WinXP Home Networking Help Needed!

hmm probily. try get on your admin acct and set it that way.

btw is all network group names same? if its all different it wont work.

Yep, all computers share the same workgroup name (POKENET). It's just bizarre...Haven't had a chance to try logging in as admin under safe mode yet but I plan on trying that after the Buffy musical is over

In a workgroup environment, when one user on a system tries to access another system on the network Windows looks for an access token to authenticate/identify you. If no access token is in effect, The system you are trying to access will try to give you one by using the user information in its own local domain (machine name).

Therefore, you will need to create duplicate user accounts on all XP/2000/NT machines.

Example: Machine1 is logged in as User1 with no password. User1 on Machine1 wants to access something on Machine2. Machine2 must have a maching user account on it (User1) with the same username and password as it is on Machine1.

I have two XP systems, a Win2K Server system, and three Win98SE systems on my home network. The WinXP/2000 systems must have the same user account information as it is used on the Win98 systems in order for any of the 2000/XP-to-2000/XP or 98-to-XP/2000 sharing to work.

Hope this helps.

Orion,

You did a great job explaining that! However, I do actually have all XP systems set up with a 'Rob' account and still can't access the other machines after a reboot without running the wizard first. Now, I went into the Admin account and set it up as well on my laptop earlier today and it seems to have fixed it as I rebooted the laptop and could access it from my other systems. The problem I think is that I had just set it up on my 'Rob'.

Thanks again for the help!

Erm.. I don't mean to sound bad in anyway at all, but the version of Windows XP your using,..is it the Final build ? if not, are you using a Beta. ?

It is a well known problem that people were using a reset2.exe patch for XP Activation Process, and this would stop any network from working properly. Causing each boot Time to rest the Network, as well as Internet Logon Settings.

thecat2000 is 100% correct. I've seen this problem on all builds of XP. Crack=No Network.

[Disclaimer]

The above comment was not directed at any paticular person. It was simply for general information.

[/Disclaimer]

that goes for me too.. I found out about that through reading the Forums..

Hmmm...interesting. I wasn't aware of that. I suppose it makes sense now that I think about. But no, I am using the final release - no Betas here but I do confess (blushes) that it's only one copy I have of the Dell OEM Version. Of course the interesting thing to note here is that I installed it on my 3 Dell systems and it only didn't require activation on one of them (my Inspiron laptop). The two desktop systems were requiring activation (hence the above problem). I confess... However it does disprove one commonly though theory that the Dell OEM disc wouldn't require activation on Dell systems. I even did the BIOS upgrade on the one desktop prior to installation and it still required activation (hence the introduction of the reset-2 crack.)

BUT all that said (and hopefully quickly forgotten about ) is that the legit install on the Inspiron ALSO requires a re-login to access the other machines in the network that aren't running XP which leads me to believe it was more than just the reset-2 issue...

tsk,tsk.. using illigal copies on other PC's what will Microsoft Think !.. now you explain it though I certainly think it was the reset2.exe crack that caused the problem. Removing it and installing legitimate installs of XP on other PC's would obviously solve it...

But if what you say is true there is one other possibility of your problems, although I am not totally sure about this. But is involves Netbeui as it is not actually supported in XP any more. But I believe earlier Windows Operating system would certainly need it to work.

The other thing is though, if you have two Network names i.e say you have a network called home, which networks your XP Home PC to say another on the same name net work, then of course this Network name must also apply to the 9x Network too. Because the way it looks for other PC's on the Network. Ok, As I say this whole issue some times get's a bit confusing even for me and I am familiar with Windows Networks !

But maybe Windows some how get's confused when you one minute are looking for files on a 9x machine then the next on an NT/2000/XP machine. You couls set your 9x PC's to login to an NT Domain which might fix this. So XP essentially becomes the server to them rather than just on a basic network. Of Course all the basic protocols need to be installed on the 9x systems first..

K' enough waffling, don't know if it helped but you were welcome

Question posed to ponder...
Are the XP machine set with NTFS Partitions?
These support full user share rights, where as FAT/FAT32 does not. A Win98 machine can only allow Guest access, and XP with FAT will only allow Guest access, or a duplicate account acces from another machine. Enabling the Guest account, on an XP machine with FAT/FAT32 should resolve the issue. Hope this helps.
I had a similar problem.