Windows XP Pro / Network Shares

[crancran]

I have a Windows XP professional laptop with Biztalk Server 2004, SQL
Server 2000, and IIS installed for my BizTalk development I do for my
job. I recently setup a shared folder on my laptop and asked a
coworker to try and browse to that folder and download a project file
I had created for them. Surprisingly they were unable to connect to
my machine.

I have since checked numerous posts to understand what could be
causing this problem. Some of the posts had suggested a reinstall of
IIS which I found strange. Others had me check the Local Security
Policy and a few other things in the Control Panel and all the
suggested settings were identical to my setup.

Both my PC and the persons PC who was trying to access my shared
directory are running Windows XP pro. I had thought that maybe it
had to do with something related to windows, so I asked him to try and
connect to an FTP server I had running on my laptop and he
couldn't. I think asked my coworker to ping my laptop and again he
couldn't.

The strange thing is that I can do all these things outbound to his
laptop but he cannot to mine. Windows Firewall isn't enabled so I'm
at a loss as to what could be the culprit.

Can anyone please assist me? I am going to require a remote person
to have access to my laptop next week and would like to identify and
correct what setting is preventing this activity before then.

Kind regards,
Chris

 

[CreateWindow]

Hi crancran,

Uncheck "Use simple file sharing" in Explorer / Tools / Folder Options /
View (tab) & scroll to last checkbox.

Once that is done; co-workers could only 'browse' if you are on the same
NetBIOS Workgroup or domain.
They will need the share name and your machine IP or name to connect. They
will also need credentials to permit them to enter your share. If you are on
a domain, share the 'share' to those people you want to give access to;
otherwise create a local User/password they can use.
Hope that helps.
(Note: there are share AND security permissions to consider on the shared
folder.)

CreateWindow
http://justpageprobe.com
The FREE Web page utility you always wanted.
Keep your router connected.
Email your IP to where you need it.
Monitor your enterprise Web Servers.

 

[crancran]

CreateWindow, I appreciate your input; however that checkbox is
already unchecked.

I must stress that while it may seem that it has only to do with
browsing/viewing shared folders, this problem goes even deeper. I
run Apache/Tomcat on my laptop from time to time while I work on Java
development for some of our company's web tools and my coworkers are
unable to connect to my Apache/Tomcat process on the designated port #
to test my work, the laptop just never responds.

And yes, when I attempt to go to "http://localhost:8080/myapp", it
works. If my coworkers go to "http://w.x.y.z:8080/myapp", eventually
it just times out (Where w.x.y.z is my ip address).

So this leads me to believe that it has something to do with some
firewall or XP connection blocking problem from outside PCs, like its
an implied local policy or something. I mentioned having SQL Server
2000, BizTalk Server 2004, and IIS installed because as I recall, I
didn't have these issues until this software was installed. Since
then this has been an issue.

Any other suggestions all ???

 

[CreateWindow]

Hi,

I'm running out of ideas. You could issue a netstat /ao in a command prompt
and check what is listening on each port?
May be some kind of conflict.

Good luck,
CreateWindow

 

[crancran]

No there isn't a conflict. For example, I can run my webserver and
on my laptop, open a browser and go to http://localhost:8080/myapp and
the application shows up in the browser. The server is setup to
listen on all IP addresses for port 8080. When I try to access my
laptop from another machine using the IP such as http://173.30.4.67:8080/myapp,
it fails and never sends a response. The server never sees the
request.

To me it sounds like there is something wrong with the Windows
Firewall but according to the dialog box, its disabled. Any others
can offer some assistance here please?

 

[AJR]

"Localhost" from the laptop only "checks" the laptop TCP/IP function and
would not indicate connectivity to the server Yes/No?