LAN only connects one way.

[riddellcomp]

I am trying to setup a simple home network with a desktop pc and a laptop using ICS to share the internet connection with the laptop. I turned on ics on the internet connection on the desktop which then gave the lan connection an ip address of 192.168.0.1 I setup the laptops lan connection to obtain an ip address automatically but for some reason it wouldnt work so I set it manually at 192.168.0.2 and the default gateway at 192.168.0.1

All was fine and I can access the internet from both machines. I have set folders to be shared on both machines (WHich are running xp home and xp pro with simple file sharing enabled)
However whilst the laptop can ping the desktop and access its files, the desktop cannot ping the laptop and cannot access any of its files.
Both machines are on the same workgroup and if I try to open the laptop whilst in "View workgroup computers" I get the error message //mshome is not accessible, you may not have permission.......

Its obviously something simple as I have had this problem before, but just can't remember what I did to fix it. All firewalls are off whilst this is setup.

Any ideas what could be wrong?

[DonJ]

Is it possible that you're using Zone Alarm? If so, even tho you've turned it off, it can still screw things up just like you're describing. You can either go ahead and turn it back on and click on Allow these programs to run/access the internet, etc. like normal. Or, you can Uninstall ZA. But you need to run that Uninstall program twice as just once doesn't catch everything.

If you're not using ZA, then sorry to take up your time.

[riddellcomp]

No Zone Alarm involved, just the windows firewall which is switched off anyway.

[riddellcomp]

Someone???? Anyone????? Pleeeaseee????

[MobilePCPhysician]

Either setup name/password for each unit. They can be the same on both, or turn on the guest account.

[riddellcomp]

The guest account is on for both machines. They both have usernames to log in but only one of them has a password. The desktop. The laptop doesnt have password access. I thought this only needed to be done if we werent using simple file sharing??

[Stalemate]

Try using the same username / password combo on both machines.

If that fails, I've seen a buddy here at work use a trick where he disables Simple File Sharing from the Folder Options (where multiple flavors/builds of WinXP were involved) to workaround that.

[riddellcomp]

As XP home only has simple file sharing wouldnt disabling it on the xp pro machine cause the home machine not to be able to connect? I thought that for an xp home machine to conenct to a network with an xp Pro machine simple file sharing was the only option and therefore couldnt be turned off?