XP Home - How do I Turn Off File and Printer Sharing and Other Unwanted Home Network Crap?

Win XP Home edition seems to be configured out of the box for a home network. I have a few computers in my house that share the same router for the internet, but the computers have no need to connect to each other.

Because part of my network is wireless I would be more confortable turning off the unneeded file and printer sharing on each machine.

Also, is Netbios needed?

In Control Panel/Local Area Connection, it lists "Client for Microsoft Networks," and "File and Printer Sharing for Microsoft Networks." Should I just uncheck these? Or uninstall them? If I do will anything else be affected?

Thanks for any replies.

Reply to
Clark Kent
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Uninstalling the MS F&P sharing will close the Windows networking ports on the machine. If you're not using F&P, then you don't need Client for MS Networks I would suspect too.

I got XP Pro on a dialup laptop and not using either one of them. The computer works just fine.

I am not even using a NIC.

You don't want to network you don't want to network. :)

Duane :)

Reply to
Duane Arnold

Clark Kent hath wroth:

Yep.

That's what turning off file sharing will do. You can also block access with the Windoze XP firewall and unchecking the "File and print sharing" exception, on the exceptions page.

Control Panel -> Network Find the wireless icon. Right click. Note the various items listed in the window. Uncheck "File and print sharing". Don't remove it as you might wanna use it later. Do the same for the ethernet connection if you're using that.

Yes, all Windoze networking is NETBIOS over TCP/IP. It comes with Windoze Networking and cannot be individually disabled.

Uncheck "F&P sharing", but don't uninstall or remove anything. I'm not sure about Client for MS networks. Probably safe to uncheck.

If you wanna do some real damage, try disabling some services:

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a record of what you change. Also, run System Restore to create a restore point before blundering onward.

Reply to
Jeff Liebermann

NetBIOS is not needed, and can be turned off.

Adapter properties, TCP/IP properties, Advanced, WINS, disable NetBIOS.

I have file sharing and Remote Desktop running with NetBIOS disabled. WinXP-SP2.

$ ipconfig /all NetBIOS over Tcpip. . . . . . . . : Disabled

Reply to
dold

snipped-for-privacy@XReXXXPXHo.usenet.us.com hath wroth:

Oops. I was wrong. NETBIOS over TCP/IP is only used for communicating with W95, 98SE, and ME machines. It can't be disabled in W95, 98SE or ME, but can in W2K and XP.

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of my networks have legacy hardware attached so I just leave NETBIOS running.

Reply to
Jeff Liebermann

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