I have 4 computers networked... 1 w/ 98, 2 w/ XP Home, and 1 w/ XP PRO
My Pro can access everything... so can all the other computer except for the
XP Pro PC... I've had this problem for a very long time.. I do not have
norton or any other firewall protection besides windows. I connect through a
router and not a hub. They can all access the inet fine. I can even file
share as long as it's the PRO box doing the xfering otherwise XP home can
only access other home and the 98 computers and likewise for 98. But nothing
can access XP Pro. I've ran through the setup many times to no avail. They
are all pingable.. just says I do not have permission. Any know any kind of
resolution?
Bob,
perhaps the firewall is enabled on the LAN connection. If you do
not have Service Pack 2 installed, disable the firewall on the
LAN connection.
More likely, however, it has something to do with usernames and
passwords and the Guest account. This depends a lot on whether
you have Simple File Sharing enabled or not. If not, my first
recommendation is to enable it. I append some background
information below (from
http://www.michna.com/kb/wxnet.htm).
Hans-Georg
Simple and classic file sharing
Windows XP Home uses Simple File Sharing only.
In Windows XP Professional, if you desire classic file sharing
based on username and password instead of XP's default method of
allowing only Guest access, go to Start, Control Panel, Folder
Options, View, and uncheck "Use Simple File Sharing
(Recommended)". Click on OK.
Note that this is not generally required for file sharing.
Simple File Sharing should work fine, but Classic File Sharing
allows you to assign different access rights to different user
accounts.
Alternatively you can use Control Panel, Computer
administration, Group policies, navigate to Security Settings,
Local Policies, Security Options, and find the policy named
"Network access: Sharing and security model for local accounts"
and set that to "Classic - local users authenticate as
themselves".
After such a fundamental change, particularly when changing from
Classic to Simple File Sharing, it may be necessary to remove
and re-establish the sharing for all shares, one by one, in
Windows Explorer to make sure the shares are accessible by
Guest. Be sure to remove the sharing and close the dialog
completely by clicking on OK, then open it again and
re-establish the share.
With Simple File Sharing, some folders cannot be shared, such as
the root, each user folder, or the folder Program Files. But you
can share subfolders inside those.
A good and concise description of Simple File Sharing can be
found at
http://www.theeldergeek.com/quick_guide_to_simple_file_sharing.htm.
Classic file sharing
If Simple File Sharing is disabled, the computer uses Classic
File Sharing. This means that username and password of an
incoming connection request are first checked against the
existing local accounts on the target computer. If none of the
account matches, the computer tries Guest without password if
that account is not disabled or prohibited through a policy.
One of the most frequent causes of connection problems is that
an account with the username and password used in the connection
attempt does not exist on the target computer. In other words,
if you sit on computer A and are logged on as XMAN with the
password YPASS, trying to open a share or a printer on computer
B, it is easiest if computer B also has a user account with
username XMAN and password YPASS. Create that account, and you
should be able to connect.
There are other ways, like connecting as a different user and
storing those connection credentials with the "Manage my network
passwords" function (see below).
Diagnostics
A useful tool on Windows XP is the NET USE command, which yields
a meaningful error message when something goes wrong. Older
versions of Windows also have had this command, but Windows 98,
for example, doesn't tell you as much about the cause of a
failure to access a share.
Open a command line window and enter the following command, but
replace computername with the actual name of the target
computer, username with the actual username, sharename with the
actual share name and password with the actual password.
net use \\computername\sharename /user:username "password"
Hints:
An empty password can be entered as "" (two double quotes next
to each other).
You can also omit the password (and the two double qoutes)
altogether. You will then be prompted for the password in the
next line. Just hitting return enters an empty password.
When the authentication fails, you'd be authenticated as Guest,
but the administrative share C$ doesn't allow Guest access, it
only allows administrator access, so you can use the C$ share to
test administrator access.
If you succeeded in mapping the share, you can remove the
mapping again with the command:
net use \\computername\sharename /delete
And you can have all mapped shares listed with the simple
command:
net use
Experimenting a bit with this command can sometimes reveal a
little more about the authentication problem on hand.
Wrong username
One particularly insidious mistake is to change the user name in
User Manager, believing that that is the actual username used
for authentication, which it isn't. To find out for sure on
Windows XP Professional, right-click on My Computer, select
Manage, Local Users and Groups, Users. There you can change the
actual username in the leftmost column, by pressing F2 or by
clicking on it, waiting a second, then clicking on it again.
On Windows XP Home just try to create a new user account with
the desired name. If it already exists, you will get an error
message.
Password
To set or change the password in Windows XP, select Control
Panel, Administrative Tools, System Tools, Local Users and
Groups, Users. Right-click on a user name to set password. You
also have to set permissions for all users on the shared objects
(folders, files, printers, etc.). Usually this is done through
groups, which contain the users. Later use this same user name
and password to log on from other computers.
Note that a password can contain all kinds of special
characters, including spaces. For example, a password containing
one space is not an empty password.
Permissions, access rights
Make sure that the share access rights are sufficient (i.e. if
the access is through the Guest account, make sure Guest or the
group Guests has the desired access. Then do the same for the
access rights to the folders and files in the share. Remember,
on Windows XP Professional with Simple File Sharing disabled and
using NTFS (New Technology File System) you have to check access
rights twice—once for the share and once for folders, files, or
printers. The former are set on the share tab; look for the
button there. If you have set the object permissions properly,
you can simply set the share permissions to Everyone, Full
access.
Manage my network passwords
When you get an error that you have no permission to access a
share, another possible cause is that Windows XP is using a
saved, but obsolete password. To remedy this, use Control Panel,
User Accounts, click on your own account, select "Manage my
network passwords". Check whether the problem computer shows up
in the list. If it does, click on it and select Remove.
