File Sharing: Access is Denied?

Hi,

I'm trying to share files on my laptop so that other machines on my network can access them. I've run the network sharing wizard and so on, but whenever I try to access the files from another machine I'm just told that "access is denied." My laptop has a fresh copy of XP installed too... with previous installs I've never had any problems sharing files immediately after.

I expect it'll be something to do with permissions... does anyone know how to allow access to this machine?

Thanks in advance.

Have you gone to the directories on your laptop and 'shared' them?

Have you checked your firewall settings? on all machines?

Yeah I have four shared directories and have also disabled all firewalls completely. I'm stumped!

do you have either Guest access enabled on all machines, or the same username/password combo. Can you "browse" a machine's shares by putting \\computername in the Start box of Run or \\\ipaddress. Can you ping between machines ?

Check 1] Can you ping from machine to machine?
Check 2] Can you see the shares and the machine which shares them via Netwrok Neighbourhood on the machine which is doing the share?

Failure of either of these is a showstopper

Yes is the answer to both of those. I can ping both ways and can also see's my laptop's shares through network neighbourhood.

From my laptop (the machine I am trying to access from elsewhere), I can access shared files on other machines with no problem. The guest account is enabled on all machines. I also use the same username and password for all machines. BUT, I can't browse my laptop's files from another machine... it still tells me that access is denied, no matter what method I use to try and access it (including those you suggested).

I'm totally lost with this one!

I know you say firewalls are disabled but it does sound like that laptop's IP address is being blocked by software. Can you swap its IP address with another working machine temporarily?

is your laptop on the same workgroup as the other computers?

Also if you are not afraid of the windows command line try this and see if it works

NET USE driveletter: \\ComputerName\ShareName\volume password /USER:domainname\username /PERSISTENT:No

Change driveletter: too any free drive letter example: X:
Change \\ComputerName\ShareName\volume to YOURLAPTOPNAME\SHARENAME
Password is the password for the main account on your laptop
Change domainname\username to your laptops main user name.

if this command is successful you should see a new drive in my computer and that should contain the files of that shared folder. if this does not work then something is wrong with the laptops setup.

Edited by deleted (Sat 23-Jun-07 00:23:30)