Windows XP won't play nice with Win2k

I've got a friend who has a small home network. Two PC's connected via a NetGeat home router. One is Windows 2000, the other recently upgraded to WinXP. Windows XP now simply refuses to share files and printers with the Win2k box. They won't comminicate. Ping IP{ work, ping netbios won't. Both PCs have NetBIOS installed, WinXP has Simple File Sharing enabled.

All they really want to do is get printer sharing working. There is an upgrade for the Win2k box coming, but they'd like to use it somehow until it gets here.

Anyone?

 

I would go through both computers and make sure the network settings are identical. I'm guessing it's something like they aren't on the same workgroup. If you use a custom workgroup name it might have reset during the upgrade.

 

They're in the same workgroup, and the security settings are fine as near we can tell. Haven't tried the LMHOSTS thing, that should work (but then, it should work already).

Stupid MS for removing NetBIOS from WinXP!

 

NetBIOS was never removed from XP.. NetBEUI was
Simple file sharing should be disabled.

NetBIOS over TCP/IP can be enabled or disabled. If disabled then you must use an IP to connect to the machine. If enabled then you can look it up by pc name.

 

Netbeui

I'm sure you guys already know, but netbeui did come with XP, just needs to be installed off the CD.

<<Readme :

NetBEUI (NBF) is a non-routable protocol suitable for small networks.
Support for this protocol in Microsoft Windows has been discontinued.
If you are instructed by the Product Support Personnel to install this protocol
as a temporary measure, follow the instructions below.

Installation instructions for NetBEUI protocol on Windows XP and Windows 2002.

* copy nbf.sys into the %SYSTEMROOT%\SYSTEM32\DRIVERS\ directory
* copy netnbf.inf into the %SYSTEMROOT%\INF\ directory
* open network connection properties and use "Install..." button to add NetBEUI protocol

End of Readme>>

I got a thumbdrive I carry with me with a batch file to copy the files to the right location, works great. The files are under 'Tools' or 'Extras' or something, dont have a CD on hand right now. Just search the CD for nbf.sys.

Also I've run into the 'hosts' file problem many times with WinXP, edit the 'Hosts' file (no extension) in the 'Windows\System32\Drivers\etc\' folder to get name resolution, just make sure ya got a static ip. WinXP Pro/Home is very DNS reliant for name resolution, so if you dont have a local dns server, you can run into problems. Easy fix is to run all static ips and edit 'hosts'.

Also make sure that there isnt a small 'lock' icon on the 'local area connection' icon in 'network / dial-up connections'. If so, the firewall is installed and needs to be removed.

Hope this helps

-K

 

Heh. Lost my thread.

I'll try your suggestion King. That probably will work the best. I haven't been by since my first post, so I have a bunch of things to try now.

 

You certainly need to turn off simple file sharing, chances are that simple file sharing did not apply the security permisions properly to the share. Here's step by step:
http://www.jsiinc.com/SUBI/tip4400/rh4487.htm

Once that is off then you'l be looking at Sharing and Security tabs that look very similar to win2k's. If you're not looking for security then you can share something ad set the permissions for read write access to everyone, other wise use authenticated users, this will require a user name and password on the host machine be entered to connect.

Also, netbios was moved to a secondary role in name lookup in windows XP, if you find that browsing the shared folders on the win2k machine is horibly slow then add it's IP address to the windows xp machine as a DNS number, that's what windows XP looks to first, then after a few seconds it resolves to netbios and the older NT4 lookup.