XP is an x-pain in my ass

March 8, 2005 5:27 AM

Windows XP Home Networking Problem

I'm trying to share files and printers between my computer (XP Pro) and my girlfriend's (XP Home). It took a while, but I now have it at the point where both machines recognize each other in the workgroup, and she can connect to my machine and see my shared elements. When I attempt to connect to her machine, though, I get a message that I am not allowed access to that machine, and that I should contact the machine's administrator. I didn't really have to do anyting too special for her to have access to my machine in Pro, so I don't understand why it would be more complicated in home. It's possible it's a firewall issue, but I tried shutting down her firewall, and I still get the same problem. Any ideas?

Oh, also she's SP1 while I'm SP2, if that matters.

posted by emptybowl to computers & internet (5 comments total)

You've probably already done this, but just in case: Did you allow sharing on her computer under properties/sharing/share this folder on the network?

Windows XP networking is a mess. Every time I have to set mine up again, it always just seems to suddenly start working on it's own when it feels like it.
posted by amarynth at 6:37 AM on March 8, 2005

First, I would make sure you've created a user on your gf's pc with the username and password you use on your machine.

Also, I believe in windows xp home, you need to manually create a share to kick-start the shared folders permissions. What shares do you have set up on her pc?
posted by addyct at 8:18 AM on March 8, 2005

Why would I have to create a user for myself on her machine but not set up one for her on my machine?

Yes, I did have to manually create a chare to kick-start the shared folder permissions. We're both sharing a few folders and a printer.
posted by emptybowl at 8:23 AM on March 8, 2005

I just installed Network Magic Beta for a similar set-up, and am happily surprised with it.
posted by Heatwole at 8:28 AM on March 8, 2005

Check your file sharing: if simple sharing is turned on, that is part of your problem. Non-simple sharing means you can specify not only which resources are shared with whom, but also specify access control - the "sharing" and "security" tabs are two different things, mind you. You can allow users or user groups in Sharing, and allow or disallow access in Security. I'm forgetting exactly what the difference between the two is, but both need to be configured properly.

I've tried the same thing on a LAN at work (XP Pro has printer, XP Home can't print to it) and the only way I can make it work transparently is to disable passwords on both machines, basically opening them up to the world. On a LAN this is a dumb, dumb idea. On a home network, behind a firewalled router, it's less dumb but is still idiotic that this is the only way MS ever intended XP Home to network.

The second option, which is to set up account on XP Pro system using same name/pass as the XP Home box and give this account full printer access (alternately, allow anonymous logon and allow EVERYONE to manage the printer) works just fine, but you'll still need to manually find the XP Pro system through the network and connect to it, entering a name and password every time you need to print (yes, even when entering "anonymous" with no pass, this must be done), and THEN printing. XP Home won't remember network passwords, which I could live with, but it also won't remember logon names - not even the XP default, which is to try the name of the user account currently in use on the XP Home system, which to me is just asinine.

The third option is to upgrade the XP Home system to XP Pro. If you really need it to network transparently and don't want to discard passwords, without third-party software an upgrade is your only other option. Upgrades between XP Home to Pro (or from NT4 to Pro, for that matter) are amazingly painless. It won't even change her default desktop wallpaper.
posted by caution live frogs at 12:56 PM on March 8, 2005