Step by step guide to manually networking XP Pro->XP Home req'd

[Pheasant Plucker®]

Hi there,

Still struggling with networking XP Pro->XP Home.

Wizards fail to do the job, have tried doing it manually making sure
firewalls are off, workgroup & subnet mask identical, both machines have
different names, using 192.168.0.x IP address range and the TCP/IP stack is
working properly as I can ping each machine from itself although I cannot
ping one machine from the other.

Does anyone have a step-by-step guide or a link to one where I can solve
this problem once and for all please?

I have successfully networked NT4 Server to Win9x, W2K & XP clients and
setup W9x peer-to-peer networks but can't for the life of me sort out this
'easy' XP peer-to-peer even though it is supposed to hold your hand and do
it automatically with the Network wizard!

I have tried using a crossover cable directly between the NIC's and also
straight thru' CAT5 cables via a hub/switch.

Sometimes the icon of PC2 shows up in the network view of PC1 but cannot be
accessed or pinged etc.

Really struggling now...

 

[Phil]

Think of it as a server config. Pretend one box is the server, add your
users from the other boxes that will connect to this "server" to its users.
Once the users and passwords are setup on the "server" that match the users
on the other boxes that need to connect, then share your drives and/or
folders, and then give permission to for the added users to connect to
it.(in xp pro turn off simple file sharing and in xp home you may have to
boot to safe mode to add users to the security tab) Then goto the other box
and map your drives/folders. Should work fine.
Then goto the other box and now pretend it's the "server". Set up your users
from the other box that need to connect, share your drives, set permissions,
go back to first back and map the drives. You should now be able to connect
to each machine form the other. One of the keys to make things easy is
setting up the identical users/passwords on each box and then sharing the
drives and giving those users permission to view the share.

 

[Pheasant Plucker®]

Hi Phil,

Thanks for the reply.

Just a thought - you mention users...neither machine is password protected
at log-on...the computers are just switched on and boot into XP without
being prompted for a password.

Could this have a bearing on why they won't talk to each other?

Thanks & regards,
-=Glyn=-

 

[Phil]

Yes, unless you apply the tweak to make sharing files without a password
allowable, you will have to password protect the user accounts and see if
that helps.

 

[Pheasant Plucker®]

Hello again Phil,

And that 'tweak' would be...?

Thinking about it even if it were something to do with passwords then surely
one box should still be able to ping the other...

I am wondering if DHCP and/or DNS has anything to do with it?

Maybe a line in each computers LMHOSTS file may help?

Regards,
-=pp=-