enabling file and printer sharing from B to A

[mb123]

Hello
I have two computers, desktop(A) and a laptop(B), networked through a wireless router. Operating systems win XP.

The WAN part works ok and they can both access the internet.

However, I find that file and printer sharing is only available in one direction and I can only see the laptops shared files in my desktops network places.
( even tho I can ping A -> B and B -> A )

Heres what i did to configure the network:

1. Run the network set up wizards and set up an 'office' workgroup
on each node.

2. disabled windows firewall and antivirus software

3. enabled simple file sharing on A ( win XP pro)

4. checked that all the connection protocols on the network adapters and installed TCP/IP , client for microsoft networks, file and printer sharing

Ive may also have tried setting up corresponding user accounts, but this didnt make much difference.

The link to www.practicallynetworked.com talks about manually configuring ip addresses before installing a router etc, and well i dont know if thats applicable.

I was wondering if someone can tell, what else i might need to check in order to get connected.

Are there some services that must be enabled on my desktop before file and printer sharing is possible? what are they?

thanks in advance

mb123

[NooNoo]

You have to enable filesharing on both computers... is one xp pro and the other xp home?

[mb123]

And how do i do that...
Funnily enough the XP home computer (laptop ) worked automatically, i think it has simple file sharing enabled by default.

Its the desktop that wont allow access. I thought it may have something to do with user permissions - which is why i tried setting up a user account on both computers by the same name.

Or something to do with the network services that i have to have running.
I manually configured the list of services through the Services utility, so that the desktop now has enabled the exact same services, that i could find, on the laptop.

I dont know if it makes any difference, that I fiddled with the desktop settings - switching services on and off through msconfig, to reduce unecessary processing - So that now for example, even tho the server service is running it is unchecked in msconfig. Do you think it is best to just enable all the items listed here anyway - like they are on the laptop?

My desktop ipconfig/all results look like this:

Windows IP Configuration
Host Name . . . . . . . . . . . . : DESKTOP
Primary Dns Suffix . . . . . . . :
Node Type . . . . . . . . . . . . : Unknown
IP Routing Enabled. . . . . . . . : No
WINS Proxy Enabled. . . . . . . . : Yes

Ethernet adapter Local Area Connection 10:
Connection-specific DNS Suffix . :
Description . . . . . . . . . . . : Realtek RTL8139 Family PCI Fast Ethernet NIC #2
Physical Address. . . . . . . . . : 00-E0-4C-E9-32-DF
Dhcp Enabled. . . . . . . . . . . : Yes
Autoconfiguration Enabled . . . . : Yes
IP Address. . . . . . . . . . . . : 192.168.1.100
Subnet Mask . . . . . . . . . . . : 255.255.255.0
IP Address. . . . . . . . . . . . : fe80::2e0:4cff:fee9:32df%4
Default Gateway . . . . . . . . . : 192.168.1.1
DHCP Server . . . . . . . . . . . : 192.168.1.1
DNS Servers . . . . . . . . . . . : 203.0.178.191
fec0:0:0:ffff::1%1

fec0:0:0:ffff::2%1

fec0:0:0:ffff::3%1
Lease Obtained. . . . . . . . . . : Sunday, 9 October 2005 11:31:40 AM
Lease Expires . . . . . . . . . . : Monday, 10 October 2005 11:31:40 AM

Tunnel adapter Teredo Tunneling Pseudo-Interface:
Connection-specific DNS Suffix . :
Description . . . . . . . . . . . : Teredo Tunneling Pseudo-Interface
Physical Address. . . . . . . . . : FF-FF-FF-FF-FF-FF-FF-FF
Dhcp Enabled. . . . . . . . . . . : No
IP Address. . . . . . . . . . . . : fe80::5445:5245:444f%5
Default Gateway . . . . . . . . . :
NetBIOS over Tcpip. . . . . . . . : Disabled


And the laptop was listed when i ran nbtstat -c command.

Does this information show up any potential problems?

I would appreacite your help

mb123

[NooNoo]

I can only see the laptops shared files in my desktops network places.

I wonder... What happens if you try to use the unc address...
on the laptop
start run and type in the \\nameofdestop\sharenameofdrive click ok

so if your desktop was named Fred and you named the share on the desktop Docs you would type in

\\Fred\Docs
and click ok... an explorer window should open or a message not found or not enough rights.

As for the user passwords bit... let's check that is ok

Desktop has an account which you login into - say.. Fred with a password of desktop
Laptop has an account which you login into - say .. George with a password of laptop

On the Desktop machine, you need to create an account of George with the password of laptop.

On the Laptop machine you need to create an account of Fred with a password of desktop.

So on each machine you have Fred and George with matching passwords. Did you set it up like that? Are Fred and George restricted users?

[mb123]

" What happens if you try to use the unc address...on the laptop"

I typed in \\nameofdesktop\sharedocs in the explorer address bar and I get error message informing me of my rights, namely -
desktop is not accessible... and I dont have the neccessary permissions to use this network resource... Contact the administrator etc

I am the administrator! But i dont know how to go about setting permissions, other than in the way you suggested and this didnt do anything much.

At the same time, I can see the laptop when i type in \\laptop\sharedocs.

So yeah, after all that im back to where i started - cant get from B to A.

Im sure i have lots here to work through already. I was wondering if you could be a little more specific tho, cos its kind of new.

thanks

mb123

[NooNoo]

Did you check the rights for the shares? Did you check the user names and passwords are correct? You cannot use blank passwords with xp pro.

Specific about? I can give you click by click - but not for the entire security system of an OS!

[mb123]

why do i want to check all that when simple file sharing is on. I thought simple file sharing allowed access without having to use any user accounts and passwords ? - i figure thats how it is on the laptop

When i turn simple file sharing off , the security tab in the properties window shows the following users as having access rights to my desktops shareddoc folder:
Administrators , creator owner, power users, system and users.

Presumably then id have to adjust the rights on one of these user group setting to allow network access permissions. If that is the case, what group setting do i change and how can i do this safely?

[NooNoo]

no it does not in pro - but does in home. Pro is quite different when it comes to security.

[mb123]

When i go into the local security settings i can see the setting 'Access this computer from the network'.
When i try to specifically add \\laptop\user to the User or Group list, I find that it objects.
I think this setting might be for remote computer access only?

[NooNoo]

Could you please just setup the accounts with passwords as advised first?
Did you create a share on the drive and folders or are you just trying to access it without creating a share first?

[mb123]

Ok i have set a user account with password to match the one on the laptop.

There is a shared folder on the drive that the new user may not have access to yet.

Im not sure where to adjust that??

[NooNoo]

Right click on the folder, properties, security tab - then add the user.