Home Networking Question.

Setup - 3 PC's in the Network, Named as follows - 1) Peter, Password = Pan, 2) Donald, Password = Duck, 3) Mickey, Password = Mouse.

All Setups are identical, with XP Pro Installed.

Donald and Mickey can communicate in both directions with each of the other 2.

Peter can communicate both ways with Donald, but when an attempt is made to access Mickey, a password is requested.

My question is this. "What should be entered ".

I should add that I was absolutely at a loss as to why this situation should even exist, and solved it by 'Trial & Error', but would prefer not to influence any answers by including my solution, which I am sure could not possibly be the way the system was intended to work.

Many Thanks.

 

First off, consider that XP-Pro is primarily designed to run on a Domain. Lots of home users have the OS version but the original thought was Pro=domain Home=stand-alone or workgroup.

Domains validate users and their credentials via the domain controller and if PC-A tries to connect to PC-B, the validation will be based on who logged on to PC-A and PC-B will simply take information provided by the Domain Controller.

Otherwise, with a small workgroup style LAN, you have to make sure PC-A has some way of validating the user logged on to PC-B and some idea of what priv. level the user has on PC-B.

There are at least a dozen different ways to set this up depending on your level of expertise, the file system(s) in use (NTFS or FAT32), and your needs.

Say what your particular needs are and I'll suggest ways you might want to set things up unless you are happy with what you have working now.

 

Hi Newt:

Thank you for the reply.

If you say - "There are at least a dozen different ways to set this up depending on your level of expertise ", I certainly would believe you, but to have ^any^ level one must have ^some^ expertise, which eliminates me.

Regardless, why I asked the question is because to gain access to Mickey from Peter, I had to enter the User as 'Mickey', and use the Mickey Password.

Why did I not have to enter the User as Peter, and use the Peter Password.

 

Two things I'd look at to see how they were set on the 'working' PCs vs on the 'problem' PC.

Windows Explorer => Tools => folder options => view and the bottom setting for Simple File Sharing

Right-click the My Computer icon then manage, local users and groups, users and see if the guest account is enabled.

If you prefer (and it would certainly be easier than playing 20 questions here), give an idea of how you would like things set up and I'll tell you how. Just need to know

- NTFS or FAT32 on the PCs
- do you have security concerns or are you happy with each user having full access to all 3 PCs?
- if security concerns, would you like each user to have full access to a single PC and limited to the others or are there users you'd prefer not be able to install new software and similar?

 

I am happy with what I have now but would appreciate the information for future reference.

Simple File Sharing is Unchecked and the Guest Account is enabled on Both PC's.

All 3 are using NTFS, I have no Security concerns, and would like each to have Full Access to the others.

Thank you for your time.

 

Simplest approach that will give you some protection from outside baddies but easy access within your network would be

- log on to each PC with the exact same username and password. Gotta be using a password for things to work correctly.
- add that username to the administrator group on each PC.
- disable the guest account unless you expect to have visitors and want them to have some very limited access to network resources.

The above works fine but has a downside of making the same user entry on each PC so all the My Documents and similar stuff has the same name. That may be OK or may be a problem. If it's a problem then

- log on to each PC with a unique username/password as you are doing now.
- add each username/password to the local users on all PCs
- add each username to the administrator group on all PCs
- disable the guest account

 

Hi Newt:

I just noticed that I forgot to thank you for the info in your last posting.

My apologies.

 

Not a problem. Question is, did the suggestions work for you?

 

Yes they did.

Many Thanks.