Yes, Milo, they do, but as pointed out earlier if they don't, XP (anyway) brings up a log-in form.

(and to put your mind at rest, my guest account is
a) disabled but
b) has a password anyway):)

all firewalls switched off or network marked as 'trusted' ?

Remembering that it did start working after a 'clean sweep', so this is 'history' now and I obviously had done something wrong (some sort of clue from the OS would have been nice).

Mr O - tried both

Milo - I did get a log-in prompt at one point, no network drive involved, just a 'straightforward' (if only!) attempt to view the host from the client, and it saw the request as 'Guest' and entering that p/w worked.. BB in post#5 seems to agree.

Avast and ZA, both disabled/fiddled with etc but not uninstalled, but I repeat, with the same settings on both NOW it works.

Don't know if this is a clue, but I cannot access shared files on the Desktop from the laptop AND I cannot access Shared Docs on the Desktop from the Desktop! I can access the laptop share files.

I found the SharedDocs folder had renamed to Documents and applied the win.ini fix. I have increased IRPStackSize from 12 to 18 with no change. Do I keep on increasing that (max 50)?

Will try. However, the identical ZA set up on the laptop (NB XP Home) allows access to laptop SharedDocs from both laptop and Desktop
- I think it was an M$ tech help site and was to fix a 'missing' SharedDocs' folder and involved replacing the existing win.ini with "[.ShellClassInfo]
[email protected],-21785"
- yes, again I think an M$ solution. My mistake for not reporting the message as I have only recently started trying to access my 'SharedDocs' on the same machine and noticed that bit. (Desktop)
Have not seen '5' on any M$ site, only suggestions of multiples of 3 up to 'max 50'. My reg appears to suggest jumps of 6's.
- basic

EDIT: ZA away. Windows firewall enabled. Both with and without exceptions I cannot access the Desktop from the laptop. Trying to access Shared Docs on Desktop from the Desktop no longer gives the server message, just 'network name cannot be found'.

Sorted the access to SharedDocs - the Sharename was still showing 'Documents' from the previous problem.

Still no joy with W firewall. I have reverted to ZA and all is now well again.

If the cached username in the client XP box has a different password to the identically named cached username in the host XP box, the negotiation will silently fail (i.e. without prompting).

You should always (in a workgroup scenario) prefix your username with the name of the computer giving access:

e.g. in a situation with BoxA and BoxB, where:
- BoxA wants to access the share "fredshare" on BoxB, and
- BoxB has the share "fredshare" protected by username "fred"
...then when you attempt to browse the BoxB share with command \\boxb\fredshare you will need to enter your requested username as "BoxB\fred" rather than just "fred" (as a 'non-qualified' username will always inherit the prefix of the user's workgroup-based computer).

You should also ensure that the share and filesystem permissions are set properly. The share permissions should be set as unrestrictedly as possible, and access should be subsequently given based upon filesystem permissions instead (unless of course you're using FAT which doesn't have an underlying filesystem permission attribute).

e.g. - on the aforementioned article, the "fredshare" share should (probably) have share permissions of "everyone - full control", and then the NTFS permissions underneath it should therefore control the access of users (including, but not limited to "fred").

Obviously, all bets are off if you're using any sort of firewall and/or anything aggregating browsing information as you don't have any/enough control over those mechanisms to have a reliable structure.

Hope that helps.
Mike.

.....to add that there is a setting in the XP Local Security Policy that if left unset will cause all access from a network to be via the Guest account, and this will bring up a 'Guest' password prompt box. What happens where the Guest a/c does not have a password set I do not know - I assume it just goes straight in?.

Yes, iirc.

would starting afresh with a new user on the laptop help ? That's user account not operator (not yet anyway). Upgrade laptop to xp pro? All the problems like this I have had were rooted in software firewalls or more honestly my ignorance of same. Never had to faff around with registry or stacks....

Mr O - thanks for the 'resurgence' - I hinted in post #34 that all was actually sorted - after a brief and unsuccessful dalliance with the Windows Firewall I went back to ZA and all is now hunky-dory.

ah, sorry. Not so clear using this smartphone thingy.