XP Media Center networking problem

Just got a new gateway laptop. I networked it on my home network. I can
access all other shared folders (hidden an unhidden) going OUT of the
laptop. I CANNOT however see anything going IN to the laptop. I have tried
connecting both wired and wireless and still nothing. I called gateway and
dlink who both pointed the finger at each other. I think it is a setting in
windows I am missing. Can anyone seem to figure this one out. I use XP home
on all systems and XP media center on the laptop. Thanks.

"James D" <(E-Mail Removed)> wrote in message
news:(E-Mail Removed)...
> Just got a new gateway laptop. I networked it on my home network. I can
> access all other shared folders (hidden an unhidden) going OUT of the
> laptop. I CANNOT however see anything going IN to the laptop. I have tried
> connecting both wired and wireless and still nothing. I called gateway and
> dlink who both pointed the finger at each other. I think it is a setting
> in
> windows I am missing. Can anyone seem to figure this one out. I use XP
> home
> on all systems and XP media center on the laptop. Thanks.
>
So your other computers can't see the laptop? Did you enable file sharing
on the laptop?

James D wrote:

> Just got a new gateway laptop. I networked it on my home network. I
> can access all other shared folders (hidden an unhidden) going OUT of
> the laptop. I CANNOT however see anything going IN to the laptop. I
> have tried connecting both wired and wireless and still nothing. I
> called gateway and dlink who both pointed the finger at each other. I
> think it is a setting in windows I am missing. Can anyone seem to
> figure this one out. I use XP home on all systems and XP media center
> on the laptop. Thanks.

This is most commonly caused by a misconfigured firewall. Run the
Network Setup Wizard on both computers, making sure to enable File &
Printer Sharing, and reboot. The only "gotcha" is that this will turn
on the XPSP2 Windows Firewall. If you aren't running a third-party
firewall or have an antivirus with "Internet Worm Protection" (like
Norton 2005/06) which acts as a firewall, then you're fine. If you have
third-party firewall software, configure it to allow the Local Area
Network traffic as trusted. I usually do this with my firewalls with an
IP range. Ex. would be 192.168.1.0-192.168.1.254. Obviously you would
substitute your correct subnet.

Then create shares as desired. XP Home does not permit sharing of users'
home directories (My Documents) or Program Files, but you can share
folders inside those directories. A better choice is to simply use the
Shared Documents folder.

If one or more of the computers is XP Pro:

a. If you need Pro's ability to set fine-grained permissions, turn off
Simple File Sharing (Folder Options>View tab) and create identical user
accounts/passwords on all computers.

b. If you don't care about using Pro's advanced features, leave the
Simple File Sharing enabled.

Simple File Sharing means that Guest (network) is enabled. This means
that anyone without a user account on the target system can use its
resources. This is a security hole but only you can decide if it
matters in your situation.

Malke
--
Elephant Boy Computers
www.elephantboycomputers.com
"Don't Panic!"
MS-MVP Windows - Shell/User