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:

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.

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.

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.

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.

"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.

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

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

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

"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:

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 :)

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:

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

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.

"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

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

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

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

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

Then "geir knutsen" k>I think you have to set up fixed ip-adresses on both PCs and disable the

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

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.

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.

Don't forget to check the firewall settings on both PC's.

I ran into that problem when going from two w2000 peer to peer to a XP Pro and w2000 network.

John