XP Home computers can't "see" XP Pro computer!

[Guest]

Hi, there. Hope you can help us with this:

I recently installed an XP Pro machine. It can "see" all the files on all
the other computers on our small network but none of them can see it, nor can
they print to the printer connected to the new XP Pro machine.

The XP Pro machine is identified correctly in the other computers' Network
Places but whenever I double-click on it I get a promt to enter a username
and password. This is strange because but I haven't set up a password of any
kind on the XP Pro machine (unless it's something arcane I'm unaware of).

All the computers can use the Internet, thank goodness.

I set up the XP Pro machine's root drive to share all its files, just like
(I'm pretty sure) I did with the XP Home computer the XP Pro machine has
replaced.

Any thoughts?

Sincerely,

Charles Carr

Columnist and Features Writer
The San Diego North County Times

(e-mail address removed)
http://www.carrfamily.com

 

[Jerry]

In case an answer is not forthcoming some reading might help:

Home Networking The Missing Manual ISBN 0-596-00558-X
www.missingmanual.com
Home Networking Annoyances ISBN 0-596-00808-2 www.oreilly.com
Guide to Home Networking ISBN 0-7645-4473-X www.wiley.com/compbooks/pcmag

 

[Chuck]

On Tue, 22 Aug 2006 14:17:01 -0700, Charles Carr <Charles

Hi, there. Hope you can help us with this:

I recently installed an XP Pro machine. It can "see" all the files on all
the other computers on our small network but none of them can see it, nor can
they print to the printer connected to the new XP Pro machine.

The XP Pro machine is identified correctly in the other computers' Network
Places but whenever I double-click on it I get a promt to enter a username
and password. This is strange because but I haven't set up a password of any
kind on the XP Pro machine (unless it's something arcane I'm unaware of).

All the computers can use the Internet, thank goodness.

I set up the XP Pro machine's root drive to share all its files, just like
(I'm pretty sure) I did with the XP Home computer the XP Pro machine has
replaced.

Any thoughts?

Sincerely,

Charles Carr

Charles,

What is the username requested? Is it specifying Guest, or allowing you to
specify a username?

What operating system edition and file sharing are you running on each computer?
XP Home, XP Pro with Simple File Sharing, or XP Pro with Advanced File Sharing?
If the latter, are you using Guest authentication? You need to know this, for
all computers.
<http://nitecruzr.blogspot.com/2005/06/file-sharing-under-windows-xp.html#Simple>
http://nitecruzr.blogspot.com/2005/06/file-sharing-under-windows-xp.html#Simple

Now, one of the most common causes of limited visibility of each computer would
be a misconfigured or overlooked personal firewall, or other security component.
This should be separate form the above question. There are several other
possibilities too, and any might be the cause of your problem. Read this article
with an open mind.
<http://nitecruzr.blogspot.com/2005/10/irregularities-in-workgroup-visibility.html>
http://nitecruzr.blogspot.com/2005/10/irregularities-in-workgroup-visibility.html

You could look at "browstat status", "ipconfig /all", "net config server", and
"net config workstation", from the problem computer, and from two others, and
diagnose the problem. Read this article, and linked articles, and follow
instructions precisely (download browstat!):
<http://nitecruzr.blogspot.com/2005/05/troubleshooting-network-neighborhood.html#AskingForHelp>
http://nitecruzr.blogspot.com/2005/05/troubleshooting-network-neighborhood.html#AskingForHelp