Xp home network problem

I have no network experience so please forgive me if I don't make any sense!

I have just bought a new laptop and a belkin wireless router. My network is a desktop pc running win XP pro, connected to the belkin router through a standard netwok cable. My laptop running XP pro connects to the router wirelessly. Both machines connect to the internet fine and both have the same workgroup name.

If I click on "view workgroup computers" on either machine both machines appear . I have pinged each of the machines and they both see each other.

I want to be able to access all of the files on each machine from the other, but if I double click on the other machine via either windows explorer or my workgroup computers I get an error:

"\\PCNAME is not accessible. You might not have permission to access this network resource. Contact the administrator of this server to find out if you have access permissions.

The network path was not found"

Can anyone tell me how to set these permissions? I've tried googling and lots of people have similar problems but nobody seems to give a straight answer.

Any help would be really appreciated!

Cheers

If you can ping between both computers in both directions successfully, try opening up the Folder Options from the Tools menu in My Computer. Click the View tab, scroll to the bottom of the list and untick "Use simple file sharing". Then try again.

Thanks for the quick reply

I went to that location and there isn't an option to "use simple file sharing".

Help!

I still can't find this option! Does anybody know if it can be turned off?

I don't think you can turn off simple file sharing in XP Home.

Did you try the network wizard?

You may need to log on to a username that is identical (cloned) on both computers.

Log on to what?

The network or each PC?

The network.

Have you shared any folders or tried mapping a drive

The option is not available in XP home, but in your first post, you say that both computers are running XP pro.

Sorry, I forgot to say that the laptop is XP home. The Desktop has XP pro and "use simple file sharing" is de-selected on it.

Both machines have the c-drive set to "share this folder" and neither machine will let me map a netwqok drive of the other.

You may need to enable file sharing on both PC's:

My Network Places (you may then have to click "View All Connections")
Right click LOCAL AREA CONNECTION and click Properties
Make sure 'File and Printer Sharing for MS Networks' is checked.

Then you have to create a shared folder. Right click whatever folder and click properties. There should be a "sharing" tab or something related.

Also, if one PC is XP Pro and the other isn't, the Pro box may be part of a domain and the Home box a workgroup. If this is the case, I would say that most likely you won't be able to get to the Pro box from the Home box b/c of permissions and such.

Still no luck here:

'File and Printer Sharing for MS Networks' is checked on the pro box.

The pro box is not part of a domain and is set to the same workgroup name as the laptop.

Somebody must be able to help?

Both machines can 'see' each other on the network so surely it can't take much to give them access to each other's files?

This is driving me nuts, I would have though loads of people would have this set up! Anyone out there got a PC and laptop networked together at home?

Cheers

Are you running any firewalls on the computers, such as ZoneAlarm or the built-in Internet Connection Firewall?

I had the same problem and Belkin didn't help at all. They told me to follow the instructions found on a websit call URL. This was useless since I had already done all that stuff.

I solved the problem myself by experimenting with settings on the Network connections. It was so simple once I figured it out. The solution was to change the setting of the physical connection. I reset the connection to "shared" on all machines, reran the XP network wizard on all my machines... and vala... everything connected. I can access all 5 machines and have connected to the printer and fax to all of them after installing the drivers. I can connect using wireless and wired connection on any machine.

I have attached screen shots and hope it helps. let me know if it works.

JDG_CSS, do you connect to the internet thru your main PC (ie: Internet Connection Sharing) or do you have a separate modem that the Router plugs into thereby enabling you to turn one PC off while the other can still access the www?

I used to have ICS enabled on my main PC with laptop connected by a cross-over LAN cable. Internet browsing with both PC's used to work pretty much most of the time, but the file sharing thing was the most temperamental thing I've ever seen in computers.

You would run the wizards, set workgroups, etc and it would work. Then, out of the blue, it would stop working. Internet would be fine, but PC's couldn't see each other or that bloody permissions message would come up.

Now I have a DSL modem and router combo, and I thought it would make it work better - ne! The same silly XP difficulties.

I kept getting the permissions message when trying to browse the other PC's shared files. And I couldn't ping each PC from the other (just the router).

Here's what I did to fix it - Went into the LAN connection properties on laptop and set NetBIOS to enable.
Then disabled the LAN connection, and re-enabled it.
Disabled Norton Firewall on the main PC.
Now I could see files on the Main PC, but main PC still couldn't see the laptop (laptop has no firewall).
Then I enabled NetBIOS on the main PC, disabled then re-enabled the LAN connection.
I could now ping each computer from the other, but main PC still couldn't see laptop.
Then I went into the Printer settings on the main PC, and enabled sharing there (right click the Printer-->sharing).

And hey presto! I can see shared files from both PCs.

after that I went back and changed the NetBIOS settings back to default and nothing changed.

If there's one thing, I've learned from all this Network nonsense, it's that the problem is nearly always different from the last one - or so it seems.

A handy hint, is to disable a connection after making changes, then re-enable it to make the changes apply..

I still had to pull some weird tricks to get the shortcuts to appear in My Network Places, but that's another story.....

cheers