NetTrans

  • Thread starter Thread starter PVR
  • Start date Start date
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PVR

I have an XP with a sharing problem. The XP can find shared files on
other computers but they cannot find shared files on the XP. I have
been working with a professional fault finding company. They feel that
an Install of a Protocol from "Wireless Network Connection
Properties/Select Network Feature type" should solve the problem.
However when Add Protocol is invoked an error message is received
which indicates that NetTrans cannot be installed.

I have looked for NetTrans on the internet but this seems to be used
for Windows ME and for Windows 98, not for Windows XP.

Any comments regarding how to solve this sharing problem will be much
appreciated. Right now I am considering a clean install of XP but I
will loose all my data; I am trying to avoid that.

Peter.
 
PVR said:
I have an XP with a sharing problem. The XP can find shared files on
other computers but they cannot find shared files on the XP. I have
been working with a professional fault finding company. They feel that
an Install of a Protocol from "Wireless Network Connection
Properties/Select Network Feature type" should solve the problem.
However when Add Protocol is invoked an error message is received
which indicates that NetTrans cannot be installed.

I have looked for NetTrans on the internet but this seems to be used
for Windows ME and for Windows 98, not for Windows XP.

Any comments regarding how to solve this sharing problem will be much
appreciated. Right now I am considering a clean install of XP but I
will loose all my data; I am trying to avoid that.
Click to expand...

It is extremely unlikely that installing a new protocol will solve your
issue. I can't imagine what a "professional fault finding company" is but
the information you say they gave you is very odd.

It is far more likely that you have made one of the very common mistakes in
networking as described below. This has nothing to do with whether you
connect to the Local Area Network wired or wirelessly.

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. 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:

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, 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.

Malke
 
Malke, thanks for your reply.

Re: "Professional Fault Finding Company." A company which provides
trouble shooting service via phone for a fee.

Re: Running Network Setup Wizard. I have done this several times using
a USB flash drive as recommended by Windows. Part of the procedure
requires that I plug the flash drive into the router. My router
(Linksys) does not have a USB socket. Is there a work around for this?

Re: Third party firewalls. I use Norton Antivirus on all three PCs (A
Vista and two XPs). I can switch off the Norton Antivirus firewall in
all three PCs.

Re: Configure. I'll try your advice concerning various configure
suggestions.

Many thanks for your advice.

Peter.
 
Malke said:
It is extremely unlikely that installing a new protocol will solve
your issue. I can't imagine what a "professional fault finding
company" is but the information you say they gave you is very odd.

It is far more likely that you have made one of the very common
mistakes in networking as described below. This has nothing to do
with whether you connect to the Local Area Network wired or
wirelessly.

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. 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:
Click to expand...


Why is "C" necessary? I've never done this and I've never had an issue
sharing files between networked PCs. It's been my experience that matching
accounts/passwords do not need to exist on separate machines to facilitate
file sharing, viewing files on shared folders, etc.
 
PVR said:
Malke, thanks for your reply.

Re: "Professional Fault Finding Company." A company which provides
trouble shooting service via phone for a fee.

Re: Running Network Setup Wizard. I have done this several times using
a USB flash drive as recommended by Windows. Part of the procedure
requires that I plug the flash drive into the router. My router
(Linksys) does not have a USB socket. Is there a work around for this?

Re: Third party firewalls. I use Norton Antivirus on all three PCs (A
Vista and two XPs). I can switch off the Norton Antivirus firewall in
all three PCs.

Re: Configure. I'll try your advice concerning various configure
suggestions.
Click to expand...

You don't need to put your USB thumb drive into your router. You've
misinterpreted the instructions. Very few consumer-level routers have a USB
connection. However, you can set the Windows Firewall to allow File/Printer
Sharing manually on each machine.

I would *uninstall* Norton rather than just disabling it. Norton causes much
more trouble than it is worth. I recommend NOD32 (commercial) or Avast
(free) and using the built-in Windows Firewall. If you insist on keeping
Norton, then do not disable it's firewall component unless it isn't
configurable. Make sure the Windows Firewall isn't also running.

Malke
 
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