Cannot Access Computers on Home Network

  • Thread starter Thread starter Cindie
  • Start date Start date
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Cindie

I have a wireless router and the two computers I want to
share files with are both XP Home edition. I can ping the
computers from both ways so I assumet the router is
configured correctly. I ran the Network Wizard on both
computers so they are in the same workgroup, I shared a
folder on each of the computers and I can see both of
them when opening "view workgroup computers". The problem
I'm having is that I cannot double-click and access them.
I get an error that it is not accessable, I may not have
permission to this resource and then it tells me that the
network path was not found. I have no clue what I did
wrong or where to set permissions. I have the exact same
user and password on both machines, in which the user is
an administrator. I'm at a loss for ideas at this point.
Any assistance to figure this out--will be greatly
appreciated---I'm Burned Out.
 
-----Original Message-----
I have a wireless router and the two computers I want to
share files with are both XP Home edition. I can ping the
computers from both ways so I assumet the router is
configured correctly. I ran the Network Wizard on both
computers so they are in the same workgroup, I shared a
folder on each of the computers and I can see both of
them when opening "view workgroup computers". The problem
I'm having is that I cannot double-click and access them.
I get an error that it is not accessable, I may not have
permission to this resource and then it tells me that the
network path was not found. I have no clue what I did
wrong or where to set permissions. I have the exact same
user and password on both machines, in which the user is
an administrator. I'm at a loss for ideas at this point.
Any assistance to figure this out--will be greatly
appreciated---I'm Burned Out.
.
Try making like user accounts on both computers.
Click to expand...
 
I don't want to seem like a real idiot--but what are Like
Users? and would they be created the same way as a
regular user?
 
Cindie said:
I have a wireless router and the two computers I want to
share files with are both XP Home edition. I can ping the
computers from both ways so I assumet the router is
configured correctly. I ran the Network Wizard on both
computers so they are in the same workgroup, I shared a
folder on each of the computers and I can see both of
them when opening "view workgroup computers". The problem
I'm having is that I cannot double-click and access them.
I get an error that it is not accessable, I may not have
permission to this resource and then it tells me that the
network path was not found. I have no clue what I did
wrong or where to set permissions. I have the exact same
user and password on both machines, in which the user is
an administrator. I'm at a loss for ideas at this point.
Any assistance to figure this out--will be greatly
appreciated---I'm Burned Out.
Click to expand...

Cindie,

my first guess would be that the firewall is mistakenly enabled
on at least one of the two computers. Turn it off.

For more possible causes please see
http://www.michna.com/kb/WxNetwork.htm, but only some of the
points refer to Windows XP Home, which always uses Simple File
Sharing (implicitly through the Guest account).

Hans-Georg
 
JEP said:
Try making like user accounts on both computers.
Click to expand...

JEP,

not necessary on Windows XP Home, which only uses Simple File
Sharing.

Hans-Georg
 
The following may not make a lot of sense, then again, networking in
XP doesn't make a lot of sense.

Have you rebooted the machines since you installed the network?
If not, try that.

Have you tried waiting for a while to see if the network rights
itself? I found with an XP home peered to a 98SE, that it could take
up to 10 minutes for the network to become fully operational at times.

You said you ran The Network Wizard on both machines. Have you tried
the option of running it on one machine and asking it to create a
floppy disk to run on the other machine? This worked for me if I
rebooted both machines afterward.

Is file sharing enabled in My Network
Places/LocalAreaConnection/Properties? I don't know about sharing a
folder, because I shared the entire drive. To do that, I had to right
click the drive in file manager (Explorer) and click Sharing and
Security. There is dialog there asking whether you want to share with
the entire network or just locally. If you select sharing of say drive
c:\, a hand will appear under the selected drive in the file manager.
If you just share a folder, I don't know if the same thing happens.

Obviously you have done something like this already. I'm just
wondering if you checked the box about sharing with the network rather
than just locally.

Do you know how to use Netsh from a command prompt? There's a feature
in there that will reset TCP/IP and do many other things. Also, on the
XP CD, there are support tools available that have to be installed
separately from XP. There are useful tools in there like Netdiag.

As an almost last resort (there are other things I've forgotten), you
can try removing the drivers on each machine and removing the NIC
cards. If your NIC is built in to the motherboard, you have to disable
it in the BIOS setup. When the NICs are removed/disabled (with drivers
removed), reboot the machines. Then power down and rinstall the NICs.
XP will amazingly discover new hardware and reinstall the networks in
a fresh condition. After that, run the Network Wizard again.

As I say, much of this makes no sense. I've learned from years as an
electronics/computer technician that you can't always rely on error
messages. A computer is a very dumb piece of equipment that follows
it's master, the programmer. These programmer will often send internal
faults to error messages that don't necessarily pertain to the actual
fault. Many times the error means, "I don't really know what the
problem is, but if I make it look official, the user will think I know
what I'm talking about". Just because your error says the files are
not accessible doesn't mean that is the actual problem. It might be,
but it might not be.
 
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