home router stuff

  • Thread starter Thread starter bobi
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bobi

hi,

i have 3 PC's and a pc laptop hooked up to a router. one old PC in WIN-NT4,
the laptop is XP-home, other 2 are XP pro.
on all machines, I have either ZoneAlarm or Kerio firewalls running, in a
couple of cases, I believe the XP firewall is also "on".

a couple of years back a comp-geek friend helped me configure all my PC's so
that I could share files - that all PC's could "see" the other PC's on the
network.

in my present setup (after many OS re-installs, etc), my PC's can't "see"
each other at all across the network. on XP, I get errors like "\\ is not
accessible, no permission, network path not found" or "workgroup not
accessible".

i'm not a network tech guy; I'm fairly ok with firewall and reg tweaks etc;
just wondering if there might be some simple rules to abide by when trying
to get XP boxes to talk. Stuff like "disable all your firewalls" or
whatever.

NT is another beast. It keeps bringing up a password box, but not sure what
password it wants ... like my NT admin login? or the remote XP box's admin
login? or do I create a new login (on NT or XP?) to use for network talk?

if anyone has some simple basics I should abide by (like, "get a Mac"...!!
just kidding) ... I would be all ears.

bili
 
bobi said:
hi,

i have 3 PC's and a pc laptop hooked up to a router. one old PC in
WIN-NT4, the laptop is XP-home, other 2 are XP pro.
on all machines, I have either ZoneAlarm or Kerio firewalls running, in a
couple of cases, I believe the XP firewall is also "on".

a couple of years back a comp-geek friend helped me configure all my PC's
so that I could share files - that all PC's could "see" the other PC's on
the network.

in my present setup (after many OS re-installs, etc), my PC's can't "see"
each other at all across the network. on XP, I get errors like "\\ is not
accessible, no permission, network path not found" or "workgroup not
accessible".

i'm not a network tech guy; I'm fairly ok with firewall and reg tweaks
etc; just wondering if there might be some simple rules to abide by when
trying to get XP boxes to talk. Stuff like "disable all your firewalls"
or whatever.

NT is another beast. It keeps bringing up a password box, but not sure
what password it wants ... like my NT admin login? or the remote XP box's
admin login? or do I create a new login (on NT or XP?) to use for network
talk?

if anyone has some simple basics I should abide by (like, "get a Mac"...!!
just kidding) ... I would be all ears.

bili
Click to expand...
Go find the ones which have more than one firewall and correct the setup.
For help with your other questions, consult the websites of MVP Chuck or MVP
Jack.

Also, you should get out of the habit of reinstalling XP in the hopes of
fixing something. XP seldom needs reinstallation. Most likely, you are
just making the same mistakes over again.
Jim
 
Go find the ones which have more than one firewall and correct the setup.
For help with your other questions, consult the websites of MVP Chuck or
MVP Jack.

Also, you should get out of the habit of reinstalling XP in the hopes of
fixing something. XP seldom needs reinstallation. Most likely, you are
just making the same mistakes over again.
Jim
Click to expand...

thanks for the referrals jim.
agree that XP itself rarely needs re-installing - finally, a relatively
stable OS from BloatWare central. It's more like the mix of drivers, apps
that install unneeded crap & TSR's along with drivers, XP updates which
often render drivers or IE dysfunctional, general clutter on hard-drives.
after 2 years of fairly intensive PC use, your system just gets "dirty" -
plain & simple. if it needs it or not is answered by how much better your
system runs after a re-format and re-install.
 
i'm not a network tech guy; I'm fairly ok with firewall and reg tweaks etc;
just wondering if there might be some simple rules to abide by when trying
to get XP boxes to talk. Stuff like "disable all your firewalls" or
whatever.
Click to expand...

You answered your own question. Disabling all firewalls should be the
first thing you do until the problem is resolved. Don't run two
firewalls on one machine that is asking for trouble. Occasionally,
disabling the (3rd party) firewall isn't enough and it needs to be
uninstalled to correct a problem.

NT is another beast. It keeps bringing up a password box, but not sure what
password it wants ... like my NT admin login? or the remote XP box's admin
login? or do I create a new login (on NT or XP?) to use for network talk?

i
Click to expand...

Create a username on NT with the same name you are using to log on to
the other PC.


Jim.
 
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