Attempting to share folders over XP Home network

[Trotter]

I am trying to get the file sharing working, mainly with my wife's laptop. Since she wants to use it as a portable media center, it would be much easier for her to stream media files from either my comp or her desktop. My computer and her desktop are sharing, but her lappy ain't seeing them.

I have made sure that Computer Browser, Event Log, and TCP services are up and running. Windows Firewall is off. I can see the shared folders from my computer just fine.

Where do I go from here?

 

[KurrentEweser]

I've had similar problems of shared folders not showing up on a XP machine. Many times after the XP host computer has freshly booted, it would take hours before other computers see the shared folders. I have no idea why this happens. I've never seen this happen with Vista.

I usually map network folders to drive letters. Since I know the shared folders name, I've been able to map the folder to a drive letter long before that folder shows up in My Network Places with no problems.

On her laptop try mapping a shared folder just to see if there's communication.

 

[Bruce]

Can you see the computer in the workgroup? Are they in the same workgroup?

you can try \\(computername) from the run command and see if it opens

 

[S0ULphIRE]

along the same lines as bruce was suggesting, try \\(computeripaddress)
Only reason for doing htat is it's unlikely, if you can't see the shared folders, that the dns will successfully resolve the computer name.

try doing an ipconfig/flushdns ipconfig/registerdns, if the \\ipaddress works.

edit: stupid link things...

 

[Trotter]

I have no idea how to map the folder.

Her laptop can see the shared folder from her desktop but not mine. I can access my shared folder on her lappy by using \\(computername) or \\(computerIPaddress).

I tried to access the workgroup through her lappy and got this message:
"Mshome is not available. You might not have permission to use the network resource. Contact the administrator of this server to find out if yu have access permissions.

The list of servers for the workgroup is not currently available."

 

[mikesgroovin]

Her being able to access her own shared files on the other computer sounds suspicious... only because her computer desktop would most likely have the same username and password as her laptop right?

The user that she is logging in with from her laptop ... does that same user and password exist on your computer?
I'm home during the day these days Trotter if you want to ... we can hop on vent sometime tomorrow or Friday and try to work it out.

Trouble with that error is that it is extremely specific about being non-specific. The reason for that is because the error can stack from 3 or 4 things. name resolving, firewalls, shared folders, username switching and changes, et cetera. It's a fairly hairy error.

 

[KurrentEweser]

You can map a drive by right clicking on My Computer or Computer.


You can also access any shared folder from a web browser by entering this file://///computername/foldername/ in the address bar.

 

[Trotter]

OK, the problem is fixed. Thanks for the help, Mike, as well as the conversation.

 

[mikesgroovin]

Hey bud, never a problem. Glad we were able to work it out. Enjoyed talking with ya too, as usual