XP Pro machines "not accessible"

[Freddie]

I have two XP Pro laptops networked (together with a Win98 machine and a NT
machine) and I can "see" the XP boxes from each other, but trying to connect
to them gets messages like... "\\machine1 is not accessible. You might not
have permission to use this network resource".

I just can't make this out. The older machines are accessible from any
other machine, it's ONLY both the XP machines that won't allow access. I've
set up shares at the root of the hard drives (allowing everyone access) but
nothing I do seems to work. What can be going wrong here? Any suggestions
MUCH appreciated. So much for plug and play! :-(

Thanks!
Freddie

[Chuck]

On Sat, 6 Nov 2004 17:33:01 -0800, "Freddie" >
wrote:

>I have two XP Pro laptops networked (together with a Win98 machine and a NT
>machine) and I can "see" the XP boxes from each other, but trying to connect
>to them gets messages like... "\\machine1 is not accessible. You might not
>have permission to use this network resource".
>
>I just can't make this out. The older machines are accessible from any
>other machine, it's ONLY both the XP machines that won't allow access. I've
>set up shares at the root of the hard drives (allowing everyone access) but
>nothing I do seems to work. What can be going wrong here? Any suggestions
>MUCH appreciated. So much for plug and play! :-(
>
>Thanks!
>Freddie

Freddie,

On any XP Pro computer, check to see if Simple File Sharing (Control Panel -
Folder Options - View - Advanced settings) is enabled or disabled. With XP Pro,
you need to have SFS properly set on each computer.

On XP Pro with SFS disabled, check the Local Security Policies (Control Panel -
Administrative Tools). Under Local Policies - Security Options, look at
"Network access: Sharing and security model", and ensure it's set to "Classic -
local users authenticate as themselves".

On XP Pro with SFS disabled, if you set the above Local Security Policy to
"Guest only", enable the Guest account, using Start - Run - "cmd" - type "net
user guest /active:yes" in the command window. If "Classic", setup and use a
common non-Guest account on all computers. Whichever account is used, give it
an identical, non-blank password on all computers.

On XP Home, and on XP Pro with Simple File Sharing enabled, make sure that the
Guest account is enabled, on each computer. Enable Guest with Start - Run -
"cmd" - type "net user guest /active:yes" in the command window.

On XP Pro, if you're going to use Guest authentication, check your Local
Security Policy (Control Panel - Administrative Tools) - User Rights Assignment,
on the XP Pro computer, and look at "Deny access to this computer from the
network". Make sure Guest is not in the list.

If you're going to use non-Guest authentication with XP Pro, make sure that you
login to the Win98 computer - don't hit Esc when you start up and it asks for a
userid and password.

More about file sharing, between all different versions of Windows:
<http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?FamilyID=87c0a6db-aef8-4bef-925e-7ac9be791028&DisplayLang=en>

Cheers,
Chuck
Paranoia comes from experience - and is not necessarily a bad thing.