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Do I need to upgrade from XP home for File and Printer Sharing ?

NO.

Ok, they're working.

Well, you tried. My guess(tm) is that you have XP SP2 firewall enabled. This is a good thing but does require a bit of tweaking to work on a local network. Control Panel -> Firewall Admin -> Exceptions tab Check the box next to "File and Print Sharing" (or somethin like that). Do it on both computahs.

You also need to mark the printer as shared. Go to the machine that has the printer attached. Control Panel -> Printers Right click on the printer icon, and select "Sharing". Enable sharing for the printer. A hand will appear under the icon to show that it's shared.

Before you can use anything on a different computer, you have to have a login on that computer. Make sure that BOTH computers have identical user logins: Control Panel -> Users and identical passwords for identical users (except perhaps administrator).

Also, be sure that the Workgroup name is identical on both machines. Microsoft uses MSHOME but I prefer the older WORKGROUP. Right click on the "My Computah" icon and select "Network Identification" tab and then "Properties" to change the workgroup name.

Your rumors are false. There's no difference between Home and Pro printing or networking unless you are on a big messy corporate LAN. See:

formatting link
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the differences.

No. However, the prayers of Bill Gates will be answered if you upgrade.

Sharing in Pro is the same as in Home. Your problems will remain. What you need is a good step by step proceedure for dealing with shares. Maybe using the Computer Management tool will help.

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has all the shares and shared printers easily visible.

Reply to
Jeff Liebermann
Loading thread data ...

File and printer sharing works fine with XP Home. Perhaps you have a firewall running. With ZoneAlarm, for example, you either need to disable it or add each computer to the other computer's trusted zone.

Reply to
Gordo

Being a bona fide Norton hater, I'd disable or uninstall NIS and see if things don't get better. Nothing gives me a more robust feeling of well-being than uninstalling Norton Internet Security from a computer.

Reply to
Rôgêr

Q. Do I need to upgrade from XP home for File and Printer Sharing ?

I am completely new to this wireless game (3 days) although I have read a lot up on the various procedures.

However, I am having an absolute nightmare (and daymare) with my wireless-B

802.11b set up.

------------------------------------------------------------------------

Have Desktop and Notebook, both running XP home.

Both are running NIS2003

Was given (free) a Linksys BEFW11S4 for use with my Cable 1Mbps service.

Both items are accessing the internet connection successfully without a problem.

------------------------------------------------------------------------

I have followed (I thought carefully) the various XP office network installation wizards for "File and Printer Sharing" and have since gone through the trouble shooters a number of times, without any success so far.

e.g., (rebooting each time) I have renamed both computers, etc, etc, a number of times, without success.

Am I missing something simple here, or are the rumours really true that "File and Printer Sharing" is a "no go" with XP home, and you ABSOLUTELY-HAVE-TO-HAVE "XP Pro" ?

Will my prayers be answered with an upgrade to XP Pro ?

Or if I do upgrade, am I going to have just as much of a problem with sharing ?

------------------------------------------------------------------------

P.S.

I would be more than quite happy if all I could do was only share a single "share-folder" on each of the PCs (like in instant messaging) and being as the Desktop is hard-wired to the printer I could just move the Word document from the Notebook to the Desktop and print it from there !

At the moment I am having to email or CDr the documents (no floppy on Notebook) - (I am also investigating Infra Red and Bluetooth as a solution for Document Transfer)

Any advice would be VERY much appreciated.

Thanks...

NF

Reply to
newsfroupie2004

The link may help you. If you have WEP enabled, it may prevent you from sharing resouces with a wired machine and you may need to account for that too.

formatting link
Duane :)

Reply to
Duane Arnold

"Gordo" k> File and printer sharing works fine with XP Home. Perhaps you have a

Many thanks Gordo for your quick reply,

As I said :

With your prompt I will now look again at the NIS2003 firewall settings.

Mmm, I did also forget to mention that...

When I try to access either PC via "Microsoft Windows Network" I get the following message pop-up box :

Entire Network

(X)

Mshome (network name) is not accessible. You might not have permission to use this network resource. Contact the administrator of this server to find out if you have access permissions. The list of servers for this workgroup is not currently available.

Reply to
newsfroupie2005

Many thanks for your speedy reply !

In my Google trawl I did not come across this link.

I will follow it's recommendations and report back !

Mmm, I did also forget to mention that...

When I try to access either PC via "Microsoft Windows Network" I get the following message pop-up box :

Entire Network

(X)

Mshome (network name) is not accessible. You might not have permission to use this network resource. Contact the administrator of this server to find out if you have access permissions. The list of servers for this workgroup is not currently available.

NF

Reply to
newsfroupie2005

Actually, I have the exact same setup as you.....2 PC's running XP Home SP2 with DSL internet. My router is a Linksys BEFW11S4 (same as yours) and I have wireless on both. The internet works fine on both and I can transfer files between both no problem.

Kevin

Reply to
Kevin Long

Sounds like you have to setup your sharing and permissons too.

Reply to
Kevin Long

"newsfroupie2005" wrote in news:il2Ed.6513$ snipped-for-privacy@text.news.blueyonder.co.uk:

You may have a need to set the protocols on the NIC's to match each other.

I use the following:

1) Client for MS Networks 2) MS File and Print Sharing for MS Networks 3) Internet TCP/IP Protocol

Everything else has been removed from the NIC's on all machines but those three on the wired and wireless machine for XP. I have no problems in sharing resources on the machines.

You should make sure all machines are using the same Workgroup name like blueyonder or whatever you choose as a Workgroup name.

You should also disable any personal firewalls on the machines until you have networking and the sharing working with out them.

Duane :)

Reply to
Duane Arnold

Many good suggestions here. However, you do not need fixed (or static) IP addresses. I'm really sorry Jeff, but XP Pro file sharing can be different from XP Home:

Windows XP [Home] Simple File Sharing

Windows XP Professional File Sharing

If I may make a suggestion, don't try to get everything working at once. File Sharing depends on having the settings on the computers, firewalls and wireless router working together. Tackle one component at a time to minimize frustration.

Plus, the computers must be virus/adware/spyware free. If you have a history of adware/spyware infections it may be necessary to reset TCP/IP and Winsock.

My general steps for establishing a network:

  1. Create a simple wired network. Disconnect router from the internet. Plug all computers into the wired ports on router. Disable all firewalls. Get file sharing working in this configuration.

  1. Establish a wireless connection with one computer. Leave the other plugged-in so you can change router settings.

  2. Activate wireless security. For the BEFW11S4, that means turn on WEP.

  1. Activate firewalls. Put your local network into the trusted zone. For Linksys defaults, this means subnet 192.168.1.0, mask 255.255.255.0

  2. Connect router to internet. Run online security scan and fix what it finds (for example,
    formatting link
    Lance
*****

newsfroupie2004 thought carefully and wrote on 1/8/2005 6:43 PM:

Reply to
Lance

I use it fine with dhcp enabled....

My firewall adds the whole subnet as trusted so its irrelevant what the other ip's are on the othermachines. As there is no win's and the router acts ad a dns proxy and not a dns server I can only assume name resolution of my other pc is done via broadcasts so you can access the pc via name or ip...

Daniel

Reply to
Daniel Bennett

I think you have to set up fixed ip-adresses on both PCs and disable the DHCP. Then you have to open for the ip on the opposit machine in your firewall. To test if things are running ok the eaciest way is to put in \ip in your filebrowser to connect.

Reply to
geir knutsen

"newsfroupie2005" then replied :

Many thanks again Duane, for your continued interest and support...

I will attempt some more configurations, as per your suggestions, and will report back with my results...

NF

Reply to
newsfroupie2005

Then newsfroupie2005 replied :

Thank you Rôgêr for your interest, I will be disconnecting from the web and disarming all security while I battle with my networking problems.

I used to use ZA and AVG but despite the bulk of NIS am impressed by the integration and support.

If I continue to have problems I may revert to ZA/AVG and see how it goes...

NF

Reply to
newsfroupie2005

Newsfroupie2005 originally posted :

Then "Kev> Sounds like you have to setup your sharing and permissions too.

Newsfroupie2005 then replied :

Thanks Kevin Long for your suggestions, they are appreciated.

NF

Reply to
newsfroupie2005

Newsfroupie2005 then replied :

Many thanks Jeff Liebermann for your support and all your detailed responses, throughout my OP text, it is appreciated, I assure you.

Most of your suppositions, hunches and guesses were spot on !

You have great insight to what I am suffering !

I will work through your suggestions and weblinks and report back when all is successful.

Best wishes...

NF

Reply to
newsfroupie2005

"Kevin Long" kindly replied :

Then "newsfroupie2005" replied :

Thanks again Kevin, for your interest and positive reporting...

If you have indeed managed to get a similar set-up working then I am spurred on to do the same...

Best wishes...

NF

Reply to
newsfroupie2005

"newsfroupie2004" originally posted :

Then "geir knutsen" kindly replied :

Then "newsfroupie2005" replied :

Many thanks Geir for your interest and taking time to support, I will look at your suggestions and report back when successful.

Best wishes...

NF

Reply to
newsfroupie2005

That is good.

I also use DHCP. My network is a WinXP Pro laptop with two WinXP Home desktops. The second WindowsXP Home desktop was installed and updated while connected to the network. It automatically configured itself with a shared printer that is connected to the first desktop.

I wouldn't add the whole subnet as "trusted" on a wireless computer for two reasons. 1-If you go somewhere else with your laptop and connect to a public WAP, all of the machines on the new local subnet are trusted.

2-Even at home, trusting all of the subnet means you trust any foreign machine that happens to connect to your subnet. Maybe you want that, maybe you don't. If you want to give a vistor access, you can enable the subnet temporarily. I don't WEP or protect my home network at all. It's unlikely that anyone will ever connect to my WAP, but if they do, I don't want them trusted on my network.

WindowsXP is fairly resourceful for finding the IP address of other Windows PCs. It will use DNS, WINS, or NETBIOS. NETBIOS is enabled by default.

Connecting by \ip_address eliminates the need for name lookup, although if I have links that are set up for name, "ping -a ip_address" seems to add the name to the Windows resolution so that it works by name.

On my router, I have set the DNS lease time as high as I can. On some routers, that is "forever", on others it is a week or two. As long as the desktop and wireless connect within the lease time, they always have the same IP address, but they are DHCP for ease of use as I move the laptop to other networks.

Reply to
dold

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