XP computers can't connect to vista computer

Hey Guy's I am new here, I may have posted in the wrong place. My problem is, I just bought a new PC with VistHome Premium. I have 4 other PC's running XPon my network. I don't run all them at one time,normaly just the 2 in the house.The Vista PC can connect to any of the others, cansend and pull files from them. The XP Pc's can findthe Vista pc but will not connect to it. I get an errorthat say's that I don't have permission to access the PC. The Vista pc has 2 hard drives, a 320g for the OS and programsand a 500g for file backup ( pics music and the like). I have gone over the sharing setting for drive D: many times, have even looked at the firewall settings.The only thing I can access from the Xp PC's is the publicfolder on drive c: of the Vista PC. Have gone over the help pages till blue in the face.Any help appreciated.:w00t:


Post Originated from http://www.VistaForums.com Vista Support Forums

Here are general network troubleshooting steps. Not everything may be
applicable to your situation, so just take the bits that are. It may look
daunting, but if you follow the steps at the links and suggestions below
systematically and calmly, you will have no difficulty in setting up your
sharing. DO NOT SKIP STEP C.

Excellent, thorough, yet easy to understand article about File/Printer
Sharing in Vista. Includes details about sharing printers as well as files
and folders:

http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/l.../bb727037.aspx

For XP, start by running the Network Setup Wizard on all machines (see
caveat in Item A below).

Problems sharing files between computers on a network are generally caused
by 1) a misconfigured firewall; or 2) inadvertently running two firewalls
such as the built-in Windows Firewall and a third-party firewall; and/or 3)
not having identical user accounts and passwords on all Workgroup machines;
4) trying to create shares where the operating system does not permit it.

A. Configure firewalls on all machines to allow the Local Area Network (LAN)
traffic as trusted. With Windows Firewall, this means allowing File/Printer
Sharing on the Exceptions tab. Normally running the Network Setup Wizard on
XP will take care of this for those machines.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 2006/07) which acts as a firewall, then you're
fine. With third-party firewalls, I usually configure the LAN allowance
with an IP range. Ex. would be 192.168.1.0-192.168.1.254. Obviously you
would substitute your correct subnet. Do not run more than one firewall.

B. For ease of organization, put all computers in the same Workgroup. This
is done from the System applet in Control Panel, Computer Name tab.

C. Create matching user accounts and passwords on all machines. You do not
need to be logged into the same account on all machines and the passwords
assigned to each user account can be different; the accounts/passwords just
need to exist and match on all machines. If you wish a machine to boot
directly to the Desktop (into one particular user's account) for
convenience, you can do this. The instructions at this link work for both
XP and Vista:

Configure Windows to Automatically Login (MVP Ramesh) -
http://windowsxp.mvps.org/Autologon.htm

D. If one or more of the computers is XP Pro or Media Center:

1. 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.

2. 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.

E. Create shares as desired. XP Home does not permit sharing of users' home
directories or Program Files, but you can share folders inside those
directories. A better choice is to simply use the Shared Documents folder.
See the first link above for details about Vista sharing.

http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/l.../bb727037.aspx

Have a read of the above link re Vista File and Printer Sharing.

Permissions/Share info is there as well.

If using Norton, McAfee, Trend Micro I.S., make sure file and printer
sharing is enabled in THEIR firewall .(LAN allowed)

1st thing to do is make sure that the Workgroup Name of ALL the computers is
the SAME.

In Vista Network and Sharing:

Network Discovery: ON (So it can see the other computers)

Network set to Private (Public is for hotspots, airports, etc)

File Sharing: ON

Public Folder Sharing: ON (Vista’s Public Folder is the same as XP’s Shared
Docs)

Password Protected: OFF (unless you want to set up identical usernames, and
passwords (they can be different) on ALL computers in your Network). If you
have it ON, you will be asked for a username and password when you try to
access a Vista computer from an XP computer, or a Vista Computer.

Also, If you haven’t done so already, run XP’s Network Setup Wizard (in
Start >All Programs >Accessories >Communications), and tell the Wizard to
enable File and Printer Sharing.
Or > Start > Control Panel > Network Connections > Set up a Home or Small
Office Network.

Permissions, accounts and passwords. XP Home's default was none, Vista's
default is 'must have', thank God. Have fun reading up and understand that
Vista makes it way way tougher for criminals.

Saucy

This works and you will see why it workgroup accessing Vista is so elusive by having to go to security, advanced, find your group and the Find Now steps.

To share folders in Vista:

In My Computer go to a folder you wish to share:
Right click on the folder.
Go to properties
Unclick Read Only
Click on Sharing Tab
Advanced Sharing
Check ‘Share this folder’
Permissions
Check all Allow blanks
OK
OK
Security Tab
Edit
Add
Advanced
Find Now
Scroll to Everyone and highlight, left click Everyone twice.
OK
Highlight Everyone
Check all allow boxes
OK
Close