LAN with 2 Laptops XP Prof. via Crossover cable - almost working :-( but...

[bati]

Hi, it seems to be that I am not the only one with this problem.

I have an old IBM and a brand new ACER Laptop (both XP Professional). I have connected them with a crossover cable and the connection has worked immediately (I did not need to run the Wizard!?!?!?. I made the tests with the ping IP, and it is working). But I have never defined a Host and a Client...

Well, the fact:
Both Laptops are in the same group "workgroup", but:

- when I select workgroup on ACER, it appears an error "....The network path was not found" before showing me anything. But if I disable the default Guest user on IBM, then I can access to Workgtoup in ACER, but I do not see IBM in the group...

- when I select Workgroup in IBM, I do not see ACER in the group, but if I disable the default "Guest" user on ACER, then I can see ACER and IBM as part of the group. BUT, when I select ACER, a box appears asking me a password for a "Guest" account (non editable). The funny thing is that the administrator account on ACER has no password, an there is no other account on ACER besides the already disabled default "Guest"...

So with the default "Guest" account disabled in both Laptops, seems to be the way, but....

Could you please help me!!

Thanks!!!

Bati

[classicsoftware]

ALWAYS disable the guest account.

You need to make a user account on both PC's that has the same name and password and you should be fine after that.

[bati]

Thanks for the reply.^

I tried this, but did not work. I forgot to mention something, and is the fact that I have XP Pro in English in ACER Laptop and XP Pro Spanish in IBM, and therefore, I have in IBM the administrator account and an other account, which should be the Guest one, but it is in spanish "Invitado". Additionally this account has password.....I thought that guest accounts does not have pasword....

So, when I try to see in IBM the ACER, no matter if I have created two additional identical accounts one in each Laptop, the pop up box includes "Invitado" account. I cannot change it. This account is from IBM but appears like this: "ACER/invitado". (I do not understand, "Invitado" is an account from IBM, from which I try to see ACER!!!!! I thought I should see an account from ACER...may be I am wrong). I can not edit the account and I do not know the password (of course it do not match with the one that the Account "Invitado" has in IBM).

I do not have the "Computer Managment" program to rename or administrate accounts, at least in IBM.....so do not know how to proceed.

May be I should just find another way to transfer my data and then format this piece of s...

If you think that there is still one way out, I would appreciate to hear from you.

Thanks and cheers, Bati

[glengels]

Something about your last post has gotten me to reply, where you said: "May be I should just find another way to transfer my data".

If all you want to do is transfer files (as opposed to sharing printers, actually seeing hard drives, etc), you can do this with without going through all the host/client stuff. The alternative is doing ftp, or even tftp.

You will need to go to network properties of both PCs, to TCP/IP properties, and assign both PCs an IP address on the same subnet. Of course, you may have had to do that already since I think even some of the Windows protocols you are trying to use may require this.

Then, you will need an ftp (or tftp) client on one pc and a server on the other.

Ftp clients are usually easy to find. I use WS FTP LE. Unfortunately, version 5.08, which was free for non-commercial use, has been upgraded to version 6 and beyond which is now shareware where they want you to pay after 30 days. But in a Google search I found version 5 here:
http://vipmeister.com/dl/wsftp/ws_ftple.html

The ftp server I use is the free version at www.sambar.com. The only catch is that you have to figure out how to configure it. To give you some hints: It comes as an http server which only includes ftp as a server when you enable it. So you start the sambar server, web browse to http://localhost, then go to sambar's administration page. You will need to: enable ftp, create a user account, in the account properties use * to give access to the whole PC and set the max size to 0 (for any size). (You can use the existing admin account but you still need to change its ftp properties, and you also need to give it a non-blank password for WS FTP LE to work smoothly as a client.) Finally, if you're transfering large files there is also a global FTP size restriction, which is on a different page in the sambar administration, and I had to hunt a little to find it. (This setting doesn't show up until after you enable the ftp server and restart the server.)

If all that sounds like a lot of effort, once you know how to do it, you can get a new set of PCs doing FTP to each other in about 5 minutes or less. Or if you do a google search for "ftp server", you may be able to find one easier to configure than sambar. Or try tftp instead of ftp, where you don't have to worry about an ftp user account. I've just given details about the particular ftp programs I have used for several years, and they have served me well.

If you only have Internet access from one of the PCs, you may wonder how to transfer all the software to the other PC. Here's what you can do: Download both client and server software to the PC on the internet. Get the FTP server going on it. Then connect the 2 PCs together. For an ftp client on the 2nd PC, you can bring up a DOS prompt and ftp from it. The only limitation is that DOS prompts aren't very good for cutting and pasting directory names, etc - it is very tedious to navigate. But you can use this method to at least ftp the graphical client (ws ftp le or whatever) over to the 2nd pc, then install it and you're good to go.

Of course what you are already trying to do, with creating remote Windows host and client, is better if you are looking for more general sharing between the PCs. But to just transfer files, Windows remote access is very tedious to set up. Plus this can leave the PCs more vulnerable to security holes. With FTP, the only security hole you open is while you're running the FTP server. Unless you enable it to always startup when the PC starts up, then the FTP server goes away every time you restart, so you don't have to worry about a security problem. Anyway, I have always preferred FTP to transfer files between PCs.

[bati]

Thanks a lot for the detailed answer!!!!!!!!
A lot more than what I have expected. :-)

I think that I will give your suggestion a try.

Cheers, Bati

[FastLearner]

are you sure you have disabled the guest accounts?

Type the following at a command prompt:

net user

Use the following syntax if you see the guest account there:

net user guest_user_name/active:no

glengels, I'd never thought of using ftp to share files in a home network, but I guess there's no reason not to do it. Thanks for sharing that tip: there's a new one for my bag of tricks...:)

[bati]

I tried "net user" in Command Prompt, and the guest user appears, though it appears in spanish "Invitado"(as I said, in this Laptop I have WXP in that language).

I tried "net user guest /active:no" and "net user invitado /active:no", but after re-typing "net user", the "invitado" account (which is the guest one, since I can not delete it) is still in the list.

In the Control Panel, the account is disabled though....

So, if the account appears in the list, this means that it is active???
Are the commands typed wrong?? Any other suggestion??
Should I rename the "invitado" account into "guest"?? Is it possible??Which command or software?

Thanks for your support. Together we gonna make it ;-)

Bati

[FastLearner]

At this point, you could create two new users called bati (one on each machine), use the same password for each account. Once you have that, you have to choose which folders and files to share between machines.

[Lau]

Bati,

I was having the same problem as you are. I don't know if you solved your problem but in case you are still trying to get your home network working here is what I did:
Click right on one of my hard drive, /Sharing and Security, check the box that says "Share this folder on the network". Do this for one HD on each computer to see if this works.
I did it, and all of a sudden, I was not even prompted for a password anymore and I could freely access the other computer.

Let me know!

[bati]

Well.....it worked!!!!!!!
I have done all the suggestions posted and finally, with your contribution LAU (many thanks BTW), it suddenly stopped asking me for a password, and I could transfer all the files!!!! (it looks quite obvious now, but I did not see it...)

But it is working only one way, I mean, I can see ACER PC from IBM, but not the other way, where it says that the path was not found (or something like this). However, I imagine that this could be normal, since anyway, depending on the drive you share on ACER (for instance the whole C: ), you can do all kind of transfers from IBM. Or should I be able to see also IBM from ACER??

I love this Forum. Here I have found a lot of people really foscused on helping other, and I hope I can do my contribution soon.

See you around this forum ;)

Bati

[Lau]

Hi Bati,
You're quite welcome! That's actually the first time I'm able to help someone. I usually only come here to cry for help ;-) And it looks obivous to me too now, but because this 'Shared Documents' folder is there, I was expecting to see it at first.

If you have shared a drive/folder on IBM I would think that you should be able to see it from ACER. Have you done this or did you just share on ACER?