File and print sharing not working?


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I have two computers, a desktop and a laptop, both running XP Pro, connected by a Netgear router and I'm trying to get file and print sharing to work, but I cannot for the life of me get them to work. I've googled the problem and tried everything: NetBEUI is on, the permissions are set properly, I've tried it with both computers having identical logins and passwords and then again with not, tried turning all firewalls off... no matter what I do, nothing. On the laptop, I can see the desktop computer under My Network Places / Entire Network / Microsoft Windows Network / Workgroup, but when I double-click on the actual Desktop, it tells me "\\Desktop is not accessible. You might not have permission to use this network resource. Contact the administrator of the server to find out if you have access permissions. The network path was not found." On the desktop, under My Network Places / Entire Network / Microsoft Windows Network / Workgroup, I can't even see the laptop at all, just the desktop itself. What is going on? Any suggestions? I've literally googled fifty pages and tried the advice on all of them and nothing has worked. I would have hoped that Microsoft would have been able to make this idiot-proof instead of so damnably difficult...

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Try connectioning to \\192.168.0.x - or whatever the laptop is.

Another option would be to get the ip address of the laptop and enter it into the hosts file of the desktop, and vice versa.

Make sure that netbios is enabled under the tcp/ip properties - its on the wins tab.

I've had this problem a few times trying to set up My home network (wired) with firewall/router with one Xp pro machine and the other Xp Home. And I always tell windows to use IPX/SPX for sharing on the LAN instead of TCP/IP for security reasons, (an old trick) further complicating matters. The last time I had to set up my network, which was after I had to reinstall two machines because of SP2, it all came down to having to create user accounts with passwords on each machine that match the account of the person using the machine trying to connect. This basically logs the user in to the shared machine so it can access the shares. In the past I never had to do this. Maybe it's something to do with Sp2, I dunno. Also you may want to try switching simple file sharing on, and or off to see if this helps. I consider myself to be very good at networking, but lately I don't feel so good at it any more. :p I've also attached a pic of the advanced settings of the network adapter connected to my router. I don't post it as a solution, but as an example of something that is working. By default TCP/IP was also bound to file and printer sharing. And I added the IPX/SPX protocol for use on the LAN. Anyhow, good luck! When I had similar problems, I searched everywhere and found no solution either. You'll figure it out on your own most likely.

Check out Practcally Networked.com, it has some good info.

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  caledai said:
Try connectioning to \\192.168.0.x - or whatever the laptop is.

Another option would be to get the ip address of the laptop and enter it into the hosts file of the desktop, and vice versa.

Make sure that netbios is enabled under the tcp/ip properties - its on the wins tab.

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Yeah, I have a workaround right now by running an FTP server off the desktop and accessing it that way through the laptop, though it's still annoying: I'd rather still be able to use file and print sharing.

I've tried turning simple file sharing on and off, still no luck... blegh...

i will assume that they are both part of the same work group, not neccessary but makes things easier, also do you have to guest account turned off or disabled, if u disabled it i have seen it do exactly what you are stating but if you just turn it off i have seen things work. also have you tried running the networking wizard, under network conections is it showing any briged conectiosn or internet gateways???

  Nvidiafreak said:
i will assume that they are both part of the same work group, not neccessary but makes things easier,  also do you have to guest account turned off or disabled, if u disabled it i have seen it do exactly what you are stating but if you just turn it off i have seen things work.  also have you tried running the networking wizard, under network conections is it showing any briged conectiosn or internet gateways???

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They are both part of the same workgroup (named "WORKGROUP", how creative :)) and the Guest account is enabled on both of them. I have tried running the Networking Wizard, which does show gateways (I think)... they're both connected to a router (one by wired, one by wireless) which then connects to the internet. Running the Networking Wizard didn't help at all (in fact, it caused an error on my laptop that made an "Error 623: cannot find phone book" dialog pop up in my browser whenever I was browsing, but it didn't help me access the shared folders any easier...)

well i have run into problems before when it shows gateways, you really dont need it to have a gateway... all you should have under network connections is you adapters, your NICS and any 1394 ...

also have you tried goig to start run and say your on the laptop and the pc is named "PC" type in under run \\PC i have found that sometimes it may not appear under my network places but you can still acess the other pc this way and then access the printers too

  Nvidiafreak said:
well i have run into problems before when it shows gateways, you really dont need it to have a gateway... all you should have under network connections is you adapters, your NICS and any 1394  ... 

Well, if that's what you mean, I don't think there are any gateways... under the desktop computer (which is wired to the router), Network connections just shows (besides the wizards) "Local Area Connection" and the laptop (which connects wirelessly to the router) has "1394 Connection", "Local Area Connection", and "Wireless Network Connection". If by gateways you mean something that appears under Network Connections, then no, I don't have them.

  Quote
also have you tried goig to start run  and say your on the laptop and the pc is named "PC"  type in under run \\PC  i have found that sometimes it may not appear under my network places but you can still acess the other pc this way and then access the printers too

Yeah, I tried that, didn't work.

  Nvidiafreak said:
you sure all firewalls off??? is windows firewall off???  your using a router have you tried assinging Static Ips via dchp in your router????

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I have ZoneAlarm on by default, but I tried turning it off, disabling "startup with Windows" and rebooting, booting up in safe mode where ZoneAlarm shouldn't be autoloaded... none of it helped. (I keep Windows' built-in firewall disabled all the time.)

I've assigned my desktop the static IP of 192.168.0.2 but that doesn't help... again, I can FTP between them fine, it's just Windows' built-in file and print sharing that doesn't work.

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