XP Pro-XP Home PCs only share one way (not accessible)

[seacraft]

Just set up a newly formatted wife's PC on our home LAN (Westell Router) with XP Home (previously it was using XP Pro). Cant get access to my XP Pro PC on network with wife's XP Home system although I can readily access hers and send and move files between the 2 PCs from my system (as was true before reformatting wife's PC and loading it with XP Home). While I can locate my XP Pro PC from the wife's system using 'find another computer' and both are on same network but if I click on my PC I get 'not accessible; see network admin' error. Have of course used the Networking diskette made on my system to try getting this connection to go two-way without success. (A real pain as the printer is physically on my PC so wife cant print via network):(

Any hints would be appreciated as a web search has turned up same issue but none of the 'solutions' found have worked.

Thanks!

Stan

[TheNNS]

so what are you trying to do? share a printer and files?
make sure the the account name in your computer is not private, as this will mess up file sharing, and double check the sharing options to see if they are correct.

[seacraft]

so what are you trying to do? share a printer and files?
make sure the the account name in your computer is not private, as this will mess up file sharing, and double check the sharing options to see if they are correct.

Yes I want to share printer and be able to simply move data/doc/pic files between the two PCs.

Sharing is enabled on both PCs but I can only get access to wifes PC while mine is 'inaccessible'. Using 'Find computer' I can see my PC from her side but cannot access even 'Properties' without the 'accessible' error message

[Bench]

Yes I want to share printer and be able to simply move data/doc/pic files between the two PCs.

Sharing is enabled on both PCs but I can only get access to wifes PC while mine is 'inaccessible'. Using 'Find computer' I can see my PC from her side but cannot access even 'Properties' without the 'accessible' error message

Do you have NetBIOS Over TCP/IP enabled on both computers? NetBIOS is needed for windows file & print sharing.

[seacraft]

Do you have NetBIOS Over TCP/IP enabled on both computers? NetBIOS is needed for windows file & print sharing.

Actually I looked for NetBIOS but couldnt find it as running; then when I tried 'Add Windows Components' it was not an option.

Pretty embarrassing but victorious resolution was achieved with an odd approach (dont ask why i tried this):

I actually 'solved' the problem by trying to add a network printer (attached to LPT on my PC) to the wife's PC; WIN XP Home found the printer as part of the LAN, made the connection and the printer successfully printed a test page. I was amazed. :-O Then I looked at the network details and 'viola' ...there were my PC folders displayed and accessible.

Dont know why this worked. :icon_redface:

But you can still help me...for future reference, where do I look for NetBIOS as installed or not? If absent, where would I go to 'enable' it?

Thanks,
Stan

[Bench]

But you can still help me...for future reference, where do I look for NetBIOS as installed or not? If absent, where would I go to 'enable' it?

Glad you got it solved, even if accidentally!

For NetBIOS, look in the advanced TCP/IP settings, on the WINS tab.

The default is "Automatically detect NetBIOS settings" (Which, in real terms usually means its disabled). so switch this option to "Enable NetBIOS over TCP/IP".

There is also an 'old fashioned' way of getting NetBIOS running, by adding the NWLINK IPX/SPX protocol to each machine, and enabling NetBIOS over IPX/SPX. This is usually necessary if you're communicating with a machine running something like Win95 (which doesn't support NetBIOS over TCP/IP for some reason).

Whichever one you do, make sure you use the same on all machines.

[seacraft]

Dont know where to find WINS tab in XP Home. In Services NetBIOS is installed over TCP/IP however this setting is also on for a second user on the wife's PC and that user still doesnt have access to my files over the LAN (though it has printing privledges?).

To my point, I could not get the second user account on my wife's PC access to my XP Pro PC files...ie, I still dont know what I did that 'fixed' the wife's accessibility to my files over LAN.

:(

Thanks again for the feedback.
Stan

Glad you got it solved, even if accidentally!

For NetBIOS, look in the advanced TCP/IP settings, on the WINS tab.

The default is "Automatically detect NetBIOS settings" (Which, in real terms usually means its disabled). so switch this option to "Enable NetBIOS over TCP/IP".

There is also an 'old fashioned' way of getting NetBIOS running, by adding the NWLINK IPX/SPX protocol to each machine, and enabling NetBIOS over IPX/SPX. This is usually necessary if you're communicating with a machine running something like Win95 (which doesn't support NetBIOS over TCP/IP for some reason).

Whichever one you do, make sure you use the same on all machines.