joe said:
Every time i try to connect my xp machine to my vista, i always get a
prompt to enter user name and password for the vista machine which i
correctly enter, yet vista never accepts the password and consequently i
cant connect, its very frustrating. These computers and all on the same
network and in the same workgroup, xp and vista machines. I Also have one
ubuntu machine which no matter what i do cannot remotely connect to vista
machine. All the problems seems to be around of vista
Excellent, thorough, yet easy to understand article about File/Printer
Sharing in Vista. Includes details about sharing printers as well as files
and folders:
http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/bb727037.aspx
For XP, start by running the Network Setup Wizard on all machines (see
caveat in Item A below).
Problems sharing files between computers on a network are generally caused by
1) a misconfigured firewall or overlooked firewall (including a stateful
firewall in a VPN); or 2) inadvertently running two firewalls such as the
built-in Windows Firewall and a third-party firewall; and/or 3) not having
identical user accounts and passwords on all Workgroup machines; 4) trying
to create shares where the operating system does not permit it.
A. Configure firewalls on all machines to allow the Local Area Network (LAN)
traffic as trusted. With Windows Firewall, this means allowing File/Printer
Sharing on the Exceptions tab. Normally running the Network Setup Wizard on
XP will take care of this for those machines.The only "gotcha" is that this
will turn on the XPSP2 Windows Firewall. If you aren't running a third-party
firewall or have an antivirus/security program with its own firewall
component, then you're fine. With third-party firewalls, I usually configure
the LAN allowance with an IP range. Ex. would be 192.168.1.0-192.168.1.254.
Obviously you would substitute your correct subnet. Refer to any third party
security program's Help or user forums for how to properly configure its
firewall. Do not run more than one firewall. DO NOT TURN OFF FIREWALLS;
CONFIGURE THEM CORRECTLY.
B. For ease of organization, put all computers in the same Workgroup. This
is done from the System applet in Control Panel, Computer Name tab.
C. In Vista, turn Password Protected Sharing ON. Create matching user
accounts and passwords on all machines. You do not need to be logged into
the same account on all machines and the passwords assigned to each user
account can be different; the accounts/passwords just need to exist and match
on all machines. DO NOT NEGLECT TO CREATE PASSWORDS, EVEN IF ONLY SIMPLE
ONES. If you wish a machine to boot directly to the Desktop (into one
particular user's account) for convenience, you can do this:
XP - Configure Windows to Automatically Login (MVP Ramesh) -
http://windowsxp.mvps.org/Autologon.htm
Vista - Start Orb>Search box>type: netplwiz [enter]
Click on Continue (or supply an administrator's password) when prompted by
UAC
Uncheck the option "Users must enter a user name and password to use this
computer". Select a user account to automatically log on by clicking on the
desired account to highlight it and then hit OK. Enter the correct password
for that user account (if there is one) when prompted. Leave it blank if
there is no password (null).
D. If one or more of the computers is XP Pro or Media Center, turn off Simple
File Sharing (Folder Options>View tab).
E. Create shares as desired. XP Home does not permit sharing of users' home
directories or Program Files, but you can share folders inside those
directories. A better choice is to simply use the Shared Documents folder.
See the first link above for details about Vista sharing.
F. After you have file sharing working (and have tested this by exchanging a
file between all machines), if you want to share a printer connected locally
to one of your computers, share it out from that machine. Then go to the
printer mftr.'s website and download the latest drivers for the correct
operating system(s). Install them on the target machine(s). The printer
should be seen during the installation routine. If it is not, install the
drivers and then use the Add Printer Wizard. In some instances, certain
printers need to be installed as Local printers but that is outside of this
response.
The following assumes that you have set up sharing, including your firewall
exceptions, correctly in Linux. To network Vista to a Unix/Linux/OS X
machine, you will need to change the following policy in Windows Vista:
Vista Business/Ultimate only -
Start Orb>Search box>type: secpol.msc
When secpol.msc appears in Results above, right-click it and "run as
administrator".
Click on "Local Policies" --> "Security Options"
Navigate to the policy "Network Security: LAN Manager authentication level"
and double-click it to get its Properties. By default Windows Vista sets the
policy to "NTVLM2 responses only". Use the drop-down arrow to change this to
"LM and NTLM – use NTLMV2 session security if negotiated".
In Vista Home Premium, you won't have this tool so per MVP Steve Winograd,
do:
Start Orb>Search box>type: regedit
When regedit appears in the Results above, right-click it and "run as
administrator"
Navigate to HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Control\Lsa
1. If it doesn't already exist, create a DWORD value named
LmCompatibilityLevel
2. Set the value to 1 and reboot.
Malke
