Hello
I used to have an XP Home to XP Home network, but one died, so I instead
have hooked up one XP Pro machine to an XP Home. THe XP Pro acts as the
server. Both have SP2 on them. I can ping both ways - but I cannot get them
to appear in the "My Network Places" area.
I know its something simple I am missing - and once I figure it out I will
be DUH! ANyone have any ideas?
Make sure the browser service is running on one computer. Control Panel -
Administrative Tools - Services. Verify that the Computer Browser, and the
TCP/IP NetBIOS Helper, services both show with Status = Started.
On the XP Pro computer, check to see if Simple File Sharing (Control Panel -
Folder Options - View - Advanced settings) is enabled or disabled. With XP Home
and Pro together, you need to have SFS enabled.
On XP Home, and on XP Pro with Simple File Sharing enabled, make sure that the
Guest account is enabled, on each computer. Enable Guest with Start - Run -
"cmd" - type "net user guest /active:yes" in the command window.
On XP Pro, if you're using Guest authentication, check your Local Security
Policy (Control Panel - Administrative Tools) - User Rights Assignment, on the
XP Pro computer, and look at "Deny access to this computer from the network".
Make sure Guest is not in the list.
Do any of the computers have a software firewall (ICF / WF, or third party)? If
so, you need to configure them for file sharing, by enabling the File and
Printer Sharing exception, and / or by identifying the other computers as
present in the Local (Trusted) zone. Firewall configurations are a very common
cause of (network) browser, and file sharing, problems.