2 xp machines, can't get them to share files

Arial
Hi!
I need your help folks, i have 2 machines using XP Pro, 2 network cards, a 15 metre cat 5 cable , a crossover cable one end and a straight cable the other end.
I have got to the stage of them both seeing each other in the MSHOME workgroup on each machine, ie: Living room and spareroom but on clicking on them ," i am getting access denied please see the adminstrator" I have shared several different folders at each end and also got the security tab enabled in each folder ( to alter the settings that way too )
The downstairs PC has a broadband usb modem, which i have managed to share with the upstairs pc no problem, so the internet connection sharing is no problem, just any folder!!
I have had this network working before but i recently did a reinstall downstairs, so it was working, however you could only access folders downstairs from upstairs and not the other way round, although the internet sharing was again no problem.

They both have printer & folder sharing enabled in the lan card properties.

Another thing, i know the ip address downstairs is 192.168.0.1 and pinging from upstairs returns no results even though the internet connection gateway is working.
Zone alarm off, xp firewall off, avg off

Can anyone help, could it be the user acounts blocking the folder sharing??


Cheers Darren

Can you click Start, Run and type "ipconfig /all C:\ipconfig.txt" (without the quotes). Find the file C:\ipconfig.txt and copy the contents into your next post. Do this for both computers?



I'm confused about what you mean by this. The cable is either a straight-through cable or a crossover cable. If you're connecting the computers directly, you'll want to use a crossover cable.

Are you using accounts with the same username/password on both computers?

Hi ED,

Thanks for the quick reply mate!

First of all, i tried doing the ipconfig /all C:\ipconfig.txt by running start,run and i see the comand prompt box flash up and disaapear again in seconds, not sure why it does this?
So i tried doing this, comand prompt and typed ipconfig on both machines, here are the results:


Thats for the downstairs machine ( living room computer name )

The result for ipconfig on the upstairs machine is:


A ping test from upstairs to the downstairs machine failed ( the internet gateway was running at the time, is this why the ping failed? )





I also tried to ping the upstairs ip 192.168.0.182 from downstairs with the same results.

The layout of the network is as follows:
2 Lan Nic cards Q-tec 590n and realtec Nic card
I have laid cat 5 cable to each pc room and placed ethernet plastic sockets on the end of each cable.
Out of the lan card on the downstairs pc is a crossover cable ( short cable with sealed plugs on each end )that plugs into the plastic ethernet socket.
From the ethernet socket upstairs is a straight cable ( short cable with sealed plugs on each end ) into the lan card on the upstairs pc.
At the moment the present situation is:
I have a internet gateway on the upstairs pc from downstairs.
they are both showing each other on msworkgroup ( although it takes a little longer to come up on the downstairs pc, hangs a little )
i have set both pcs to the same username/admin and password on loging onto windows,( previously my daughter kealey was the adminstrator upstairs)

Up until my recent reinstall of windows downstairs, i could
access shared folders downstairs from upstairs but not the other way using the present same set up.
Now access is denied both ends.

I hope that explains my setup a little better for you ED .


Thanks


Darren

OK... things are a little more clearer

(btw: I just edited your post to make it a little easier to read).

A few things:



This is normal, if you run the command directly from the Run dialog box.

The downstairs machine (with the Internet connection) looks fine.

Now, the upstairs machine looks a little worse. You seem to have two Ip addresses listed, one of which is "fe80::202:44ff:fe4f:a03f%4". On that computer, how many network cards do you have? Try removing them all except the one that you're actually using. Also, disable (or remove) any firewire cards you've got installed.



I think it does seem to work. You posted the ping results which show that the computer could ping 192.168.0.1 - the downstairs computer. So it appears that the upstairs computer can ping downstairs.

You've then posted some stuff about a "Tunnel adapter Automatic Tunneling Pseudo-Interface". I'm guessing this is from the upstairs computer when you ran ipconfig. To try and solve this problem, disable any extra network connections on this computer. Then, tell me what network connections you've got enabled on this machine.

Your network setup does seem correct though (in terms of cables etc).

Hi Ed,

You was spot on about the 2 cards on the upstairs machine,
i installed the pci lan card to try and solve the network problem, thinking maybe the onboard lan card was the problem.
I really would like to get this one working and free the pci slot up again to make room for my dial modem ( i need for faxing, no slots left on the downstairs machine )
Before inserting this card, i went into the bios and disabled the lan on the motherboard.
i will take out the pci one and re-enable the other one, although if i remember right it was showing unplugged even when i had the cable in ( driver problem?? ) the last time i tried it.

I'll have a try later and post the results ( just got in ,i work nights)
Once again , thanks for your help mate

Cheers


Darren


I have now tried the Onboard Lan and it installed when xp detected but still says unplugged even though the cable is plugged into the machine, the IRQ shows number 11 for this device and the pci lan card shows IRQ 5 when plugged into the pci slot ( as we know works fine ) , could it be the IRQ setting? if so how do i change it for the onboard Lan?
A few weeks back when i first tried networking , i used the onboard Lan first off and it showed connected, ever since it now shows unplugged

Thanks

Darren

Loose wire in cable?

I too am having the same problem. There is an note on the microsoft web site. Search for "network workgroup accessible permission". The gist of the deal is that WINS must be enabled for the network on both tcp/ip protocols computers and Computer Browser services must be enabled.

I followed there instructions and got 1/2 way there. My 2 computers can now see each other , but the XP home machine is only allowed 1/2 way down the tree of the shared drive on the XP pro machine.

I am still clueless about the rest of the problem.

Goodluck
Finecats

Finecats: are you getting access denied error messages? There is some information in the sticky about this which may help.