Missing "My Network Places"

23 Dec 2006 9:04 PM

Ivanhoe

I have several desktops & Laptops connected to my home wireless network
through a Speedtouch Router. My problem is that, although all machines can
access the Web perfectly through the router, they don't seem able to
communicate with each other. "My Network Places" isn't displayed on at least
two of them, and despite everything I have tried to set up the network
nothing seems to work.
Any help or suggestions would be MUCH appreciated.

23 Dec 2006 9:47 PM

Malke

Ivanhoe wrote:

> I have several desktops & Laptops connected to my home wireless network
> through a Speedtouch Router. My problem is that, although all machines
> can access the Web perfectly through the router, they don't seem able to
> communicate with each other. "My Network Places" isn't displayed on at
> least two of them, and despite everything I have tried to set up the
> network nothing seems to work.
> Any help or suggestions would be MUCH appreciated.

Since I don't know what "everything I have tried" entails, here's my
standard cut/paste for networking problems. To get My Network Places on the
Desktop, go to the Display applet>Desktop>Customize Desktop.

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