Wireless - Some Folders Will Share, some wont :( Ideas?!

GibsonSt19

Hi there, I'm using a Netgear DG834GT modem/router/gateway thingy at home.

So far 2x computers (main computer being wired) and the one upstairs operating wirelessly.

The one upstairs (XP Home) can access the net via the router fine, and when I go into Network Neighbourhood, I can see all the shared folders and drives on my main PC downstairs (XP Home also).

Now, for some reason, when I'm upstairs I can access a couple of the displayed shared folders, but not all.

Any ideas why this would be?

Also, from my downstairs PC, I can't see the upstairs one at all. Both in the same workgroup. I just get a message saying "Mshome is not accessible. You might not have permission to use this network resource. Contact the administrator of this server to find out if you have access permissions.

The network path was not found"

I've turned the windows firewall off BOTH PC's, and have temporarily disabled my 'proper' Firewalls too, until I get this sorted.

The computer upstairs IS set up to share, and this whole thing is confusing me.

I'm sure I'm not THAT thick, and I'm sure it shouldn't ever be this hard to set up a simple file sharing home network!

Any ideas?

HLK

It's been about a year since I setup our network but remember having similar problems. If you can't get the right help through Network Troubleshooter on XP then I found this website which answered all my issues at the time.

Hope this helps. oh and good luck!

ps. I was networking an XP desktop, a Windows 98 desktop & a Windows 2000 laptop with Netgear products. File sharing was my biggest problem from what I can remember. But it all works fine now. Not bad for a Girlie!

Anon

If I recall correctly (in XP) you go into My Computer, click on the folder that you want to share (and sub-folders), click on Sharing and Security, click on Sharing, second box down Network sharing and security, click on Share this folder on the network, , give it a Share Name and if you want to be able to change files from the other computer, the box below as well. Also need to check your firewall settings (next box below).

You could theoretically do this on the root so that all your folders are avaialble, but generally people keep these under My Documents or whatever. I thnk I had to go through this process on both machines. If some folders are not whowing up, you could also try this on the sub folders.

On the machine you want to share, right click on the folder that you are sharing, click on properties and check that the Hidden box is not ticked (for some reason it was on mine when I couldn't see the folders) nor Read Only if you want to change them from the other machine.

I don't recall having to do anything else.

Anon

GibsonSt19

Thanks for that, however I've already set the folder I want to share, to the sharing option. My main PC can't see the wireless PC, yet the wireless PC is fine accessing the net through the modem/router I have connected to my main PC, and from this wireless PC I can see the folders I've set to share, however I can only actually access a couple of them, even though all are set to share exactly the same. This is what's confusing me

Chippy_Minton

I did this recently and from memory when running the Network Setup Wizard there's the choice of sharing files and printers, or not. Did you opt to share files and printers when you ran the wizard on the upstairs wireless PC?

There are several built-in tools you can try - Network Diagnostics and Network Troubleshooter. Go to Start - Help and Support and enter those terms separately in the search box. Try running the tools on both PCs.

For the upstairs PC being able to see the shared folders on the downstairs PC, but not being able to access all of them, this sounds like a folder permissions problem on the folders that can't be accessed. See MS article How to set, view, change, or remove file and folder permissions in Windows XP and add the Everyone group to the list on the Security tab. Because you're running XP Home you need to boot into Safe Mode to see the Security tab.

Toxteth_OGrady

Use the RestrictAnonymous registry value if
you have both the following symptoms:
• You can ping the computer by IP and by name.
• When you type on another computer, replacing computername with the name of the inaccessible computer:
net view \\computername
you get one of the various "Error 5" error messages, like "System error 5 has occurred. Access is denied" or "Error 5: You do not currently have access to this file. ..."
This is in some cases caused by a registry setting named RestrictAnonymous. Go to the computer which you cannot access, start a registry editor and change the following registry value.
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE
\SYSTEM
\CurrentControlSet
\Control
\Lsa
Value name: RestrictAnonymous
Value type: DWORD
If the value is 1 or even 2, change it to 0, reboot and retest. If the problem is solved, leave the value at zero. If not, you can change it back if you like.
Check immediately afterwards and again after a reboot, whether the value changes back to non-zero on its own. If that happens, then you have to find the culprit, which can be spyware, a worm, or a badly designed security program. You can try to disable programs and services and retry until you find out which one is responsible. One known Trojan that changes this value (and also some network access policies) calls itself mcafee32.exe, trying to pose as the antivirus program of that name.
Background: RestrictAnonymous controls whether null sessions, sessions that work without any authentication and use the permissions of the groups Everyone and NETWORK, are allowed (value 0) or disallowed (value 1). The value 2 is obsolete for Windows XP.
Don't mistake this for the value named restrictanonymoussam, which controls null session SAM account name listings.

HTH

:cool:

TOG

Mattjimf

Make sure that the ip address ranges for the router have access on both your firewalls (should be 192.168.1.1 to 192.168.1.255, saves having to change them every time you switch on), also re-run the network setup on the computer that your having problems with and change the name of the network from mshome more for security than anything else. I would just leave the windows XP firewall off, as it is a bigger pain than anything else and useless if you have a proper firewall.