John said:
HI all. I have a home network with 3 PC's. They are connected through a
router to the internet: A desktop uses windows XP PRO and a wireless
connection, a laptop uses Windows XP home and a wireless connection and a
desktop using a windows XP Home and a LAN ethernet connection (cable).
They all have Windows firewall active and exception as remote desktop
flagged. When I display the computer workgroup I see all 3 of them but
cannot access any of them. (the reason I want to access them is to
transfer files from one
PC to another). With the GUEST user account not active (on any of them)
when trying to access I do get a prompt windows asking for a password: the
User name is the PC_name\Guest. If the Guest user account is active I do
get a differet message "Not able to access "PC_Namexxxx". The user may not
have the necessary authority to access and use this network resource.
Contact the administrator. The user did not get the right access type
requested for that PC"
Can anyone help me providing instruction on how to solve this thing? I
mean
Either instruction on how to assign/create a password to the account
"PC_Name\Guest for each PC or how to unlock and provide the right
authority
and access to the PC's in the workgroup.
Thanks in advance for you help.
Disable Guest to give your network better security and set up file/printer
sharing correctly. The Guest account is a special system account, not one
meant for when you are feeling hospitable. It is disabled by default in
Windows XP, Vista, Linux, Unix, and OS X for a reason.
From TechNet:
"The Guest account is intended for users who require temporary access to the
system. However, if this account is enabled, a security risk may exist
because an unauthorized user could gain anonymous access to the system
through this account."
http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/bb418978(TechNet.10).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. 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. The instructions at this link work for both XP and Vista:
Configure Windows to Automatically Login (MVP Ramesh) -
http://windowsxp.mvps.org/Autologon.htm
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.
F. After you have file sharing working (and have tested this by exchanging a
file between all machines), if you want to share a printer connected
locally to one of your computers, share it out from that machine. Then go
to the printer mftr.'s website and download the latest drivers for the
correct operating system(s). Install them on the target machine(s). The
printer should be seen during the installation routine. If it is not,
install the drivers and then use the Add Printer Wizard. In some instances,
certain printers need to be installed as Local printers but that is outside
of this response.
Malke
