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ARGH.. can't share folders on WinXP Pro!!

M

MDesigner

Platinum Member
This is driving me up a f'ing wall! For some reason, of the 4 computers in our household, my desktop is the only one that won't be seen in everyone else's "Network Places". All computers show up in that folder except my desktop. Even if I specifically share a folder and make sure the permissions for it are "Everyone - Full Control" or whatever, they can't access it directly via \\myscrewedcomputer\foldername. It always prompts them for a username and password. Why??
 
cleverhandle: They do not have usernames on my machine. But they shouldn't need to.. I can access their laptops' "Shared Docs" just fine with no issues. But my desktop, forget it.. they can't get to it. I had to resort to making a dummy user account on my machine and giving them the password for that dummy account (limited access, non-admin).

Lame. Yeah it seems Network Places is kinda broken.
 
I have intermittent issues with shared files and folders on my 3 machines. Easiest way to get around Network Places is to just type \\computername on the run dialog, opens right up to the machine even if you can't get it to show up in network places. Apparently didn't work for you though.

If you don't have simple sharing turned on, I think they DO have to have accounts on the machine to access them through the normal file and printer sharing. The "shared docs" thing is some weird deliberately insecure thing.
 
Maybe it's the opposite. Maybe if simple sharing is turned OFF, they need to have accounts on this machine. Because I believe their laptops have simple sharing on, and I can easily check out their shared docs. So maybe that's it?
 
Originally posted by: MDesigner
Maybe it's the opposite. Maybe if simple sharing is turned OFF, they need to have accounts on this machine. Because I believe their laptops have simple sharing on, and I can easily check out their shared docs. So maybe that's it?
Click to expand...

I think that's what I said, yes? If you have simple sharing turned off (don't have it turned on), they need accounts on the machine. 🙂

Simple sharing lets anybody see any file you share. Unsimple sharing requires anybody connecting to have an account (or you can enable the guest account), because the EVERYONE permission setting doesn't equate to "anybody who connects", it means "everybody who logs in". It wasn't clear to start with that only your machine had simple sharing turned off.
 
Sorry man, I misread.. you said "if you don't have simple sharing turned on". Right 🙂 It's one of those days.

I think I'll turn on simple file sharing and see if that fixes it. Is there any disadvantage to enabling simple file sharing? I just can't share any folder I want, right?
 
Originally posted by: MDesigner
I think I'll turn on simple file sharing and see if that fixes it. Is there any disadvantage to enabling simple file sharing? I just can't share any folder I want, right?
Click to expand...
Sure you can, just right-click the folder and share as usual. The "Shared Documents" folder is just a built-in share.

Simple vs. non-simple file-sharing affects how the machine handles authentication over the network. You want every machine set to the same setting, whichever one you choose. That's not to say it can't work when the machines are set differently, but it's highly likely that this will break at least one of the several, fragile protocols involved in Windows file sharing. If you really think you need to mix-and-match the authentication settings, then you need to have the knowledge to clean up the resulting mess yourself.

 
OK I have simple sharing on. Everything makes sense to me except this option:

[ ] Make this folder private

Um.. if I'm not sharing a folder.. what's the point of the above checkbox? Isn't it already private? If I have some folder in, say, My Documents.. and it's not being shared on the network.. what does the above checkbox do? The help explanation for it doesn't really explain.
 
That setting controls local access. For example, if someone logged on to your machine under a different account - would they be able to browse the folder in Explorer?
 
Ahh, herein lies the problem. If simple sharing is on (on my desktop), my laptop can't map a drive to \\mydesktop\C$ anymore. It asks for a user/pass but it won't accept my user/pass as it did before. With simple sharing off, connecting to \\mydesktop\C$ works fine, but as stated above, other people can't connect to my shared docs or anything else without an account on my desktop.

Arghhh.
 
The C$ is an administrative share. You should be able to just set the C drive to a shared folder like any other and they should be able to access it then.
 
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