Help me, before i throw my PC out the window...

Hi all,
Until recently I had a very happy network running between 2 PC's. Both
running Windows XP, connected via a Cat5 type cable. Then one of the PC's
had to have XP reinstalled on it, and the network connection has been lost.

I have installed the drivers for the network cards, connected the cable, and
run the setup wizard on both PC's. If I go to My Network Connections, I can
see the other PC on the network, but get this error when I try to connect to
it:

"\\<PC NAME> is not accessible. You might not have permission to use this
network resource. Contact the adminstrator to find out if you have access
permisions. The network path was not found."

I can also ping the other PC through the DOS prompt, so I know the
connection is there. Any ideas as to what may be wrong and how to resolve
it? I did not have any of this trouble when I did this the first time round!

Thanks in advance for any help.
(A very annoyed) Matt

dirtycow <(E-Mail Removed)> wrote:
> Hi all,
> Until recently I had a very happy network running between 2 PC's. Both
> running Windows XP, connected via a Cat5 type cable. Then one of the PC's
> had to have XP reinstalled on it, and the network connection has been lost.
>
> I have installed the drivers for the network cards, connected the cable, and
> run the setup wizard on both PC's. If I go to My Network Connections, I can
> see the other PC on the network, but get this error when I try to connect to
> it:
>
> "\\<PC NAME> is not accessible. You might not have permission to use this
> network resource. Contact the adminstrator to find out if you have access
> permisions. The network path was not found."
>
> I can also ping the other PC through the DOS prompt, so I know the
> connection is there. Any ideas as to what may be wrong and how to resolve
> it? I did not have any of this trouble when I did this the first time round!
>
Make sure your user account has the same name and password on both
machines, or give appropriate permissions to the "guest" accounts. If
that doesn't work check file permissions for the shares.

> Make sure your user account has the same name and password on both
> machines, or give appropriate permissions to the "guest" accounts. If
> that doesn't work check file permissions for the shares.

Sorry to be thick, but could you explain the password bit - both computers
are set up to have the main user as an administrator. I have checked the
folder sharing options - it seems more likely it will be an issue with the
user account though (due to the error message I received), so any light you
can shed on that side of things would be great.

Cheers
Matt

dirtycow <(E-Mail Removed)> wrote:
> > Make sure your user account has the same name and password on both
> > machines, or give appropriate permissions to the "guest" accounts. If
> > that doesn't work check file permissions for the shares.
>
> Sorry to be thick, but could you explain the password bit - both computers
> are set up to have the main user as an administrator.

But do you have an account on the remote machine with the same username
and password as on the local machine? (Administrator doesn't count -
it's specific to each machine, but you can create a user with all the
rights of the default admin account.) Or as I already said, enable the
"Guest" account on the machine and make sure it has permission to access
the files you want to share.

> I have checked the folder sharing options

Did you check the file permissions as well as the sharing options? It's
no good sharing a folder if the user who's trying to access it doesn't
have appropriate permissions. Maybe you were using the "Simple" option
before, and didn't enable it this time?

> But do you have an account on the remote machine with the same username
> and password as on the local machine? (Administrator doesn't count -
> it's specific to each machine, but you can create a user with all the
> rights of the default admin account.) Or as I already said, enable the
> "Guest" account on the machine and make sure it has permission to access
> the files you want to share.

Hi Rob,
I have enabled the Guest account on both machines, and Im still getting the
same error message as before. Anymore things to try? Is there a hidden 'Log
onto network' box that I havent come across?

Matt

dirtycow <(E-Mail Removed)> wrote:
> > But do you have an account on the remote machine with the same username
> > and password as on the local machine? (Administrator doesn't count -
> > it's specific to each machine, but you can create a user with all the
> > rights of the default admin account.) Or as I already said, enable the
> > "Guest" account on the machine and make sure it has permission to access
> > the files you want to share.
>
> Hi Rob,
> I have enabled the Guest account on both machines, and Im still getting the
> same error message as before. Anymore things to try? Is there a hidden 'Log
> onto network' box that I havent come across?
>
There's a number of things that could stop it form working, but most of
them shouldn't be enabled by default. Have you checked to see that
you're using "Simple File Sharing"? Is the workgroup name exactly the
same for both machines?

Check the security log in Event Viewer to see if it tells you why
connection is being refused.

<snip>

Well the solution to this seems to be to kill off Zone Alarm (firewall). It
was denying access it seems.

So problem solved, just need to get the firewall going back ok and all will
be well

Matt

dirtycow <(E-Mail Removed)> wrote:
> <snip>
>
> Well the solution to this seems to be to kill off Zone Alarm (firewall). It
> was denying access it seems.
>
> So problem solved, just need to get the firewall going back ok and all will
> be well
>
Try Kerio Personal Firewall instead
http://www.kerio.com/kpf_home.html
It used to be free, but they've just brought out a new commercial version
with extra features. The trial of the new version reverts to limited
features after 30 days, but it still probably offers everything you need.
I'm still using the old version, and I far prefer it to ZA.

> Try Kerio Personal Firewall instead
> http://www.kerio.com/kpf_home.html
> It used to be free, but they've just brought out a new commercial version
> with extra features. The trial of the new version reverts to limited
> features after 30 days, but it still probably offers everything you need.
> I'm still using the old version, and I far prefer it to ZA.

Cheers Rob,
Ill check it out

Matt

dirtycow <(E-Mail Removed)> wrote:
> > Try Kerio Personal Firewall instead
> > http://www.kerio.com/kpf_home.html
> > It used to be free, but they've just brought out a new commercial version
> > with extra features. The trial of the new version reverts to limited
> > features after 30 days, but it still probably offers everything you need.
> > I'm still using the old version, and I far prefer it to ZA.
>
> Cheers Rob,
> Ill check it out
>
Here's a download link for the old version that still works
http://download.kerio.cz/dwn/kpf/ker...1.5-en-win.exe