G
Guest
I have two computers running Windows XP Home SP2 that are networked in a
workgroup. I enabled file and printer sharing for the workgroup, and for a
while, I successfully shared the "My Documents" folders and my printers.
But, recently I looked at "My Network Places" and noticed that the folders
seemed arranged in an odd way. On one computer, the shared folders of the
other were said to be shared on the web. Also, in "My Network Places," some
folders from the computer that I was using showed that they were kept on
"This Computer," while some showed that they were kept on "[COMPUTER NAME]."
This bothered me, so I attempted to fix this by resetting things. I
repeatedly shared and stopped sharing certain folders and ran the Network
Setup Wizard repeatedly to try to reset my workgroup. These things seemed to
work, as the folders were rearranged in a more logical way. But, I realized
that these changes had also caused problems to occur. On one computer,
computer A, I couldn't access any of the networked folders of the other
computer- except for the "Shared Documents" folder. I received an "Access
Denied" error message when I tried to access the folders. Also, that
computer's "Shared Documents" folder was somehow corrupted. Its name was
changed simply to "Documents," and an "Access Denied" error message would
appear when one would try to access it. On the other computer, computer B,
some folders of computer A were still accessible, but when one would try to
access the others, an "Access Denied" error message would appear. I tried to
fix this by doing something similar to what I had done before- running the
Network Setup Wizard to try to reset the workgroup, but I only succeeded in
corrupting computer B's "Shared Documents" folder in the same way that I had
corrupted computer A's. Then, I noticed something interesting. I realized
that some- but not all, of the folders that couldn't be shared were not the
folders that I was expecting. I had shared the "My Documents" folders by
accessing their properties from "My Computer," and I found that some of those
links referred to folders in a "Documents and Settings\LocalService" folder,
whose name was the same as the documents folder that I was trying to share,
but in reality, was a blank folder. On the folders that I encountered with
this, I went through the "Documents and Settings" folder to the "My
Documents" folders that I was trying to share, and shared those folders. On
the ones that I changed, this seemed to work somewhat, as the folders were
then accessible from the other computer. But, the folders then wouldn't
appear under "My Network Places" on the computer that they were being shared
from. Also, some folders still received an "Access Denied" message from the
other computer when I attempted to access them, but I didn't encounter a bad
link to a "LocalService" folder as I had encountered before. Also, because
only some folders cannot be shared, I believe that this is a problem with the
file sharing configuration, and not a firewall. However, I checked this and
disabled the Windows Firewall. Also, my Norton Firewall had always accepted
the other computer as a trusted computer, and had never blocked it before. I
checked my security log and confirmed this. Therefore, I would like to be
able to share all of the "My Documents" folders in my workgroup as I had
before, and possibly restore the "Shared Documents" folder.
workgroup. I enabled file and printer sharing for the workgroup, and for a
while, I successfully shared the "My Documents" folders and my printers.
But, recently I looked at "My Network Places" and noticed that the folders
seemed arranged in an odd way. On one computer, the shared folders of the
other were said to be shared on the web. Also, in "My Network Places," some
folders from the computer that I was using showed that they were kept on
"This Computer," while some showed that they were kept on "[COMPUTER NAME]."
This bothered me, so I attempted to fix this by resetting things. I
repeatedly shared and stopped sharing certain folders and ran the Network
Setup Wizard repeatedly to try to reset my workgroup. These things seemed to
work, as the folders were rearranged in a more logical way. But, I realized
that these changes had also caused problems to occur. On one computer,
computer A, I couldn't access any of the networked folders of the other
computer- except for the "Shared Documents" folder. I received an "Access
Denied" error message when I tried to access the folders. Also, that
computer's "Shared Documents" folder was somehow corrupted. Its name was
changed simply to "Documents," and an "Access Denied" error message would
appear when one would try to access it. On the other computer, computer B,
some folders of computer A were still accessible, but when one would try to
access the others, an "Access Denied" error message would appear. I tried to
fix this by doing something similar to what I had done before- running the
Network Setup Wizard to try to reset the workgroup, but I only succeeded in
corrupting computer B's "Shared Documents" folder in the same way that I had
corrupted computer A's. Then, I noticed something interesting. I realized
that some- but not all, of the folders that couldn't be shared were not the
folders that I was expecting. I had shared the "My Documents" folders by
accessing their properties from "My Computer," and I found that some of those
links referred to folders in a "Documents and Settings\LocalService" folder,
whose name was the same as the documents folder that I was trying to share,
but in reality, was a blank folder. On the folders that I encountered with
this, I went through the "Documents and Settings" folder to the "My
Documents" folders that I was trying to share, and shared those folders. On
the ones that I changed, this seemed to work somewhat, as the folders were
then accessible from the other computer. But, the folders then wouldn't
appear under "My Network Places" on the computer that they were being shared
from. Also, some folders still received an "Access Denied" message from the
other computer when I attempted to access them, but I didn't encounter a bad
link to a "LocalService" folder as I had encountered before. Also, because
only some folders cannot be shared, I believe that this is a problem with the
file sharing configuration, and not a firewall. However, I checked this and
disabled the Windows Firewall. Also, my Norton Firewall had always accepted
the other computer as a trusted computer, and had never blocked it before. I
checked my security log and confirmed this. Therefore, I would like to be
able to share all of the "My Documents" folders in my workgroup as I had
before, and possibly restore the "Shared Documents" folder.