My Network Places Asks for Password 2

[melburstein]

I have only two PC's on a Home Network. Both are assigned to the same Workgroup. Each PC is able to ping the other computer. Drive C on each machine is setup for sharing (Administrative Share). When I go to My Network Places on one PC, I can see an entry for the C drive on the other machine. If I click on it, however, it gives me a connect screen that asks for a password. It shows the user name, grayed out, but as GUEST. I am not logged in as GUEST. I do not use passwords. If I leave the password on the Connect screen blank, and press Enter, I get an error message that the userid or password is invalid.

 

[TunaBoy57]

I have also tried this, and am still plugging. Most of the references I have seen involve the use of passwords at logon. That is, you must have an account setup on both machines with the same name and password for both. After logging on to your own machine with the correct name and password, you can connect to the other machine by entering the same details in the screen that you have already found. You must also be configured with access rights under permissions for the share on each machine. It is said to be best practice to only allow read-only access on the subject machine. I am assuming that both machines are running XP. My problems are slightly different because I have four machines all with different flavours of Windows, which use different protocols to connect. Yes I know its idiosyncratic, but I did this on purpose for another reason, so am still finding a way out. But it did work when I had two machines on XP.

 

[bcastner]

melburstein,

"Guest" access is essentially the only access available under XP Home Edition, and can be enabled on XP Pro if one does not want to bother adding all users and passwords to all machines.

But you want to go back to the original machine and create a sharename that does not end in a $ sign; i.e. a non-administrative share. This will simplify things greatly. When you create the new share of Drive C be certain that the Group everyone is granted priviliges to the new share.

When everything is sorted, you can expand your choices by disabling "Simple File Sharing --recommended" under Folder Properties and converting to NTFS as the file system. This will give you greater granularity in your security settings for individual folders and user groups.

 

[melburstein]

Thank you for your posts. It is encouraging to read that TunaBoy57 had two machines on XP and was able to make this work. My desktop is running XP Pro; the new notebook is running the new XP (Media Center) Operating System. From what I have seen, it looks just like XP Pro.

The same accounts are setup on both machines: Administrator, melburstein, christinaburstein and Guest. The UserNames are the same on both PC's. Only the Administrator account is setup to require a Password. My question for TunaBoy is this: "Are you saying that Administrative Share will only work if I setup the accounts to used passwords?

Now, even though I am logged into both machines as melburstein, without a password, when I go to My Network Places and click the path for the other machine, I get a connection window with the UserName of Guest (grayed out). I try not entering a password, but it says it is invalid.

When I try to map a drive letter to a network drive, the same thing happens.

Your help is greatly appreciated.

Mel

 

[bcastner]

As Administrator,

Start, Run, gpedit.msc

Go to Computer Configuration, Windows Settings, Local Policies, Security Options, and Disable "limit local account uses of blank passwords to console logon only"

 

[bcastner]

You would benefit enormously be reviewing the Step-by-Step Windows networking advice from any of these sites:

http://www.wown.com

http://www.practicallynetworked.com

http://www.homenethelp.comm

 

[melburstein]

Thank you bcastner for the posts. Unfortunately, even after disabling the option you suggested, the results are the same (BTW I found that between Windows Settings and Local Policies, one must go to Security Settings).

I have already read, and carefully followed, the extremely helpful information at

http://www.homenethelp.com.

Now, I will look at the other two sites.

Thanks again,

Mel

 

[tlcscousin]

When you try accessing the default shared folder are you allowed entry? To access any others you must set a password of at least one character.
With XP home you have to boot to safe mode to set permissions.