Home networking - XP logins

[curmudgeon]

I've got an irritating problem which I hope can be easily solved.

I've got 3 machines running over a wireless network. Machine A is my machine, and is connected to the wireless router by cable. It's running XP pro. The other 2 machines, B and C, are connected by wireless USB doobries, and are both running XP home. B and C are the kids machines, and all in the family have their own user names on B and C. On machine A, there's only me set up as a user (apart from the administrator profile in case its needed.) My login name and password are the same on all 3 machines. There's no problem in connecting to the internet from any machine.

From machine A, I can see the shared files on the other 2 machines, and can do what I want on the shared drives and directories. Whilst I can see machine A from B and C, anytime I try to do anything on the shared directories, I get a message saying I can't log on.

I've been through help and searched google to no avail. I suspect that its something to do with the settings of Machine A. Can anyone tell me what to do or point me in the right direction?

Thanks in advance

cur

[Naples Air Center, Inc.]

curmudgeon,

Are you running a Domain or a Workgroup?

Make sure on Comp A, you give access to the specific shared directories to the account names on Comp B & C.

You could try a different account name for Comp B & C.

Take Care,

Richard

P.S. It could also be an issue with the USB Wireless doobries.

[HelenD]

Not sure if this will help or not but I have 3 PC's on a network 2 running Windows 98 and the other running XP pro. I put the same user accounts password and log in on all 3 PC's and allowed file sharing. The XP PC was able to see the high level files but not access them. I searched high and low for an answer and it was suggested put NetBui on all the PC's I was only using TCP/IP. Once I bit the bullet and put NetBui on all PC's they all could happily see and share according to the security allowed. I still would have rather achieved this without NetBui though.

[Mac the Knife]

I do hope that you don't have File and Print Sharing enabled on the adapter that connects to the Internet or else the whole world can see into your network.

Using NetBEUI is a kludge that actually works quite well and can enhance security if you are using ICS, though purists frown on it I did use it briefly until I set up a FreeSCO router for my home network. I'm not sure why you can't see the other machines just using TCP/IP, but note that the M$ firewall (sic) can interfere with this.

[Naples Air Center, Inc.]

HelenD,

NetBEUI is ok if you have only a couple of computers over a very short distance. Other than that, it is slow down to a crawl. If you want a second protocol, IPX/SPX with NetBIOS is a better option.

Take Care,

Richard

[Saab Dastard]

NetBeui is fine for small, single LAN networks. It is actually a very efficient LAN protocol, but it's not routable, which is why it isn't used for internetworks. It used to be better than IP or IPX for single-LAN MS workgroups, cos everything was based around NetBIOS names and broadcasts, but since Win2K (indeed NT generally), IP is the preferred MS protocol. And fair enough.

Curmudgeon,

Are you assigning both NTFS permissions and share-level access control? How are the shares set up - are you allowing everyone full control?

Are you mapping drives or browsing to the shares? Try mapping a drive and "connect using a different user name", then entering machineA\username as the user with your password in the dialog box. If you can't resolve machineA, you can always insert the IP address\username.

HTH

SD

[curmudgeon]

Thanks to everyone for their replies. As usual, I've learned a lot!

I followed Richard's suggestion and decided to share another directory on machine A. Lo and behold, I could access this on B and C, and could also access the other 2 directories that I was unable to access before. I don't think that I did anything different to before, so I'm stumped as to what's happened. It could be an issue with the wireless doobries, as trying to access the internet in machine B was slow to the point of impossible tonight, but machine C which sits beside it was at normal speed.

Just for the record, I'm running a workgroup, no domain. I've set up the sharing through the folder properties tab, ticking the 'share this folder on the network' box.

Being fairly paranoid about security, I hope that my set up is ok, Mac the Knife. I've got the broadband cable modem going in to a Linksys router, which then has the cable to machine A, with Linksys USB doobries on machines B and C. I don't use the XP firewall on any machine, but do have zone alarm. Whilst probably the most sensitive information anyone could get from my PCs are my numbers for next week's lottery, I'd rather that nobody else sees them because they'd only laugh when I fail to win a tenner yet again. I do use the 128 bit encryption over the wireless.

In a few months, so long as I can still share directories, once I'm comfortable that it hasn't suddenly gone back to a lack of access, I might try mapping the drives, as it looks more secure.

Many thanks to all once again.

cur

[Naples Air Center, Inc.]

curmudgeon,

Now it is time to mix and match with Comps B & C. Swap the USB Wireless doobries and see if the slow internet stays with the comp over moves with the USB Connector.

Take Care,

Richard