How to fix file sharing problem in home network?

Question

I have a DLink router DI-524 and 2 pc's both running win xp pro sp2. the desktop is hardwired to the router and the laptop is connected wirelessly. The laptop can share and edit files from all desktop drives but the desktop cannot access the laptop. the laptop does show up under "view workgroup computers" from the desktop but when i click on it to access it i get the following error "dont have permission to use this network resource. contact administrator.......network path not found." I also have simple file sharing turned on. I can share printers from the laptop but not the files. I have checked to make sure that my Zonealarm firewall settings are exactly the same on both machines. Windows firewall is off on both machines and the workgroup is also the same on both. thanks in advance.

Answer 1

Hello there,

Since you can see the computers, networking is not your issue. This is probably a simple case of how windows peer to peer networking works. Here is a crash course.

In order to share documents from pc to pc, user accounts must be present on all machines. Passwords must be IDENTICAL. For sake of this demonstration, we'll use your "Laptop" and "Desktop" as examples. We will use accounts "Larry" for the laptop and "Diane" for desktop.

Larry uses his Laptop. Larry is logged into his Laptop just fine. He wants to access files from the "Desktop" In order to get files from "Desktop", the user "Larry" must have the same username and password on the computer "Desktop" as he does on Laptop. The password MUST be the same on BOTH computers otherwise authentication will not work.

Now Diane is logged into computer Desktop. If she wants to access files on Laptop, she must have an account on Laptop, with the same username and password that she has on Laptop.

Now, to get around this you can turn off simple file sharing by opening up My Computer, goto Tools|Folder Options. Click on the "View" tab and scroll all the way to the bottom to UNCHECK "Use simple file sharing (recommended)"

Now, right click on the folder you want to share. Select Properties. Click on the "Sharing" tab. Click the Radio button that says "Share this folder". The Share name is what the person will see when they browse in Network Neighborhood.

Now select the Permissions option below the share name. Make sure that "everyone" has full access. You are not done yet.

Across the top you will see the "Security" tab. Select it. Press the Add button and add the group "Everyone" Make sure they have Full Control Access.

If you have added those users, you should be able to select each of them and give them full control. This will prevent anyone else that hits your network from accessing those files.

Hope this helps. You can email me if you have any other questions.

Tom :)

Answer 2

I'd try a few things.

Unshare and then reshare the folder that you want to access remotely.

Uninstall ZoneAlarm and see if it fixes the problem. Turning it off isn't enough, and I've seen so many cases where is SHOULD work, but it doesn't.

Try to access the shared folder using the IP address of the remote PC, rather than its name. Open Windows Explorer (not IE, but the regular file browser) and enter \\[IP address] and see if you can see the shared resources on the far end machine.

You will also see problems like you discuss if the Guest account on the remote PC is not set up correctly. Rerun the windows Home or Small Business Network setup wizard to try to fix this.

Answer 3

you ought to setup all the computers to an analogous community, pass to My laptop actual-click in the white section, click properties, then laptop call, Workgroup, make all of them an analogous. you will ought to do this on all the computers