File sharing on XP Pro -- not accessible

[jesusfr3ak4evr]

I have my pc and a notebook connected using CAT5E cables to the same router, they are in the same workgroup, file and sharing is enabled on both pcs and windows firewall is off, yet when I click on the other pc in My Network Places, view workgroup computers, it gives me this error:

//PCName 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.

Access is denied.

How do I get it to work? Thanks.

 

[Fark_Maniac]

same username / password on both machines?

it has been my experience that 'guest' is denied acces over the network by default in the group policy editor...so if you don't have the same username/password....it tries to login as guest (which is not in the "everyone" group as of XP) and thus gets denied.

 

[jesusfr3ak4evr]

ok... that's nice, except neither my pc nor the notebook has a password, like it just boots up immediately.

 

[chalkspray]

You can use the same username/password on both machines to get around this problem or create an account on pc A using the same username & password that pc B uses to log in. Then on pc B create an account using the same username & password that pc A uses to log in. Put those new accounts in the administrators group of that pc or just give them rights to the share. It all depends on whether or not you want the pc's to have the same username/password. I have a second computer that my girlfriend uses and I'd rather not give her login rights to my pc so when sharing files between the pc's I've had to configure her account on my pc to have access to that share but not to log in.

 

[chalkspray]

ok... that's nice, except neither my pc nor the notebook has a password, like it just boots up immediately.

Go to the control panels and make sure you're in classic view. Select "User Accounts". The administrator account may be a random set of characters or it may actually be the word "administrator". Either way you've probably got an administrator account in there with no password and it has been configured for automatic login. Off the top of my head I forget where the automatic login option is (and I'm at work so my pc logs into a domain controller and the options are not the same) but you need to disable automatic login and choose the "change how users login" option to select the "login prompt" instead of "Welcome Screen". Either make sure that the username & password is the same on both pc's or create a new account on each pc for its peer as I mentioned earlier.

I would also recommend disabling "simple file sharing" in order to correctly configure which users can connect to the shares. You can disable this by opening my computer, then tools, folder options, view tab. Near the bottom you will find the option for "use simple file sharing". Uncheck it.

 

[Fark_Maniac]

I have a second computer that my girlfriend uses and I'd rather not give her login rights to my pc so when sharing files between the pc's I've had to configure her account on my pc to have access to that share but not to log in.

Same section in the group policy editor...."Deny Local Login" add her name to that and she'll never be able to logon to that box

 

[jesusfr3ak4evr]

Go to the control panels and make sure you're in classic view. Select "User Accounts". The administrator account may be a random set of characters or it may actually be the word "administrator". Either way you've probably got an administrator account in there with no password and it has been configured for automatic login. Off the top of my head I forget where the automatic login option is (and I'm at work so my pc logs into a domain controller and the options are not the same) but you need to disable automatic login and choose the "change how users login" option to select the "login prompt" instead of "Welcome Screen". Either make sure that the username & password is the same on both pc's or create a new account on each pc for its peer as I mentioned earlier.

I would also recommend disabling "simple file sharing" in order to correctly configure which users can connect to the shares. You can disable this by opening my computer, then tools, folder options, view tab. Near the bottom you will find the option for "use simple file sharing". Uncheck it.

Thank you! I had never before figured out where to disable simple file sharing. I'm going to set up an account on the pc and notebook now and see what I can do.

EDIT: I did all of that and am still getting the same problems with denied access. Something is fishy. I had this working on another computer in the network once, and I did nothing. It's weird...

 

[jesusfr3ak4evr]

I got it to work. It ended up the problem was Norton Antivirus. I never run pos programs like Norton, but this was my friend's laptop. *sigh* well at least now I know all about file sharing.

 

[chalkspray]

Same section in the group policy editor...."Deny Local Login" add her name to that and she'll never be able to logon to that box

Right... thats what I had done. I was just making a suggestion in case thats what he was trying to do.

 

[chalkspray]

I got it to work. It ended up the problem was Norton Antivirus. I never run pos programs like Norton, but this was my friend's laptop. *sigh* well at least now I know all about file sharing.

Yeah, Norton SystemWorks with the Firewall app can be a big pain. I've had nothing but problems with that firewall app. Have you seen the uninstall instructions that Symantec gives for manual uninstalls of their products? Their uninstallers break (or fail to completely remove the software) so frequently that they have created a several page document listing all of the files installed with their products! I like the Corporate Edition of Symantec Antivirus; works quite well. The rest of their stuff is crap though. I worked for Roxio many years ago, back when they owned GoBack. Symantec has pretty much killed that product too.