networking nt with xp

[dawg]

My company just recently purchased some new machines in which we had to either get win 2000 or xp, so since xp was supposed to a little better in backwards compatibility, we chose it. Now, I am trying to get my xp machine on our network which has mostly win 98 workstations with a nt 4.0 server. I can get xp to do the peer to peer thing with th 98 machines but it is not recognizing my server or my nt 4 workstation machine on the network. When I go to help, I am led to believe that xp and nt just don't mix, this is not good news for me. Does anyone know if xp can talk with nt or if this is a no-no. Or, at least a site that might explain how to get around it?

Any help is greatly appreciated.

Thanks,

Tim (Dawg)

 

[TheOldMan346]

Tim,

XP definitely CAN talk to NT. They are based on the same kernel and XP is the successor to NT.

What version of XP is it? If Home, that mat be the issue. XP Home does not support use in a domain environment. You need Pro for that.

Disable the Simple File Sharing and that should give you more flexibility in configuring the network properties.

Open Control Panels.
Click Appearance and Themes, and then click Folder Options.
On the View tab, under Advanced settings, clear "Use simple file sharing [Recommended]".

Hope that helps.
The Old Man

 

[dawg]

yes, it is xp home edition. So if I get professional, I should be able to talk to my nt machines no problem?

thnx & God bless,

Tim

 

[lifegard2]

Actually, XP Home does support use in a domain environment, it just supports it the same way that 9x does. You need to set the workgroup in XP Home to match that of your domain name. Also, make sure the user credentials being used to logon to the XP Home machine match those of the user's domain username and password. I don't recall (I haven't setup too many XP Home machines), but I think you may also need to set XP Home to login to the domain much like you do with 9x.

XP Pro is supposed to be the corporate version that is more designed for use in a domain environment. This way you can join it to the domain much like you can NT Workstation or Win2k.

 

[TheOldMan346]

dawg,

You should still be able to talk to your NT servers with Home edition. It just does not participate in a domained environment like Pro edition does. As lifegard2 points out, there are ways to make this work. It's the same situation with Win95 and Win98 which are the "consumer" versions of Windows. It can be made to work but Microsoft just doesn't package it this way.

Good luck.
The Old Man

 

[wolluf]

Its not the same situation as win95/8 - you CAN participate in a domain with those operating systems, you can't with XP Home. For ease of administration, you want XP Pro (personally I'd have taken the 2000 Pro, but that's just my preference) on your new machines - you'll just be making problems for yourself playing around with XP Home.

 

[dawg]

thanks guys......tim