Mike said:
Malke,
I just tried it using the first article you mentioned. Apperently I'm
doing something wrong as I can't get it to work.
I turned off simple file sharing.
I created a user account (Cindy) on my machine and gave it a password.
I right-clicked on the folder I wanted to share, marked it to be shared,
and gave it a share name.
I went to Permissions, added the user Cindy, and gave that user Full
Control. Next I went to the Security tab and made sure the the user Cindy
had Full Control
Once I was finished with all of this, I went to another machine and tried
to access the folder on my machine.
When I tried to access it, it asked for a username and password.
I entered the username "Cindy" and the password that I had assigned the
account, but it won't let me in.
What am I missing?
You're missing that setting up a user account and permissions on one machine
doesn't set up file/printer sharing in a Local Area Network. You got the
request for a username and password because you don't have matching user
accounts on both machines. Here is general information on setting up
file/printer sharing:
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 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 with "Internet Worm
Protection" (like Norton 2006/07) which acts as a firewall, 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. Do not run more than one firewall.
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. 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. If you wish a machine to boot
directly to the Desktop (into one particular user's account) for
convenience, you can do this. The instructions at this link work for both
XP and Vista:
Configure Windows to Automatically Login (MVP Ramesh) -
http://windowsxp.mvps.org/Autologon.htm
D. If one or more of the computers is XP Pro or Media Center:
If you need Pro's ability to set fine-grained permissions, turn off Simple
File Sharing (Folder Options>View tab) and create identical user
accounts/passwords on all computers.
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.
Malke
