file sharing on network with vista and xp home computer

16 Jan 2009 5:26 PM

lschultz76

I am getting the "access denied" error when either computer on our network
tries to access files on the hard drive, even though the entire drive is
shared.

While I am able to troubleshoot on my own many other computer issues, when
it comes to networking I usually end up instead to the point where I want to
throw the computers out the window.

I have done all the main steps concerned with setting up the file sharing,
i.e. right clicking the drive, and selecting the proper options in the
sharing tab. I've spent hours on the web searching for a situation exactly
like mine so that I feel comfortable enough changing things I am not familiar
with, but to no avail. I sent emails to a few people I knew, but none have
offered working solutions.

I sent an email to microsoft support, but the initial response took a day
and a half to get back to me.. so I come here in the hopes that as detailed a
description I can give might allow someone to see what my problem might be,
without having to play email tag with microsoft. A quicker resolution would
make me a happy camper. :)

For reference, here is the reply I initially sent to the support specialist
(still awaiting response):

"I have checked the steps you have sent me.

In the first section, where you had me verify the permissions, I used the
snipping tool to show you what is listed (attached as "security.jpg"). What
name am I looking for on here? For the other computer that is running XP
Home, his login on his computer does not show up on that security tab ("Dan"
for reference). Should it?

I enabled the guest accounts on both computers through the user accounts
interface yesterday.

I have read over and over that XP Home already has simple file sharing
enabled, as it's the only way it shares files.

On my own computer, I have verified that it is already enabled.

I hope this answers the questions you had for me. For the record, I have
already tried making certain that both me and the other computer user in our
home both have the exact same logins and passwords on each computer. Maybe
to help trouble shoot this I can give you a little more history.

The computer I have now is only a week or so old, installed with Vista. My
old computer (which really blew up) had xp pro on it. About 5 years ago, I
had this former xp pro machine connected on a home network to another
computer running xp pro. I had zero problems... sharing was enabled, and
that was that.

When I moved out of that house, I still had my xp pro machine but wanted to
set up the home network with someone who had xp HOME on their computer. I
went through the same steps (right clicking the hard drive, selecting
"share," etc.), but we still couldn't access each other's machines. I'll
attach the exact error message in this email as well (attached as
"error.JPG"). At that time, we were friends with someone who's line of work
was networking, so his knowledge was advanced. He had us set up the same
exact accounts on both machines, both with the same logins and passwords with
administrator rights. When that didn't work, He told us to change some
obscure setting that was too advanced for me to follow... and while it has
been a long time and I don't remember exactly where it was, I THINK it was a
protocol he added or something; but I cannot be sure. Note here as well,
that at that time we did not have Guest accounts enabled. At least, I do not
recall having them enabled. I could be wrong. Whatever he changed fixed the
issue for us at that time.

Unfortunately about a month later, due to my own stupidity, I ended up with
a virus; and I had to reinstall my copy of windows (which was xp PRO).
Whatever setting he had me change on my end was gone... and so once again we
got the same access denied error; except this time, it was the xp home
machine who could not access my hard drive. My computer (xp pro) was still
able to access his. We just left it alone forever because frankly, while I
have been able to troubleshoot almost anything using the Microsoft knowledge
base, I am convinced that networking is evil... because every time I try to
fight that battle with the PC I lose. :-D

When I got this computer, running vista, we got the same error as before.
But this time, I did manage to find a way to fix it, and I think I had added
"Everyone" had access in some tab, though I'm forgetting where this is. And
finally... it was fixed! But that wasn't to last... because my boyfriend,
who has the xp home computer, wanted to reinstall windows purely because it
had been so long, and his computer needed a spring cleaning. So, a week
after I fixed our issue, it wasn't working any longer again.

This long story I have told you convinces me that it is an obscure setting
on his end that is causing this. Our network worked for a week after adding
this new computer, until he reinstalled windows and everything on his end
went to default settings. Now... hopefully you can tell me what that is! :-)

Thank you much for your help. I hope to get this resolved. If I have ever
been closer to throwing both computers out the window, it has been after
spending 6 hours yesterday on google trying to find a workable solution to
this problem. Thing is, I KNOW there is a solution, which is all the more
frustrating. If there wasn't, my network wouldn't have worked for a week up
until the very moment he reinstalled windows.

*For troubleshooting purposes, I wanted to point out that neither one of us
have any problem accessing "shared" or "public" folders that windows has
designated on either end. We just can't access what we are TELLING windows
we want access to: each other's hard drive."

16 Jan 2009 5:57 PM

kenlo

Could it be blocked by the firewall? Like NAV, you may have to go to Advance
to set up a rule.

Show quoteHide quote

"lschultz76" wrote:

> I am getting the "access denied" error when either computer on our network
> tries to access files on the hard drive, even though the entire drive is
> shared.
>
> While I am able to troubleshoot on my own many other computer issues, when
> it comes to networking I usually end up instead to the point where I want to
> throw the computers out the window.
>
> I have done all the main steps concerned with setting up the file sharing,
> i.e. right clicking the drive, and selecting the proper options in the
> sharing tab. I've spent hours on the web searching for a situation exactly
> like mine so that I feel comfortable enough changing things I am not familiar
> with, but to no avail. I sent emails to a few people I knew, but none have
> offered working solutions.
>
> I sent an email to microsoft support, but the initial response took a day
> and a half to get back to me.. so I come here in the hopes that as detailed a
> description I can give might allow someone to see what my problem might be,
> without having to play email tag with microsoft. A quicker resolution would
> make me a happy camper. :)
>
> For reference, here is the reply I initially sent to the support specialist
> (still awaiting response):
>
> "I have checked the steps you have sent me.
>
> In the first section, where you had me verify the permissions, I used the
> snipping tool to show you what is listed (attached as "security.jpg"). What
> name am I looking for on here? For the other computer that is running XP
> Home, his login on his computer does not show up on that security tab ("Dan"
> for reference). Should it?
>
> I enabled the guest accounts on both computers through the user accounts
> interface yesterday.
>
> I have read over and over that XP Home already has simple file sharing
> enabled, as it's the only way it shares files.
>
> On my own computer, I have verified that it is already enabled.
>
> I hope this answers the questions you had for me. For the record, I have
> already tried making certain that both me and the other computer user in our
> home both have the exact same logins and passwords on each computer. Maybe
> to help trouble shoot this I can give you a little more history.
>
> The computer I have now is only a week or so old, installed with Vista. My
> old computer (which really blew up) had xp pro on it. About 5 years ago, I
> had this former xp pro machine connected on a home network to another
> computer running xp pro. I had zero problems... sharing was enabled, and
> that was that.
>
> When I moved out of that house, I still had my xp pro machine but wanted to
> set up the home network with someone who had xp HOME on their computer. I
> went through the same steps (right clicking the hard drive, selecting
> "share," etc.), but we still couldn't access each other's machines. I'll
> attach the exact error message in this email as well (attached as
> "error.JPG"). At that time, we were friends with someone who's line of work
> was networking, so his knowledge was advanced. He had us set up the same
> exact accounts on both machines, both with the same logins and passwords with
> administrator rights. When that didn't work, He told us to change some
> obscure setting that was too advanced for me to follow... and while it has
> been a long time and I don't remember exactly where it was, I THINK it was a
> protocol he added or something; but I cannot be sure. Note here as well,
> that at that time we did not have Guest accounts enabled. At least, I do not
> recall having them enabled. I could be wrong. Whatever he changed fixed the
> issue for us at that time.
>
> Unfortunately about a month later, due to my own stupidity, I ended up with
> a virus; and I had to reinstall my copy of windows (which was xp PRO).
> Whatever setting he had me change on my end was gone... and so once again we
> got the same access denied error; except this time, it was the xp home
> machine who could not access my hard drive. My computer (xp pro) was still
> able to access his. We just left it alone forever because frankly, while I
> have been able to troubleshoot almost anything using the Microsoft knowledge
> base, I am convinced that networking is evil... because every time I try to
> fight that battle with the PC I lose. :-D
>
> When I got this computer, running vista, we got the same error as before.
> But this time, I did manage to find a way to fix it, and I think I had added
> "Everyone" had access in some tab, though I'm forgetting where this is. And
> finally... it was fixed! But that wasn't to last... because my boyfriend,
> who has the xp home computer, wanted to reinstall windows purely because it
> had been so long, and his computer needed a spring cleaning. So, a week
> after I fixed our issue, it wasn't working any longer again.
>
> This long story I have told you convinces me that it is an obscure setting
> on his end that is causing this. Our network worked for a week after adding
> this new computer, until he reinstalled windows and everything on his end
> went to default settings. Now... hopefully you can tell me what that is! :-)
>
> Thank you much for your help. I hope to get this resolved. If I have ever
> been closer to throwing both computers out the window, it has been after
> spending 6 hours yesterday on google trying to find a workable solution to
> this problem. Thing is, I KNOW there is a solution, which is all the more
> frustrating. If there wasn't, my network wouldn't have worked for a week up
> until the very moment he reinstalled windows.
>
> *For troubleshooting purposes, I wanted to point out that neither one of us
> have any problem accessing "shared" or "public" folders that windows has
> designated on either end. We just can't access what we are TELLING windows
> we want access to: each other's hard drive."

16 Jan 2009 6:02 PM

lschultz76

"kenlo" wrote:

> Could it be blocked by the firewall? Like NAV, you may have to go to Advance
> to set up a rule.
>
>

We both are using the windows firewall... which says it's configured to
allow the traffic between the two computers.

But that leads me to a question. In the course of my troubleshooting
efforts, I was able to we were both able to ping the machines. If windows
firewall was the culprit, would we still have been able to ping each other?
I am a novice with some of this stuff, bear with me. :)

17 Jan 2009 6:35 PM

lschultz76

**UPDATE** to this situation.

Since the contact through microsoft email has been 24 hours+ for each reply,
I decided to try the online chat to see if I couldn't get a resolution
quicker. I am so sick of dealing with this problem I wanted to get it over
with.

While the representative was kind, it felt like they had no idea what to
try. After pretty much placing each folder that was inaccessible into the
shared folder, they considered my situation resolved. But that doesn't
really answer my question... if you set up an entire drive to be shared, why
access to most of its contents is still blocked. They checked nothing in the
security settings for the root folder until I asked them to.

After spending at least an hour and a half in chat I got nowhere. In any
case, I did a little tweaking on my own, and booted the computer running xp
home into safe mode in order to make the security tab visible in the C drive
properties. I then changed the access for "Everyone" to full. Rebooted his
computer; then found that he now has access to all my files.

Now all that's left that is puzzling to me is that I still do not have
access to all his files (except for the numerous folders the representative
placed in his shared folder). I mentioned in my first post that when our
network was working for that one week, that I had changed "Everyone's" access
to full, and that had fixed it. At that time, I did not get any "access
denied" errors when I changed that security. After the reinstall of xp home
on the OTHER computer, one of the first things I checked was my own security
settings for the C drive, and the "Everyone" group was not there. But now,
when I tried to add it with full access, it said "access denied" for parts of
the drive, even though it has all of the boxes ticked. So now, in a
nutshell, in the security tab on my C drive that I am trying to share,
"Everyone" and "Guest" for that matter both have full access ticked even
though it is not behaving that way, at least on my end when I try to access
the xp home machine. But setting his security for "Everyone" allowed him
access to mine. The only thing I was able to find online that pointed at
this issue was with UAC. I tried setting the permissions with UAC off.. I
think. I wish I could say for certain if I had, but honestly I've been
tearing my hair out over this for a few days, and am a bit of a walking
zombie.

I am truly puzzled at what to try next.

There has got to be someone on here who has experience with this problem. I
know I can't be the only one. ;)

Show quoteHide quote

"lschultz76" wrote:

> I am getting the "access denied" error when either computer on our network
> tries to access files on the hard drive, even though the entire drive is
> shared.
>
> While I am able to troubleshoot on my own many other computer issues, when
> it comes to networking I usually end up instead to the point where I want to
> throw the computers out the window.
>
> I have done all the main steps concerned with setting up the file sharing,
> i.e. right clicking the drive, and selecting the proper options in the
> sharing tab. I've spent hours on the web searching for a situation exactly
> like mine so that I feel comfortable enough changing things I am not familiar
> with, but to no avail. I sent emails to a few people I knew, but none have
> offered working solutions.
>
> I sent an email to microsoft support, but the initial response took a day
> and a half to get back to me.. so I come here in the hopes that as detailed a
> description I can give might allow someone to see what my problem might be,
> without having to play email tag with microsoft. A quicker resolution would
> make me a happy camper. :)
>
> For reference, here is the reply I initially sent to the support specialist
> (still awaiting response):
>
> "I have checked the steps you have sent me.
>
> In the first section, where you had me verify the permissions, I used the
> snipping tool to show you what is listed (attached as "security.jpg"). What
> name am I looking for on here? For the other computer that is running XP
> Home, his login on his computer does not show up on that security tab ("Dan"
> for reference). Should it?
>
> I enabled the guest accounts on both computers through the user accounts
> interface yesterday.
>
> I have read over and over that XP Home already has simple file sharing
> enabled, as it's the only way it shares files.
>
> On my own computer, I have verified that it is already enabled.
>
> I hope this answers the questions you had for me. For the record, I have
> already tried making certain that both me and the other computer user in our
> home both have the exact same logins and passwords on each computer. Maybe
> to help trouble shoot this I can give you a little more history.
>
> The computer I have now is only a week or so old, installed with Vista. My
> old computer (which really blew up) had xp pro on it. About 5 years ago, I
> had this former xp pro machine connected on a home network to another
> computer running xp pro. I had zero problems... sharing was enabled, and
> that was that.
>
> When I moved out of that house, I still had my xp pro machine but wanted to
> set up the home network with someone who had xp HOME on their computer. I
> went through the same steps (right clicking the hard drive, selecting
> "share," etc.), but we still couldn't access each other's machines. I'll
> attach the exact error message in this email as well (attached as
> "error.JPG"). At that time, we were friends with someone who's line of work
> was networking, so his knowledge was advanced. He had us set up the same
> exact accounts on both machines, both with the same logins and passwords with
> administrator rights. When that didn't work, He told us to change some
> obscure setting that was too advanced for me to follow... and while it has
> been a long time and I don't remember exactly where it was, I THINK it was a
> protocol he added or something; but I cannot be sure. Note here as well,
> that at that time we did not have Guest accounts enabled. At least, I do not
> recall having them enabled. I could be wrong. Whatever he changed fixed the
> issue for us at that time.
>
> Unfortunately about a month later, due to my own stupidity, I ended up with
> a virus; and I had to reinstall my copy of windows (which was xp PRO).
> Whatever setting he had me change on my end was gone... and so once again we
> got the same access denied error; except this time, it was the xp home
> machine who could not access my hard drive. My computer (xp pro) was still
> able to access his. We just left it alone forever because frankly, while I
> have been able to troubleshoot almost anything using the Microsoft knowledge
> base, I am convinced that networking is evil... because every time I try to
> fight that battle with the PC I lose. :-D
>
> When I got this computer, running vista, we got the same error as before.
> But this time, I did manage to find a way to fix it, and I think I had added
> "Everyone" had access in some tab, though I'm forgetting where this is. And
> finally... it was fixed! But that wasn't to last... because my boyfriend,
> who has the xp home computer, wanted to reinstall windows purely because it
> had been so long, and his computer needed a spring cleaning. So, a week
> after I fixed our issue, it wasn't working any longer again.
>
> This long story I have told you convinces me that it is an obscure setting
> on his end that is causing this. Our network worked for a week after adding
> this new computer, until he reinstalled windows and everything on his end
> went to default settings. Now... hopefully you can tell me what that is! :-)
>
> Thank you much for your help. I hope to get this resolved. If I have ever
> been closer to throwing both computers out the window, it has been after
> spending 6 hours yesterday on google trying to find a workable solution to
> this problem. Thing is, I KNOW there is a solution, which is all the more
> frustrating. If there wasn't, my network wouldn't have worked for a week up
> until the very moment he reinstalled windows.
>
> *For troubleshooting purposes, I wanted to point out that neither one of us
> have any problem accessing "shared" or "public" folders that windows has
> designated on either end. We just can't access what we are TELLING windows
> we want access to: each other's hard drive."

18 Jan 2009 1:53 AM

James Egan

On Sat, 17 Jan 2009 10:35:01 -0800, lschultz76
<lschult***@discussions.microsoft.com> wrote:

>the xp home machine. But setting his security for "Everyone" allowed him
>access to mine.

If you give "everyone" permission to access the files it means all
users listed on that computer, not everyone in the world on other
computers. So "everyone" on your machine does not necessarily mean the
same as "everyone" on the other machine.

Use matching usernames on both machines and/or consider mapping drives
via batch file with a stated username password combo. eg

net use j: \\pcname\sharename "" /USER:dan

"" put a password between the quotes if there is one

Once the drive is mapped you will still be able to access files using
UNC names if you so wish. You don't have to use the mapped drive
letter explicitly to gain access to the files.

Jim.

18 Jan 2009 2:28 PM

lschultz76

Show quote Hide quote

"James Egan" wrote:

>
> On Sat, 17 Jan 2009 10:35:01 -0800, lschultz76
> <lschult***@discussions.microsoft.com> wrote:
>
> >the xp home machine. But setting his security for "Everyone" allowed him
> >access to mine.
>
> If you give "everyone" permission to access the files it means all
> users listed on that computer, not everyone in the world on other
> computers. So "everyone" on your machine does not necessarily mean the
> same as "everyone" on the other machine.
>
> Use matching usernames on both machines and/or consider mapping drives
> via batch file with a stated username password combo. eg
>
> net use j: \\pcname\sharename "" /USER:dan
>
> "" put a password between the quotes if there is one
>
> Once the drive is mapped you will still be able to access files using
> UNC names if you so wish. You don't have to use the mapped drive
> letter explicitly to gain access to the files.
>
>
> Jim.
>

Hello Jim, thanks for responding.

I understand what you are saying about the Everyone thing. I more or less
was just adding that update so I had more detail listed in this thread as to
what I've tried.. and what has worked, even if only on one end.

As to what you are suggesting I do, part of my problem is that reading what
you wrote is like greek to me... lol I would need more step by step
instructions, because what you are suggesting is something I do not have
experience with.
Show quoteHide quote

>

19 Jan 2009 8:17 AM

James Egan

On Sun, 18 Jan 2009 06:28:01 -0800, lschultz76
<lschult***@discussions.microsoft.com> wrote:

>As to what you are suggesting I do, part of my problem is that reading what
>you wrote is like greek to me... lol I would need more step by step
>instructions, because what you are suggesting is something I do not have
>experience with.
>>

I can't tell you exactly what to do only that I was plagued with
similar "access denied" messages when trying to back up some xp home
files onto a vista laptop and mapping a drive between the two machines
prior to the backup resolved the issue. Whether it wil resolve your
issue I can't say.

This is an excerpt from the batch file that I ran to do the backup

echo off

:CHECK

net use j: \\laptop\bak2lap "" /USER:jim
if not exist \\laptop\bak2lap\zip32\allmail.exe goto FAIL

:BACKUP

C:\WINDOWS\system32\ROBOCOPY.EXE c:\zip32 \\laptop\bak2lap\zip32 *.*
/S /FFT /ZB /PURGE
C:\WINDOWS\system32\ROBOCOPY.EXE "c:\my documents\mp3"
\\laptop\bak2lap\mp3 *.* /S /FFT /ZB /PURGE

net use j: /DELETE
pause
exit

:FAIL

echo Backup did not complete
pause
exit

(the two backup lines shown will likely wordwrap)

Jim.

19 Jan 2009 1:05 PM

lschultz76

I have some new questions.

Because the first online chat was unsuccessful, I was told I would be
contacted by a technical engineer on the phone. I had that conversation
yesterday with him, the following are the results.

He changed security settings on C on the xp home computer. But apparently
the documents and settings folder gets skipped even if you do this (at least
that is how he explained it to me), as well as program files and the windows
folder. He added "Everyone" with full control to give me access to documents
and settings, and that worked. He had not done anything with either program
files or windows, as I discovered when I tried to browse them. But I didn't
see a need for me to be able to, so I left it alone.

When the xp home computer could not access my computer (which was puzzling,
because the day before I had thought I had fixed that), he changed ownership
of my C drive to "Everyone" instead of TrustedInstaller. Even though the xp
home computer can now access all of my files, something about this is making
me uncomfortable. I have read a few posts online about this possibly
affecting windows updates, though the ones I have read were ambiguous, so I
can't be certain there will be any issues with me. So my questions are:
will this change affect my ability to download and install windows updates?
And will this change open me up to more problems from virus attack by
allowing changes to my system files? For the record, I always have an up to
date virus scanner running, as well as an active scanning anti-spyware
program running.

My other question regards the UAC. In the course of troubleshooting, he
turned off the UAC. Should I reenable it? Will reenabling it affect file
sharing at all? I'm still learning about UAC, so I apologize if some of my
questions seem novice. With my C drive now being owned by "Everyone," will
enabling the UAC help protect me in any way?

Thanks for any responses.