Okay, frustration is setting in here. I have a home network with 2 machines and an AT&T 2Wire Gateway (it's a 2701HG-B if that matters). My machine is connected directly (via ethernet cable), the other machine is connected wirelessly. Both machines can access the internet with only the occasional hiccup. I'd like to be able to share files between the machines, but when I set up a shared folder on one, any attempt to copy or create a file from the other machine (in/into the shared folder) results in the 'Access is denied' error message. Both machines are running XP Home. I found a 'Fix It' file at help & support, but running it on both machines did nothing. What am I missing? I read a thread that seemed related, but the advice was confusing to my feeble old brain.1 person got this answerI do too

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 overlooked firewall (including a stateful firewall in a VPN); 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. If you aren't running a third-party firewall or have an antivirus/security program with its own firewall component, 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. Refer to any third party security program's Help or user forums for how to properly configure its firewall. Do not run more than one firewall. DO NOT TURN OFF FIREWALLS; CONFIGURE THEM CORRECTLY. 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. DO NOT NEGLECT TO CREATE PASSWORDS, EVEN IF ONLY SIMPLE ONES . If you wish a machine to boot directly to the Desktop (into one particular user's account) for convenience, you can do this: XP - 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, turn off Simple File Sharing (Folder Options>View tab). 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. MS-MVP - Elephant Boy Computers - Don't Panic!

Thank you for the reply. I'll give some (or all) of this a try ASAP. And I do have third party firewalls on both machines. What's the best way to get the correct range of IP addresses for configuring the LAN Allowance? IPCONFIG?

Yes, ipconfig /all will show you the IP address range, the gateway address (usually the router), and the subnet.MS-MVP - Elephant Boy Computers - Don't Panic!

Well, the third-party firewall settings were so danged cryptic as to be useless, so I just turned them off and turned the Windows Firewall back on on both PC's. I then set up the user accounts on both PC's identically, deleted all of my previous attempts at creating Shared folders, rebooted both machines and ran the Network Setup Wizard on each, then did the Add a network place thing on the other machine, and viola! It works. I'm just using the default Shared Docs folder now. Why make things overly complex? So everything seems to be fine. Thank you again for the clearly stated advice/instructions - they helped tremendously!

I'm so glad you got this sorted. Thanks for taking the time to let me know.MS-MVP - Elephant Boy Computers - Don't Panic!

I'm so glad you got this sorted. Thanks for taking the time to let me know.MS-MVP - Elephant Boy Computers - Don't Panic!