
reverse is not tue. On my Win2k PC, which admittably is a much faster
and newer computer, the My Network Places window loads almost
instantaneously.

Again, thanks a lot.