File Sharing xp mshome not accessible

[iGuest 3]

Hi, I so need help on how to straighten out my problem with file sharing. I have a desktop with xp pro. A laptop with xp pro and the desktop is the main computer wired thru the router. The laptop is wireless with internal network card. I used to be able to share files between these two. Now I can't. The desktop see's the laptop, the laptop see's the desktop, only if i show view workgroup computers. The laptop only shows it's self. I get mshome is not accessible. But if i click set up a home or small office it shows that i already have it there. What in the world do I have so messed up not for them to see each other properly and let me share files. I have played around with it so much that occasionally i changed somethings and got it to work, then soon as i restarted the computer it would quit working. Is there any way to delete the mshome and start over? From scratch. Or do you have a tutorial on step by step how to do this. I know very little about something like this without step by step instructions. Please help me if you can. Thank you.

[yordan 10]

File sharing is the last part of a home (or office) network configuration. When everything else is fine, file sharing is OK without any effort. So, we need to understand a little bit more.Maybe I missed something important from your explanation ? Are your two computers on the same network through the same router ? Are both of them able to go to the Internet ?Please tell us what you see when, in a command prompt, you type "ipconfig".Tell us that in a hidden form (lie 208.XX.YYY.219) don't give the intermediate digits because it's obviously not safe to fully tell your real IP on a public topic.And after you have written the IP=208.XXX.YYY.something address of both your systems, tell us what you have if, from each system, you issue a ping command to the other system. For issuing the ping command, you go on the first system and you type "ping 208.XXX.YYY.ZZ" (the first PC pings the IP address of the second one). And then on the second PC ping the IP address of the first one.

[iGuest 3]

Ok on my desktop, I have it set as r***812, full computer name is r***812, Workgroup is MSHOME, then on the laptop I have it set as Laptop, full computer name Laptop, Workgroup is MSHOME, Both computer are on the same network. My desktop connects into the router, and the laptop connects wirelessly but on the same network. They both can browse with no problem and connect to the network. When I type ipconfig i get this. 192.xxx.x.2 from the desktop. Then i ping that number from the laptop and get 4 good replies 0 loss. Now when i ping the laptop number of 192.xxx.x.4 from the desktop, request timed out, 3 replies, 4 packets sent, 3 received 25% loss. I hope this is what you were asking for. the router by the way is a wireless router. But i currently only have the desktop wired direct and the laptop wireless running. Now, the laptop is a secured connection so that no one can outside pick up my connection. I have password protected. Does that have anything to do with it. Or because they are on the same network and connected that shouldn't matter. Thanks for trying to help me by the way.

[iGuest 3]

Ok on my desktop, I have it set as r***812, full computer name is r***812, Workgroup is MSHOME, then on the laptop I have it set as Laptop, full computer name Laptop, Workgroup is MSHOME, Both computer are on the same network. My desktop connects into the router, and the laptop connects wirelessly but on the same network. They both can browse with no problem and connect to the network. When I type ipconfig i get this. 192.xxx.x.2 from the desktop. Then i ping that number from the laptop and get 4 good replies 0 loss. Now when i ping the laptop number of 192.xxx.x.4 from the desktop, request timed out, 3 replies, 4 packets sent, 3 received 25% loss. I hope this is what you were asking for. the router by the way is a wireless router. But i currently only have the desktop wired direct and the laptop wireless running. Now, the laptop is a secured connection so that no one can outside pick up my connection. I have password protected. Does that have anything to do with it. Or because they are on the same network and connected that shouldn't matter. Thanks for trying to help me by the way.

Ok, for some reason, my gosh i got this thing working, but now i need to ask a few question. Here is part of the problem which is the firewalls. I run Comodo free pro on my desktop. and Windows firewall on my laptop. I don't understand how to make them allow this to share and not have to turn off the firewalls. Also, when i click my network places, on the desktop it shows only the files on the local network which is only the desktop's files. I can only see what computers are in the workgroup if i click view workgroup computers. On the laptop, I show nothing when i click my network places, but by clicking view workgroup computers it shows me the laptop and the desktop. How do i get it to show on both when i click just my network places like it used to in the past. It's kind of a pain to keep having to deal with the firewalls of turning them off. Worries me some. Thanks

[yordan 10]

Ok on my desktop, I have it set as r***812, full computer name is r***812, Workgroup is MSHOME, then on the laptop I have it set as Laptop, full computer name Laptop, Workgroup is MSHOME, Both computer are on the same network. My desktop connects into the router, and the laptop connects wirelessly but on the same network. They both can browse with no problem and connect to the network. When I type ipconfig i get this. 192.xxx.x.2 from the desktop. Then i ping that number from the laptop and get 4 good replies 0 loss. Now when i ping the laptop number of 192.xxx.x.4 from the desktop, request timed out, 3 replies, 4 packets sent, 3 received 25% loss. I hope this is what you were asking for. the router by the way is a wireless router. But i currently only have the desktop wired direct and the laptop wireless running. Now, the laptop is a secured connection so that no one can outside pick up my connection. I have password protected. Does that have anything to do with it. Or because they are on the same network and connected that shouldn't matter. Thanks for trying to help me by the way.

OK, now I see.No problem with the 192.XXX, you can give me full IP addresses here.
I would like that you do something more.
So, if I understand correctly, the laptop can ping the desktop.
And the desktop cannot ping the laptop (please correct me if I understand things the wrong way, because I hate Laptop/desktop saying, I would prefer master/slave, the master having the files and the slave wanting to use the files).
I guess it's a firewall problem.
On the system which refuses the ping, can you please the firewall checkings ? Just remove disable the firewall during a couple of minutes and retry the "ping" test.
Another possibility could be that your home network is very busy, or you have a wifi distance problem. So, for clearly understang things, you could place the wifi system close to your wifi router.
Now, from the laptop, the one which succeeded pinging, do the following :
1) retry "ping 192.xxx.x.2" from a command line box.
2) if the ping is successful, in the same command line box type

net use * \192.xxx.x.2\sharedfolder

(I assume that you have on the 192.xxx.x.2 a shared folder named "sharedfolder", in my command line syntax replace the work "sharedfolder" by the name you gave to your shared folder, probably "tmp" or "today" or something meaningful to yourself.
If the "net use" is successful, this means that you can use the shared folders.
When the "ping" problem will be solved the other way, the sharing will also be possible the other way.

Please confirm that you did these tests and tell us the results.

Regards
Yordan

[yordan 10]

Ghosh ! I see that you were writing during the time when I was also writing.But now the problem is different, it's not a complicated network problem, it's a simple "firewall instructions" problem on each system.Did you try the "net use" test ?With and without the firewall ?

[iGuest 3]

Ghosh ! I see that you were writing during the time when I was also writing.But now the problem is different, it's not a complicated network problem, it's a simple "firewall instructions" problem on each system.
Did you try the "net use" test ?
With and without the firewall ?

Ok, i'm a little lost. the pings are all successful with the firewalls turned off, but the net use test, i'm not getting any where. So correct me if i'm wrong. The laptop you want me to ping the desktop, and it was successful. and vice versa, Now by pinging the desktop from the laptop you then in the next cmd promt to put in net then a space then use then a space * then a space then \192.168.1.2\shareddocuments Now is this wrong or what cause it doesn't work. my folder on the desktop that i have shared is shared documents. what am i doing wrong? But they do both share the files but only like i said with firewalls off, and by clicking view workgroup computers since they don't show anything when just clicking on my network places.
Edited November 24, 2008 by halfpint (see edit history)

[yordan 10]

net then a space then use then a space * then a space then \192.168.1.2\shareddocuments Now is this wrong or what cause it doesn't work.

Sorry, I had a long working day, that's probably why it seems that I am already sleeping.The syntax is almost correct, simply one "\" is missing.
The syntax is :

net use * \\192.XXX.YYY.3\shareddocuments

I told you \ instead of \\
"net use" means "please Mister Network use"
"*" means "the next available disk drive" instead of specifying "net use g:" or "net use W:"
\\IPaddress stands for "The server at the IPaddress"
and "\shareddocuments" is the name of your shared place.
Really sorry, usually my colleagues immediately correct my mistyping...

[iGuest 3]

Sorry, I had a long working day, that's probably why it seems that I am already sleeping.The syntax is almost correct, simply one "\" is missing.
The syntax is :

net use * \\192.XXX.YYY.3\shareddocuments

I told you \ instead of \\
"net use" means "please Mister Network use"
"*" means "the next available disk drive" instead of specifying "net use g:" or "net use W:"
\\IPaddress stands for "The server at the IPaddress"
and "\shareddocuments" is the name of your shared place.
Really sorry, usually my colleagues immediately correct my mistyping...

No problem, sorry for your day, and i can only imagine this is getting on your nerves and if so, please do say so. I know this has frustered me now for 3 days, and ready to pull out my hair. Ok on the net use * \\192.168.1.2\shareddocuments i get system error 67 has occurred. The network name cannot be found. But yet they can share these folders, or any i specify back and forth. What does this mean? and yes this was all done from the slave computer. And if your to tired please don't worry about an answer today. My apologies. hugs Ok i did this net use command again but with a diff folder name. and it says Drive Z: is now connected to 192.xxx.x.2\shareddocs the command completed successfully. i had the folder name wrong. And yes i'm tried to lol. this was on the slave computer.
Edited November 24, 2008 by halfpint (see edit history)

[yordan 10]

OK, now, after a full night sleep, are you still in trouble ?Do the "net use" things succeed mounting the shared folders ?Do you still need help for configuring the firewalls ?

[laniczech 0]

If you are trying to just simply move files, i started using vuse to do mine, when i send a file within my own network it only takes a few minutes, plus by adding a few of my family we can trade pictures and any thing, world networkingmy problem was i was rinnong linux, xp, and vista on a wireless network, and only luck i had was with windows 2000detecting my other computers, it seemed to do it by itself. after days of trying every thing just to mobe a file a friend suggested bittorrents, and im hooked

[iGuest 3]

OK, now, after a full night sleep, are you still in trouble ?Do the "net use" things succeed mounting the shared folders ?
Do you still need help for configuring the firewalls ?

Well glad you got some rest. Finally I got it going. My firewalls are now all configured with the help of a friend from Nebraska on what to do with Comodo. And yes thank you so much for all your help. The firewalls were blocking everything, and some change was initiated somewhere that I had to pay Dell to undo something that went wrong and wouldn't let me on the internet then. But all is now fixed. With your help. Dell, and The friend in Nebraska, we are up and running, sharing files, without having to shut down the firewalls. The only thing i don't understand is why the files that are shared don't show up in my network places under the local network like they used to. I have to go thru the view workgroup computers, But at least i can share files now, so i am a happy camper. Thanks again.