Network help ( must be something simple )

[Cornholio]

Hi let me set the scene :

PC running xp home w/ sp2 and zone alarm firewall ( 192.168.1.1 - 192.168.1.200 allowed through firewall ) wired connection to router.

Laptop running xp home w/ sp2 and windows firewall ( currently disabled ) connected via wireless pcmcia card to router.

Run network setup on both computers fine, they see each other and themselves in " My Network Places ", the PC can connect to the laptop but.......the laptop cannot connect to the PC, gives the error message blah blah blah is not accessible Access is denied ( something along those lines ), just spent two hours trying various things and cannot for the life of me get it to let me connect to the PC via the laptop.

HELP !

Andy

[speardane]

to start with the obvious...
same domain / workgroup?
same network group eg both 192.168.1.xxx?
try ipconfig on each to check set-up

[Cornholio]

Yep, pc is a man IP of 192.168.1.4

lappy is DHCP 192.168.1.3

both subnets/dns/workgroup/domain is the same.

[Viper81]

An 'access is denied' suggests a authentication problem. Are you using the same username/password combination on both laptops? When you say you try to connect from the laptop to the PC what are you doing? Browsing to a shared folder?
Have you tried temporariy shuting down ZoneAlarm just to be sure it's not blocking access?

[Cornholio]

I shut down zonealarm and still no joy, the usernames are different on the pc/laptop but neither have passwords. Just trying to browse via " my network connections ". It has worked before when he had an ADSL router setup, now with the cable router it will only let the PC view the laptop and not visa versa

[Viper81]

Just in case it's a wierd issue have you tried browsing directly to the machine?
(Try Start -> Run then type "\\192.168.1.4")

[Cornholio]

Just in case it's a wierd issue have you tried browsing directly to the machine?
(Try Start -> Run then type "\\192.168.1.4")

No, i will try that tomorrow. Both computers ping each other ok, can see each other fine its just that the laptop wont connect to the PC, gives that Access denied crap.

[smargh]

Remote access to accounts with blank passwords is disabled by default. It can be enabled with a policy change:

start->run->gpedit.msc
Computer Configuration -> Windows Settings -> Security Settings -> Local Policies -> Security Options
"Accounts: Limit local account use of blank passwords to console login only."

Alternate solution: give the accounts a password. It's easier if the PC you are trying to access also has an account with the same username and password. Note that using a simple password would be much worse than using no password.

Also check that "Simple file sharing" is disabled.

[Cornholio]

start-run-gpedit.msc does nothing ?

where would simple file changing be ?

My network at my house consists of

MY PC -- Wired XP

HTPC - Vista -- Wired

Mrs PC -- Wireless XP

Sisters PC -- Wireless XP

And that works fine, none of them have passwords on either.

[smargh]

XP Home doesn't have gpedit.msc (sorry, I forgot).

You can edit the registry manually.
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Control\Lsa\

Make a new DWORD value called "limitblankpassworduse" with a value of 0. I dunno if you would have to reboot.

Don't forget that this is an abolutely huge security hole if you enable this....