File sharing

Topic

New Reply

I have XP Pro on a peer to peer network. The file system is NTFS. I’d like to share all my files over the network. Is there a default setting that allows this? It seems that I have to set the properties for new files to allow them to be shared, even if they are in folders that I have set to be shared. Under Tools, Folder Options, I have checked “Use simple file sharing.” Is there a way to set the properties for all the exisiting files to be shared?

Reply | Quote

Replies

Are you wanting to share just data files that you have on your machine? Or every single file on it can be shared? I haven’t actually messed with XP too much, but I’m assuming you can create a share on the entire hard drive and other users should be able to get your files that way. I don’t know if you want the entire drive shared however.

Reply | Quote

Actually, I do want to share every file and folder. When I had Windows98, my colleages were able to add system files to the Windows directory on my computer (they can’t do that now) and we could all open one anothers Word, Excel and graphics files, make changes, and so on. I’d like to be able to function like that. I know that it is probably unusual to want someone to access your Windows system files over a network but I sometimes test new versions of our software product and need newer versions of certain dll’s put in the Windows System folder.

Reply | Quote

If you’re on a domain, I’d first disable Simple File Sharing. It’s designed for home use and will not allow you some advanced features that you want.

There is what is called an Administrative Share on all NT-based systems (can someone please come up with a better way to identify NT, 2000, and XP please!!) on all partitions. It is the drive letter followed by a “$” (no quotes). The network mapping would be computernamec$ to connect to it. For other users to be able to connect, you would need to add a user account and password on your local PC, or give them your username and password.

A better way of doing this would be to create a new, unhidden share and call it something like computernameC_DRIVE and then give access from the list of users on the domain – Everyone in this case. That way, your user ID is protected, and if you want to remove access to your system files, you can remove the share.

Replace DLLs in your system folder? You’re brave!

Reply | Quote

In that case, if you have sharing enabled on your computer, you should be able to just right click on the c: drive and click the sharing option in the pop-up menu. You’ll probably have to click the New Share button in the share window that pops up, as the default share will probably be the administrative share or something like that. And then you can choose the share name and set permissions and share the whole drive.

Reply | Quote

This is what sort of solved the problem for me. I define the problem as not being able to share a new folder unless I reset its properties to Sharing. Thanks to you both for your help.

My computer is on a Workgroup network, not Domain. I unchecked the simple file sharing option under Tools which, in turn, enabled a different dialog when I right-clicked the C-Drive and selected Sharing. This was the road block before. I was able to set up a New Share called C on Liz2 (couldn’t see a New Share option before) and gave Everyone all security and sharing options. When I looked at my C-Drive from another computer, C on Liz2 appeared as a folder under the Drive C:Liz. So, I mapped the folder/drive on the other computer so it appears as a Drive in the hierarchy. If I create a new folder, it is immediately visible on the other computer and I don’t need to change any properties. No one can access my Windows folder, but that’s not the end of the world. By the way, the .dlls that we move around are specific to our software product so it’s not as dangerous as it seems. Thanks again for the information. This was driving me crazy.

Reply | Quote

Did you enable Guest account on Liz?

Reply | Quote

No I didn’t. What would that do? Also, since my last post, I discovered that one of the computers on the network, which could freely access my XP computer last week, now asks for a password when I click on the drive. Since I never set it up with a password, I have no idea what to enter. I guess I still don’t have things quite right. I wonder if changing the file system from NTFS to FAT32 will be the answer. I’m told I will have to reinstall the operating system to do this. I’m not quite to that point yet.

Reply | Quote

Enabling the guest account will allow network access to your computer. Disabling it may have resulted in the password request the other workstation you noted is experiencing. If the workstation in question is not NT/2K/XP, authentication works quite a bit differently. Try enabling the guest account and see if that solves the problem.

In order to convert to FAT32, you will have to format the hard drive and re-install everything. However – and this is good news – you can install Partition Magic 7, and it will convert the file system to FAT32 without a reinstall. Either way, you’re looking at a full backup before a major undertaking such as this.

Reply | Quote

Not only do you have to turn off Simple File Sharing, but if you want to access shares on an XP machine from other machines on your LAN without passwords, you have to open the local policy editor and allow “no password” access.

Reply | Quote

[indent]

---

Not only do you have to turn off Simple File Sharing, but if you want to access shares on an XP machine from other machines on your LAN without passwords, you have to open the local policy editor and allow “no password” access.

---

[/indent]
I have been running Windows XP since Beta1 and have never had to do either of the above. During beta I was running a 4 computer peer2peer network, one with XP Pro, one with Windows 2K and 2 with Windows Me. The only time I had any problems with any of the machines seeing the XP machine was when I forgot to turn OFF the Firewall. The workgroup was always found and all of the other computers were seen from the XP machine. Once I defined some sharing including printers the XP machine was seen and accessed by the other machines. The printer from the other machines were found on setup of XP and have worked ever since.

Now All machines are running Windows XP, 3 Pro and 1 Home Edition. These were ALL clean installs from the older OS’s and the RTM on the beta testing maching. Every thing was found and is working.

DaveA I am so far behind, I think I am First
Genealogy....confusing the dead and annoying the living

Reply | Quote

I dunno, Dave. Maybe different methods of XP licensing yield different CDs. My ICF was off by default when I installed and so far this is the first and only XP machine I’ve set up. The other machines on my LAN are running Win98SE and WinME. I could not “see” the XP machine shares until I did the two things I mentioned, thanks to a tip from Tim Higgins, here:

http://www.practicallynetworked.com/sharing/xp_filesharing/

Kay Sarah Sarah!

Al

Reply | Quote