Sharing folders in WinXP

Top Wop · Post by **Top Wop** » Thu Jan 04, 2007 1:01 pm

Im banging my head against the desk because its a problem I run into often anytime I do anything with WIndows networking. Ether the people who re-designed XP's networking are a bunch of idiots or I am.

Its the same old song. I want to share a folder on one computer to the whole network. I have disabled simple file sharing on all computers. When I go to sharing properties on the folder I want to share, I go to permissions, and I have entered Everyone, Netowrk, Users, and Administrator under Group or user names and I have given full control to ALL of them. I restart both computers. Then when I try to access the computer with the shared folder, wether using My Network Places or doing \\\\John in the explorer address bar, I get the following message:

\\\\John is not accessible. You might not have permission to use this network resource. Contact the administerator of this server to find out if you have access permissions.

Logon failure: user account restriction. Possible reasons are blank passwords not allowed, logon hour restrictions, or a policy restriction has been enforeced.

The ★■◆●? I want to share a goddamn folder on the network. Thats all I want to do. Why cant I do it? Im gonna kill somebody.

fliptw · Post by **fliptw** » Thu Jan 04, 2007 1:06 pm

use \\\\address of machine instead of \\\\John.

CDN_Merlin · Post by **CDN_Merlin** » Thu Jan 04, 2007 1:09 pm

//computer name or IP/shared folder name

ie: //johnspc/downloads

fliptw · Post by **fliptw** » Thu Jan 04, 2007 1:12 pm

a better solution is to explictly enable netbios over TCP.

TCP Properties->Advanced->WINS

you DHCP server(ie router) has no info concerning WINS, so it can take a while for WINS info to propragate.

Krom · Post by **Krom** » Thu Jan 04, 2007 1:22 pm

If you have disabled simple file and folder sharing on both computers, just type \\\\John\\c$ with an administrator username and password, then browse to the folder you shared. Or if you want you can type \\\\John\\<sharename> to access it directly. Also make sure the windows firewall is either disabled, or has file and printer sharing open.

To expand on with fliptw mentioned, open command prompt and type \"ping John\" if it can't lookup the IP from the computer name try checking if the \"Computer Browser\", \"DNS Client\", \"Network Location Awareness (NLA)\", and \"TCP/IP NetBIOS Helper\" services are running in services.msc. I can't remember which one actually does the job, but it is probably the DNS Client. If you still can't lookup the computer, use \\\\<IP address>\\<sharename> to access it.

fliptw's solution should work also.

Top Wop · Post by **Top Wop** » Thu Jan 04, 2007 1:24 pm

I use the IP address and I still get the same message. However I just made the changes to TCP so im going to see if that helps.

But I shouldn't have to do all of that. The design of all this is flawed. If I want to share a folder, it should just do it. I remember never having any of these problems when I used 2000 and of course 98.

Also excuse my distressed behavior and ranting, im being paid by the hour to get a task done but before I can do that I have to get the 2 computers talking first, so for me to be taking this long to get the job done is making me look bad. >:(

fliptw · Post by **fliptw** » Thu Jan 04, 2007 1:35 pm

make sure you have the firewall disabled, and both are in the same workgroup, and you add everyone to the SECURITY tab as well.

to summarize: On the sharing tab -> permissions, everyone should be listed and have at least read allowed, and that the same is true on the Security tab.

TechPro · Post by **TechPro** » Thu Jan 04, 2007 11:59 pm

If you're using the Windows SP2 provided firewall... make an exception for \"File and Printer Sharing\".

For other firewalls, you need to set them to allow the appropriate traffic.

With my Symantec Client Security... all I had to do was tell it a network IP range to be \"Trusted\" (local IP range worked for that).

Settings of other programs may vary.

Top Wop · Post by **Top Wop** » Fri Jan 05, 2007 3:37 pm

STILL no go. This is ridiculous!

Now from the other PC's that are already on the network, if I try to access those two troublesome computers I get a login request. This is not what I want and this never happened before to the current computers ive already set up which was a long time ago. Probably because at the time I had set up those comptuers SP2 didn't come out yet. The machines im setting up now have the latest copy.

Im still gonna kill somebody.

Foil · Post by **Foil** » Fri Jan 05, 2007 3:44 pm

Are all the machines using XP?

I've had issues myself with sharing between my own XP box and my Win98 and Win2K boxes. Sharing works one way (setting up the share on the older box, accessing it with the newer one), but not the other. I assume it's just a compatibility thing.

Krom · Post by **Krom** » Fri Jan 05, 2007 4:14 pm

Try: Start ---> Run ---> \"services.msc\" ---> scroll down ---> Select & Right click: \"Windows Firewall/Internet Connection Sharing (ICS)\" ---> Properties ---> Push stop button ---> Startup type: Select \"Disabled\".

Do this on both computers, and try the file sharing
again. If it is still no go, run the home or small office network wizard from network connections and see what happens.

Testiculese · Post by **Testiculese** » Fri Jan 05, 2007 4:16 pm

If you are not using a domain, you have to have matching account names on all machines.

Krom · Post by **Krom** » Fri Jan 05, 2007 4:55 pm

And blank passwords don't count, even if \"everyone\" has access.

TechPro · Post by **TechPro** » Fri Jan 05, 2007 10:13 pm

All of those... good info.

Method to double check the user name ... (why you ask? Because with XP, it can show your user as a name other than what it actually is)... Open a Command Prompt, type set and press enter. Look for what is reported as the username. Next, check the C:\\Documents and Settings folder to verify that your profile matches that username. Usually they match, but not always.

Note, frequently (especially on home systems) the username reported on the Start menu is nothing like the actual username being used.

Krom · Post by **Krom** » Fri Jan 05, 2007 10:28 pm

Can you even disable simple file and folder sharing in XP home? I seem to recall working on some home system and not being able to turn off simple sharing so I could access the admin shares.

CDN_Merlin · Post by **CDN_Merlin** » Sat Jan 06, 2007 7:51 am

IIRC, Home only has simple file sharing.

TechPro · Post by **TechPro** » Sat Jan 06, 2007 10:25 am

XP Home does not have the full file-sharing abilities of XP Pro, therefore it is constrained to \"Simple sharing\" or basically a limited version of file sharing.

But take heart! You can get nearly everywhere you need.

Be sure you access the sharing settings for the boot hard drive (root drive) and allow the system to share the root drive (this will activate the admin shares like C$ and such).

With XP Home, the \"Administrator\" account does exist... but it's so neutered and disabled that it might as well not be there at all. You won't find much evidence of it, so don't worry about it. You are allowed to create an \"Administrator\" username... but it will not behave the same of the XP Pro \"Administrator\" account.

The key to administrative access to the administrative shares is the username that has administrative rights that was defined when the system was installed.

At that point, you can treat it very much like the sharing of XP Pro, but without the account \"Administrator\" and you use the \"Users and Groups\" control panel instead of the methods XP Pro uses.

AFAIK (my disclaimer because my knowledge is limited to what I've experienced)