File sharing between XP Home Laptop and Vista Ultimate Desktop?

Question

I have just purchased an XPS420 from Dell in Australia. It is currently running Vista Ultimate and the last desktop I had was XP Pro and everything was fine.

All I want to do is to be able to share files between my desktop and laptop - I have already set up printer sharing with no problem - it's just the file sharing that is the problem.

I have set up the firewalls to allow file sharing and both computers can 'see' eachother but when I go to click the shared file for my Vista desktop on my XP Home laptop it displays an error message saying I don't have permission - access denied!

The same thing happens on the Vista desktop when I try accessing the shared files on the laptop - except I can get in and view the files but can't open, copy, delete or change any of the files in the directory.

I desparately need help - I have a D-Link DI-524 Wireless Router and the laptop is connected through wireless.

Thank-you in advance.

Answer 1

Does both computers have identical accounts and passwords on them? If not, you will receive an "access denied" error message.

In a workgroup network you have to setup all computers with the exact same account names and exactly the same passwords on each and every computer, or you get the guest access permissions, and if the guest account is disabled, access is denied.

So, decide which computer you wish to duplicate the accounts of the other on and do it via Users Accounts in one of them, and then you will have the permissions associated with that account. Oh, the accounts HAVE to be the same type of account. Limited or Administrator, the same account name, (don't use spaces) and the same passwords on each computer. Just duplicate the accounts on one computer onto the other.

Here is a link:

http://windowshelp.microsoft.com/Windows/en-US/networking.mspx