XP Pro peer-to-peer network ?

[Patty]

I have a simple peer-to-peer network which is as follows.

Computer 1 - Windows XP Pro SP2
Computer 2 - Windows 98SE
Computer 3 - Windows 98SE
Computer 4 - Windows ME

I have just discovered that my other computers can no longer connect to new
shares on the XP Pro computer. If I set a new folder to share, I get an
error message on one of the other computers that the share is not
accessible and access is denied. I have set the permission to Everyone
(which is how all the old shares are set, and they work fine) and still
access is denied on any new shares. The old shares are accessed fine.
This is a new behavior, about a month ago, this was not a problem. I'm not
sure what changed on the system, but it has me stumped. I want to know how
to fix this. If I need to share a new folder, I cannot. No one can access
it, even with setting the Permission for Everyone to access. I do not use
the Windows firewall, I have ZoneAlarm Pro and even with it turned off this
behavior persists. Can anyone shed some light on this? I need to fix it.
Thanks!

Patty

 

[Patty]

I have a simple peer-to-peer network which is as follows.

Computer 1 - Windows XP Pro SP2
Computer 2 - Windows 98SE
Computer 3 - Windows 98SE
Computer 4 - Windows ME

I have just discovered that my other computers can no longer connect to new
shares on the XP Pro computer. If I set a new folder to share, I get an
error message on one of the other computers that the share is not
accessible and access is denied. I have set the permission to Everyone
(which is how all the old shares are set, and they work fine) and still
access is denied on any new shares. The old shares are accessed fine.
This is a new behavior, about a month ago, this was not a problem. I'm not
sure what changed on the system, but it has me stumped. I want to know how
to fix this. If I need to share a new folder, I cannot. No one can access
it, even with setting the Permission for Everyone to access. I do not use
the Windows firewall, I have ZoneAlarm Pro and even with it turned off this
behavior persists. Can anyone shed some light on this? I need to fix it.
Thanks!

Patty

I just discovered that the only way I can set new shares to be accessed is
to check "Simple file sharing" in Tools -> Folder Options -> View. Before
now, I was able to share new folders without having that option checked.
All I had to do was set the Permission to Everyone and I had no problems.
I'm still wondering what has changed in my system.

Patty

 

[Chuck]

I just discovered that the only way I can set new shares to be accessed is
to check "Simple file sharing" in Tools -> Folder Options -> View. Before
now, I was able to share new folders without having that option checked.
All I had to do was set the Permission to Everyone and I had no problems.
I'm still wondering what has changed in my system.

Patty

Patty,

Inconsistent access is a known problem here, and it frequently stems from having
recently applied Microsoft Updates.
<http://nitecruzr.blogspot.com/2005/11/irregularities-in-individual-share.html>
http://nitecruzr.blogspot.com/2005/11/irregularities-in-individual-share.html

 

[Patty]

Patty,

Inconsistent access is a known problem here, and it frequently stems from having
recently applied Microsoft Updates.
<http://nitecruzr.blogspot.com/2005/11/irregularities-in-individual-share.html>
http://nitecruzr.blogspot.com/2005/11/irregularities-in-individual-share.html

I looked the info over, and discovered that when I went into Security
Advanced Permissions for the folders that were not able to be accessed,
Everyone was missing from that list. When I added Everyone, I could then
access the folder across the network. Evidently when the share is set, and
even if you set access for Everyone on the Sharing tab, it does not carry
over into the Advanced Permissions. On the previously shared files that
were accessible, Everyone was included in the Advanced Permissions list on
the Security tab. I installed update 885250 on February 11th and I imagine
that's when my sharing problem began, because it worked a few months ago
with no problems. Thanks, Chuck, I hope Microsoft fixes this problem
quickly. Otherwise I will either call them for the hotfix or I will
uninstall that update.

Patty

 

[Patty]

I looked the info over, and discovered that when I went into Security
Advanced Permissions for the folders that were not able to be accessed,
Everyone was missing from that list. When I added Everyone, I could then
access the folder across the network. Evidently when the share is set, and
even if you set access for Everyone on the Sharing tab, it does not carry
over into the Advanced Permissions. On the previously shared files that
were accessible, Everyone was included in the Advanced Permissions list on
the Security tab. I installed update 885250 on February 11th and I imagine
that's when my sharing problem began, because it worked a few months ago
with no problems. Thanks, Chuck, I hope Microsoft fixes this problem
quickly. Otherwise I will either call them for the hotfix or I will
uninstall that update.

Patty

One more note... If simple file sharing is checked in Tools -> Folder
Options -> View, this problem also does not exist. The folders share
normally with no additional changes needed.

Patty

 

[Chuck]

One more note... If simple file sharing is checked in Tools -> Folder
Options -> View, this problem also does not exist. The folders share
normally with no additional changes needed.

Patty

Thank you for the feedback, Patty. I will reread this analysis very carefully,
I suspect that there are some details there that will prompt an update to my
article.

Your finding the easy workaround of adding Everyone to the list is very useful.
Please let us know if your findings change in the future.

 

[Patty]

Thank you for the feedback, Patty. I will reread this analysis very carefully,
I suspect that there are some details there that will prompt an update to my
article.

Your finding the easy workaround of adding Everyone to the list is very useful.
Please let us know if your findings change in the future.

You're welcome, Chuck. One other thing, which got me started in this in
the first place, was... I'm trying to learn to set Permissions for a class
I am taking (working on my A+ Certification). My original attempts were to
try to set a only one particular user to have permission to access a
particular folder on another XP Pro system. I am using Virtual PC to
create this scenario...

Computer 1 has XP-Pro installed (on Virtual PC).
Computer 2 has XP-Pro installed (computer 2 is the host system).

I tried to share a folder on Computer 1 for only access from a particular
user, "PRL". I put "PRL" as a limited user on Computer 1 (she is an
Administrator on Computer 2). If I try to access the shared folder from
Computer 2, access is denied. I set full permissions for "PRL" to access
this folder, even in the Advanced area of Security. However, a folder that
was shared by "Everyone" originally, before this update was installed, (and
I removed "Everyone's" access) worked, but Computer 1 requested a log-in
which "PRL" did and then was able to access the file from Computer 2.
Isn't this how it's supposed to work? Now I must set "Everyone" to all
shares or they can't be accessed from the other systems on the network.
I'm trying to learn network sharing and security on Win2000 and XP-Pro
systems. I haven't even started on the Win2000 yet.

Thanks for any thoughts.

Patty

 

[Chuck]

You're welcome, Chuck. One other thing, which got me started in this in
the first place, was... I'm trying to learn to set Permissions for a class
I am taking (working on my A+ Certification). My original attempts were to
try to set a only one particular user to have permission to access a
particular folder on another XP Pro system. I am using Virtual PC to
create this scenario...

Computer 1 has XP-Pro installed (on Virtual PC).
Computer 2 has XP-Pro installed (computer 2 is the host system).

I tried to share a folder on Computer 1 for only access from a particular
user, "PRL". I put "PRL" as a limited user on Computer 1 (she is an
Administrator on Computer 2). If I try to access the shared folder from
Computer 2, access is denied. I set full permissions for "PRL" to access
this folder, even in the Advanced area of Security. However, a folder that
was shared by "Everyone" originally, before this update was installed, (and
I removed "Everyone's" access) worked, but Computer 1 requested a log-in
which "PRL" did and then was able to access the file from Computer 2.
Isn't this how it's supposed to work? Now I must set "Everyone" to all
shares or they can't be accessed from the other systems on the network.
I'm trying to learn network sharing and security on Win2000 and XP-Pro
systems. I haven't even started on the Win2000 yet.

Thanks for any thoughts.

Patty

Patty,

Is this the "885250" setup? There are so few details provided with that article
(or "895900" rather). I can't begin to guess what the total scope of the
symptoms might be. All we're told is if you have any of these symptoms, and
885250 was recently applied, then remove 885250 or get the special hotfix.

It's almost a magic bullet. I hate magic bullets.

When you're learning Windows 2000 file sharing, the Microsoft white paper,
linked here, is good.
<http://nitecruzr.blogspot.com/2005/06/file-sharing-under-windows-xp.html#OlderOS>
http://nitecruzr.blogspot.com/2005/06/file-sharing-under-windows-xp.html#OlderOS

 

[Patty]

Patty,

Is this the "885250" setup? There are so few details provided with that article
(or "895900" rather). I can't begin to guess what the total scope of the
symptoms might be. All we're told is if you have any of these symptoms, and
885250 was recently applied, then remove 885250 or get the special hotfix.

It's almost a magic bullet. I hate magic bullets.

When you're learning Windows 2000 file sharing, the Microsoft white paper,
linked here, is good.
<http://nitecruzr.blogspot.com/2005/06/file-sharing-under-windows-xp.html#OlderOS>
http://nitecruzr.blogspot.com/2005/06/file-sharing-under-windows-xp.html#OlderOS

Yes, it is on the 88520 setup. Perhaps I'll try removing it. Or apply the
hotfix patch and see what happens. However, is the hotfix uninstallable in
case it causes more problems?

Patty

 

[Chuck]

Yes, it is on the 88520 setup. Perhaps I'll try removing it. Or apply the
hotfix patch and see what happens. However, is the hotfix uninstallable in
case it causes more problems?

Patty

Patty,

I haven't tested the hotfix, but if I did, I'd create a complete system restore
point before deploying it.
<http://nitecruzr.blogspot.com/2006/01/windows-xp-system-restore.html>
http://nitecruzr.blogspot.com/2006/01/windows-xp-system-restore.html