Might be a dumb question: Can I share files on a mixed OS network?

[Spoooon]

I just upgraded to Win2000. My roommate is using Win98. Will we still be able to share files? I got my network settings all setup, but the only computer I see in my workgroup is mine. He can only see his computer in network neighborhood. Currently, we are both supposed to be in the same workgroup. Do I need to change that? Or is there any site that can help? Thanks in advance.

 

[Wik]

Click on Add Network place in My Network places and add your roomates computer.

 

[Spoooon]

Tried it. It didn't work. Argh. Thanks for the help though.

 

[Bronko]

Try this:

On the Windows 2000 Machine, enable the guest account. It is disabled by default. You can do this by going to: Right Click on My Computer | Manage | Local Users and Groups | Users | Open Guest Account | Uncheck account is disabled

From the Win98 machine, you should be able to: Start | Run | \\%Win2000MachineName%\%ShareName%

Please note that enabling the guest account does introduce security risks, but you will be able to verify your network and trade files. Hope this gets you going in the right direction.

 

[bigjon]

Sorry to resurrect this post, but I figured it was better than starting a new one

Spoooon, I had the exact same question as you. I did as Bronko suggested for my data drive which worked great (thx!), but for my main drive (C: ) I want a little more security.

How would one go about giving a WIn98 computer access to a Win2k drive with password protection?

 

[BCYL]

You can setup an account on the win2k machine with the login name and password of the win98 machine... This way you can disable guest account and the win98 machine will still be able to access the win2k machine... But now only that machine can see your data, not the whole world...

 

[cz]

Since W2K uses user based access-protection instead of shared resource based one you will have to assign different access rights to different users. It will not allow you to do what you used to do in Win98.

 

[Valhalla1]

you can share files with windows netbios networking with any netbios-capable OS, (i.e. any windows OS and samba-enabled *nix's, dont know about macs or any other os)

 

[xyyz]

I've been able to access files from an NTFS partition on an NT box... from a win98 machine...

It's a Presentation Layer matter... that the OS's deal with. Make sure you have sharing enabled on teh box you want to get the files from.

 

[bigjon]

Cool, thanks for the answers! I'll try these as soon as I get home from "work"