How to connect Win 2000 with Win XP?

Hello,

I have two computers one with Win 2000 professional, the other with Win XP home.
I want to share files between the two computers hence I connected them to a D-Link 714p+ router.
I put both computers on the same workgroup and gave each computer a different name. Both computers are using TCP/IP.

Both computers do communicate with the router since I can access the Internet from both computers.
However, when I look at the Win 2000 network neighbourhood, while I can see an icon with the XP box name, double clicking the icon just gives me an error, something like 'path to server not found'.
When I look at the network places on the XP machine I cannot see Win 2000 machine at all.
I tried using the network wizard on the XP machine without success.

Any ideas how can I make my little network finally work?
(security setting maybe, account on each computer?)

Many Thanks,
Richard

The XP network setup wizard doesn't always work, so I'd start from the beginning and set it up manually.

Check the IP addresses. Open up Network (and Dial-up) Connections from the Control Panel, right-click the Local Area Connection and select Properties. Double click Internet Protocol TCP/IP. You need to give it an IP address which is on the same subnet as your router. For example, if your router has an IP address of 192.168.0.1, set the IP address of the computer to 192.168.0.2 (or something like that). Set the subnet mask to 255.255.255.0 and the default gateway and primary DNS servers to the address of the router. Do this on both computers (but make sure you use a different IP address the second time round).

Then, check for firewall software. This includes things like ZoneAlarm and also the Internet Connection Firewall built-in to XP. In XP, open up Network Connections, right-click the Local Area Connection and select Properties. Click the Advanced tab and check that ICF is disabled. For others, like ZoneAlarm, either disable them or make sure they are correctly configured for home networking. Be aware that some antivirus programs also include firewalls.

Then check that you can ping from one computer to the other. Click Start, Run and type cmd. In the Command Prompt type "ping 192.168.0.2" (without the quotes), and make sure that you use the correct address.

Then try file sharing again. Right-click a folder which you want to share, select Properties and click the Sharing tab. Make sure that it is shared on the network. Then, on the other computer, try typing in \\computername into the address bar of windows explorer. See what happens and if you get any error messages.

If it doesn't work, try the sharing process again but use accounts with exactly the same username and password on both computers.

HTH,

Edwin

Thank you for your response.
I will try your recommendations and see if it helps.

Richard

No problem - I hope it works OK

If it doesn't, just post back and we can troubleshoot it.

Small thing but make sure that windows file and printer sharing is installed.

JonO

Richard - glad you got it working.

I've split the thread so that your new question is a new topic, but the following still applies to this thread: