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View Full Version : Networking with XP Issues! Please Help!


C_wilson
March 28th, 2006, 06:41 AM
Hello all,

I'm having some networking with XP issues.. A friend of mine has a small office network of 3 computers. They are all networked with a small D-link router that connects all 3 PC's, and a huge Lanier All in One Printer is also connected via ethernet.

These 3 Pc's are also all sharing this printer and a certain folder on the main computer that they use files from and make changes to. The main computer was running Windows 2000 Professional as the others were running Windows 98. As I said before, all PC's were having file/print sharing capabilties.

What I did was UPGRADE the main PC to XP Pro and the other two PCs were just too old, so I swapped them out with newer machines running XP Pro as well.

After the upgrade of the main machine, as it rebooted, it had several different usernames to choose from at the user select screen in XP. I assumed these were all the users of the previous network. I just selected the one that was the name of the Woman who used it (Angela). I immedietly ran the Network setup wizard and configured a new workgroup called "Allied Home" (this is a loan company in case anyone cares). I then made sure the Lanier printer still worked and suprisingly I didn't have to install the XP drivers to make it work . The printer worked fine. I then went to the other 2 PCs that had fresh copies of Xp installed and ran the network wizard on both of those.

So now, I've got my workgroup called "Allied Home" configured to where when you click on it you see all 3 PC's on the network.

Heres the problem! : When I try to map the other computers to the data folder in which they all need to share, it asks for a username and password to enter the main computer. Why is this? My friend assures me whoever set this up previously never password protected anything? She has no idea what the username or password could be? I have tried the same username that logs in and it just says invalid every time. I've tried directly connecting to the main PC by clicking on the icon for it as well as typing the file path in the "add a network place" option (\\angela\data) I'm mainly a hardware based computer person and I'm still learning about networking in all of the Windows software.


As of now the whole office is a mess because none of the PC's are working together properly without file/print sharing capabilities. The other problem is that when I try to set up the printer to work with the other 2 PC's I can't seem to connect it to them? I'm made sure it is a shared printer on the network but for some reason it won't browse to it? I didn't think the main computer having a password would matter since the printer isn't exactly connected to the main computer but to the router box. Is there a different method for making a printer work on a network if it is connected through a router rather than directly to one PC on the network? I just need to get everything back to the way it was while using the newly upgraded XP.

Any wisdom would be greatly appreciated.


Chris

degsy
March 28th, 2006, 10:19 AM
There are a few different methods to try to solve this.

Add the usernames of the users of the XP PCs to the PC with the Share. You can do this though Administrative Tools>Computer Management> and goto the Local Users section.


Are the PCs using Simple Networking? You can check via Control Panel>Folder Options>
Scroll down to the bottom of the list


Another option involves a Group Policy on the XP Pro machine.

C_wilson
March 28th, 2006, 06:07 PM
Hi,

I appreciate the reply but I can't say I understand you totally.

Just to clarify, all the PC's now have XP on them. The main PC is the one that has all the previous network stuff on it. The other two have been through the network setup wizard which entered them into the workgroup I created from the main PC. Just please let me know exactly what you meant in your reply.


I'm using Xp PRO Sp2- would the built-in firewall settings keep this from working properly?? As I stated before; whats happenening is when I try to access the MAIN computer from the other 2 Pc's it asks me for a user and password. Problem is that there is no user or password and when I try to just hit enter or escape it does nothing..

I appreciate your time in all this. Hopefully you can help. Take care..

Chris

degsy
March 28th, 2006, 07:13 PM
E.g

MainPC

PC1
PC2

PC1 has a user called Joe
PC2 has a user called Fred

On the Main PC add users called Joe & Fred

Now try to access the Main PC with the User