Cannot Start Network Setup Wizard

8 Nov 2006 12:56 PM

Jeff Deaton

I want to be able to share files to other computers on my network. Everything
I read says to just run the network setup wizard. However, I can't get it to
run. I go to Start>>Settings>>Network Connections. From Network Tasks, I
choose "Setup a Home or Small Office Network." Nothing Happens. I click
that option and no hourglass, no error message, no beep code. Just nothing
whatsoever. I wish I at least got some kind of message I could research.

Did I run this a long time ago and forgot? I do have one network connection
labelled "Local Network Connection" it connects me to the internet. It says
its status is "Enabled, Firewalled." Is it the MS firewall that's stopping
me? Was the wizard setup a while back and I don't remember? Can I check if
it has been run before and if so how can I change my settings.

Any advice would be appreciated.

Thank you,
Jeff

8 Nov 2006 6:23 PM

Steve Winograd [MVP]

In article <0B0A9415-3F0C-4A3E-8200-71BC6566C***@microsoft.com>, Jeff
Deaton <Jeff Dea***@discussions.microsoft.com> wrote:
Show quoteHide quote

>I want to be able to share files to other computers on my network. Everything
>I read says to just run the network setup wizard. However, I can't get it to
>run. I go to Start>>Settings>>Network Connections. From Network Tasks, I
>choose "Setup a Home or Small Office Network." Nothing Happens. I click
>that option and no hourglass, no error message, no beep code. Just nothing
>whatsoever. I wish I at least got some kind of message I could research.
>
>Did I run this a long time ago and forgot? I do have one network connection
>labelled "Local Network Connection" it connects me to the internet. It says
>its status is "Enabled, Firewalled." Is it the MS firewall that's stopping
>me? Was the wizard setup a while back and I don't remember? Can I check if
>it has been run before and if so how can I change my settings.
>
>Any advice would be appreciated.
>
>Thank you,
>Jeff

I'm sorry, but I don't know why the Wizard won't run. It should run,
regardless of whether you've run it in the past, and regardless of
whether any firewall is enabled. Look for relevant error messages in
Event Viewer (Start > Run > eventvwr.msc).

Fortunately, it's not necessary to run the Wizard, despite what all
the documentation says. You can make the necessary network settings
manually on all of the computers on your network.

Try running the Wizard directly by opening a command prompt window
(Start > Run > cmd) and typing this line, exactly as shown (upper case
vs. lower case is significant):

rundll32 hnetwiz.dll HomeNetWizardRunDll CHM=ntshared.chm

If you have another computer running the same version of Windows XP,
copy the Wizard's executable file from the other computer to the one
with the problem and try running it. The file is:

C:\Windows\System32\Netsetup.exe

--
Best Wishes,
Steve Winograd, MS-MVP (Windows Networking)

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