Setting up users

[Daniel]

Hi

I have an Ultimate PC private networked to a Home Premium with "Password
connected sharing
turned off, all other shares are on, except Media.

I can see each PC and their hard drives on both but when I try to connect I
am told
that the user account I am logged on as is denied access.

Where do I go and how do I allow access to the user on the PC's?

thanks

Daniel

 

[Jack [MVP-Networking]]

Hi
Make sure that the Software Firewall on each computer allows free local
traffic. If you use 3rd party Firewall On, Vista/XP Native Firewall should
be Off, and the active Firewall has to adjusted to your Network IP numbers
on what is some time called the Trusted Zone (consult your 3rd Party
Firewall instructions.
General example, http://www.ezlan.net/faq#trusted
Vista File and Printer Sharing-
http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/bb727037.aspx
Jack (MVP-Networking).

 

[Daniel]

Hi

I'm don't know what I am missing but as far as
I can tell the Windows Firewall is configured correctly,
it show the Network as Private and in Network Sharing Centre
it says that turning Password Protected sharing off automatically
changes the firewall settings.

When I try to give access to users the only one I can see on each PC is the
local user, there are no users for the other PC shown.

I am totally lost, it was so much easier in XP.

cheers

Daniel

 

[Tae Song]

Hi

I have an Ultimate PC private networked to a Home Premium with "Password
connected sharing
turned off, all other shares are on, except Media.

I can see each PC and their hard drives on both but when I try to connect
I am told
that the user account I am logged on as is denied access.

Where do I go and how do I allow access to the user on the PC's?

thanks

Daniel

I think, you need to create an identical account on the machine you want to
access shares.

If I'm logged on "Computer A" as "User 1" and want to access shares on
"Computer B", I need to create user account "User 1" on "Computer B".

 

[Daniel]

Okay, how do I do that?

I have only one user on each PC?

Thanks

Daniel

 

[Tae Song]

Okay, how do I do that?

I have only one user on each PC?

Thanks

Daniel

Are they identical?


"Computer A"
Username "Bob"
Password "password"

"Computer B"
Username "Bob"
Password "password"

 

[Malke]

Okay, how do I do that?

I have only one user on each PC?

Very bad idea. See the end of this post for recommendations for setting up
users in Vista. For the networking:

Here are general network troubleshooting steps. Not everything may be
applicable to your situation, so just take the bits that are. It may look
daunting, but if you follow the steps at the links and suggestions below
systematically and calmly, you will have no difficulty in setting up your
sharing.

Excellent, thorough, yet easy to understand article about File/Printer
Sharing in Vista. Includes details about sharing printers as well as files
and folders:

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

For XP, start by running the Network Setup Wizard on all machines (see
caveat in Item A below).

Problems sharing files between computers on a network are generally caused by
1) a misconfigured firewall or overlooked firewall (including a stateful
firewall in a VPN); or 2) inadvertently running two firewalls such as the
built-in Windows Firewall and a third-party firewall; and/or 3) not having
identical user accounts and passwords on all Workgroup machines; 4) trying
to create shares where the operating system does not permit it.

A. Configure firewalls on all machines to allow the Local Area Network (LAN)
traffic as trusted. With Windows Firewall, this means allowing File/Printer
Sharing on the Exceptions tab. Normally running the Network Setup Wizard on
XP will take care of this for those machines.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/security program with its own firewall
component, then you're fine. With third-party firewalls, I usually configure
the LAN allowance with an IP range. Ex. would be 192.168.1.0-192.168.1.254.
Obviously you would substitute your correct subnet. Refer to any third party
security program's Help or user forums for how to properly configure its
firewall. Do not run more than one firewall. DO NOT TURN OFF FIREWALLS;
CONFIGURE THEM CORRECTLY.

B. For ease of organization, put all computers in the same Workgroup. This
is done from the System applet in Control Panel, Computer Name tab.

C. In Vista, turn Password Protected Sharing ON. 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. DO NOT NEGLECT TO CREATE PASSWORDS, EVEN IF ONLY SIMPLE
ONES. If you wish a machine to boot directly to the Desktop (into one
particular user's account) for convenience, you can do this:

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

Vista - Start Orb>Search box>type: netplwiz [enter]
Click on Continue (or supply an administrator's password) when prompted by
UAC

Uncheck the option "Users must enter a user name and password to use this
computer". Select a user account to automatically log on by clicking on the
desired account to highlight it and then hit OK. Enter the correct password
for that user account (if there is one) when prompted. Leave it blank if
there is no password (null).

D. If one or more of the computers is XP Pro or Media Center, turn off Simple
File Sharing (Folder Options>View tab).

E. Create shares as desired. XP Home does not permit sharing of users' home
directories or Program Files, but you can share folders inside those
directories. A better choice is to simply use the Shared Documents folder.
See the first link above for details about Vista sharing.

*****General Recommendations For Setting Up Users in Vista*****

You absolutely do not want to have only one user account. Like XP and all
other modern operating systems, Vista is a multi-user operating system with
built-in system accounts such as Administrator, Default, All Users, and
Guest. These accounts should be left alone as they are part of the operating
system structure.

You particularly don't want only one user account with administrative
privileges on Vista because the built-in Administrator account (normally
only used in emergencies) is disabled by default. If you're running as
Administrator for your daily work and that account gets corrupted, things
will be Difficult. It isn't impossible to activate the built-in Administrator
to rescue things, but it will require third-party tools and working outside
the operating system.

The user account that is for your daily work should be a Standard user, with
the extra administrative user (call it something like "CompAdmin" or "Tech"
or the like) only there for elevation purposes. After you create
"CompAdmin", log into it and change your regular user account to Standard.
Then log back into your regular account.

If you want to go directly to the Desktop and skip the Welcome Screen with
the icons of user accounts, you can do this as detailed in the Networking
portion of this reply above.

Malke

 

[Daniel]

Hi,

thanks for the advice and info, I will get back to it in a couple of days,
I am very busy with renovations at the moment.

regards

Daniel

Okay, how do I do that?

I have only one user on each PC?

Very bad idea. See the end of this post for recommendations for setting up
users in Vista. For the networking:

Here are general network troubleshooting steps. Not everything may be
applicable to your situation, so just take the bits that are. It may look
daunting, but if you follow the steps at the links and suggestions below
systematically and calmly, you will have no difficulty in setting up your
sharing.

Excellent, thorough, yet easy to understand article about File/Printer
Sharing in Vista. Includes details about sharing printers as well as files
and folders:

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

For XP, start by running the Network Setup Wizard on all machines (see
caveat in Item A below).

Problems sharing files between computers on a network are generally caused
by
1) a misconfigured firewall or overlooked firewall (including a stateful
firewall in a VPN); or 2) inadvertently running two firewalls such as the
built-in Windows Firewall and a third-party firewall; and/or 3) not having
identical user accounts and passwords on all Workgroup machines; 4) trying
to create shares where the operating system does not permit it.

A. Configure firewalls on all machines to allow the Local Area Network
(LAN)
traffic as trusted. With Windows Firewall, this means allowing
File/Printer
Sharing on the Exceptions tab. Normally running the Network Setup Wizard
on
XP will take care of this for those machines.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/security program with its own firewall
component, then you're fine. With third-party firewalls, I usually
configure
the LAN allowance with an IP range. Ex. would be
192.168.1.0-192.168.1.254.
Obviously you would substitute your correct subnet. Refer to any third
party
security program's Help or user forums for how to properly configure its
firewall. Do not run more than one firewall. DO NOT TURN OFF FIREWALLS;
CONFIGURE THEM CORRECTLY.

B. For ease of organization, put all computers in the same Workgroup. This
is done from the System applet in Control Panel, Computer Name tab.

C. In Vista, turn Password Protected Sharing ON. 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. DO NOT NEGLECT TO CREATE PASSWORDS, EVEN IF ONLY SIMPLE
ONES. If you wish a machine to boot directly to the Desktop (into one
particular user's account) for convenience, you can do this:

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

Vista - Start Orb>Search box>type: netplwiz [enter]
Click on Continue (or supply an administrator's password) when prompted by
UAC

Uncheck the option "Users must enter a user name and password to use this
computer". Select a user account to automatically log on by clicking on
the
desired account to highlight it and then hit OK. Enter the correct
password
for that user account (if there is one) when prompted. Leave it blank if
there is no password (null).

D. If one or more of the computers is XP Pro or Media Center, turn off
Simple
File Sharing (Folder Options>View tab).

E. Create shares as desired. XP Home does not permit sharing of users'
home
directories or Program Files, but you can share folders inside those
directories. A better choice is to simply use the Shared Documents folder.
See the first link above for details about Vista sharing.

*****General Recommendations For Setting Up Users in Vista*****

You absolutely do not want to have only one user account. Like XP and all
other modern operating systems, Vista is a multi-user operating system
with
built-in system accounts such as Administrator, Default, All Users, and
Guest. These accounts should be left alone as they are part of the
operating
system structure.

You particularly don't want only one user account with administrative
privileges on Vista because the built-in Administrator account (normally
only used in emergencies) is disabled by default. If you're running as
Administrator for your daily work and that account gets corrupted, things
will be Difficult. It isn't impossible to activate the built-in
Administrator
to rescue things, but it will require third-party tools and working
outside
the operating system.

The user account that is for your daily work should be a Standard user,
with
the extra administrative user (call it something like "CompAdmin" or
"Tech"
or the like) only there for elevation purposes. After you create
"CompAdmin", log into it and change your regular user account to Standard.
Then log back into your regular account.

If you want to go directly to the Desktop and skip the Welcome Screen with
the icons of user accounts, you can do this as detailed in the Networking
portion of this reply above.

Malke