Michael said:
I see that many others are having the same problem I am:
Networking and sharing resoures between heterogenous
Windows machines.
I have a small office LAN with an XP-home, Win2K and ME
OS. All connect via the router to the Internet, but I
can't get resources sharing going, file folder on the XP
and a printer on the ME?
Is anyone getting an answer other than upgrading all the
machines to the same OS?
Thanks
Lots of folks have had the same problems, and most of them have
apparently found solutions. You might start with a Google
search of this NG, where the problems and solutions have been
repeatedly discussed. For certain, it is not necessary
to have the same flavor of WinWhatever; every version can
network with every other version, starting with Win3.11.
While not all are strictly necessary, I suggest these steps:
1. Enable DHCP on your router, and set each PC to be a DHCP client;
some OSs call this "Enable auto IP" or the like. Reboot all.
Check (by run WINIPCFG under W9x or by run CMD and typing
CONFIG/ALL under W2K or XP) that all PCs are in the same IP
subnet, which means for IPA=a.b.c.d, that a.b.c is the same
and the d's unique for each PC.
2. Permanently disable ICF on all XP PCs. Temporarily uninstall
all other firewall apps and all antivirus apps on each PC.
3. Enable TCP/IP and NetBIOS over TCP/IP on each PC. Disable
NetBEUI and IPX/SPX on each PC.
4. Check that each PC has a unique computer name and that all PCs
have the same workgroup name.
5. Check that each PC has Client for M$ Nets enabled. Check that
each PC has F&P sharing enabled, and that each PC has at least
one (non-root) folder shared with a simple sharename. For sure,
get F-sharing working before attempting P-sharing, since some
P's cannot be (or cannot be easily) shared between some OSs.
6. Use the same accounts (User & PW) on each PC, and check that
on each PC that account has full R/W access to that PC's
shared resources. Check that the shared F's are marked for full
R/W access from the network.
That should get you going. Next, you may want to experiment, by
turning on firewalls (other than ICF) and defining trusted zones;
and by using different accounts on different PCs, and by trying to
get P-sharing going. Good luck.
