Sharing Files With XP Home

4 Jan 2007 7:23 PM

scottdog129

I have set up a wireless network between a desktop and two laptops, all
running XP Home. When I set them up to share their files I can see the
computers in the My Network Places, but I cant see the shares or do anything
with them. It gives me an error. I need to get files off the desktop and
put them onto the two laptops. How do I set this up so it works?

TIA

Scott T.

4 Jan 2007 9:37 PM

Jerry

One of these may help:

Home Networking Annoyances ISBN 0-596-00808-2 www.oreilly.com
Guide to Home Networking ISBN 0-7645-4473-X www.wiley.com/compbooks/pcmag
Microsoft Windows XP Networking and Security ISBN 0-7356-2042-3
www.microsoft.com/mspress
Home Networking The Missing Manual ISBN 0-596-00558-X
www.missingmanual.com

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"scottdog129" <scottdog***@discussions.microsoft.com> wrote in message
news:834112FD-D6DF-422C-AB34-0F099ADC14B7@microsoft.com...
>I have set up a wireless network between a desktop and two laptops, all
> running XP Home. When I set them up to share their files I can see the
> computers in the My Network Places, but I cant see the shares or do
> anything
> with them. It gives me an error. I need to get files off the desktop and
> put them onto the two laptops. How do I set this up so it works?
>
> TIA
>
> Scott T.

4 Jan 2007 10:47 PM

Malke

scottdog129 wrote:

> I have set up a wireless network between a desktop and two laptops, all
> running XP Home. When I set them up to share their files I can see the
> computers in the My Network Places, but I cant see the shares or do
> anything
> with them. It gives me an error. I need to get files off the desktop and
> put them onto the two laptops. How do I set this up so it works?

Since you didn't tell us the error you get, you can't get focused help. Here
is my standard networking problems cut/paste. Go through it and it should
sort things out for you.

This is most commonly caused by a misconfigured firewall. Run the Network
Setup Wizard on all computers, making sure to enable File & Printer
Sharing, and reboot. 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 2005/06) which acts
as a firewall, then you're fine. If you have third-party firewall software,
configure it to allow the Local Area Network traffic as trusted. I usually
do this with my firewalls with an IP range. Ex. would be
192.168.1.0-192.168.1.254. Obviously you would substitute your correct
subnet.

If one or more of the computers is XP Pro or Media Center:

a. 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.

b. If you don't care about using Pro's advanced features, leave the Simple
File Sharing enabled.

Simple File Sharing means that Guest (network) is enabled. This means that
anyone without a user account on the target system can use its resources.
This is a security hole but only you can decide if it matters in your
situation.

Then create shares as desired. XP Home does not permit sharing of users'
home directories (My Documents) or Program Files, but you can share folders
inside those directories. A better choice is to simply use the Shared
Documents folder.

If that doesn't work for you, here is an excellent network troubleshooter by
MVP Hans-Georg Michna. Take the time to go through it and it will usually
pinpoint the problem area(s) - http://winhlp.com/wxnet.htm

Malke

--
Elephant Boy Computers
www.elephantboycomputers.com
"Don't Panic!"
MS-MVP Windows - Shell/User