No access to SATA drives thru LAN network. Something to do..

Hi folks,

I have my laptop connected to my desktop through LAN. On my desktop I have 4
SATA drives which I cannot access from my laptop: Windows says I have no
permission. I can browse my laptop drive from my desktop, though, with no
problem. Any ideas on what may be going on here? Thanks a lot in advance.

Serge

WinXP SP2 with all the updates. SATAs are on a Promise SATA300 controller

Serge Skysi wrote:
> Hi folks,
>
> I have my laptop connected to my desktop through LAN. On my desktop I have 4
> SATA drives which I cannot access from my laptop: Windows says I have no
> permission. I can browse my laptop drive from my desktop, though, with no
> problem. Any ideas on what may be going on here? Thanks a lot in advance.
>
> Serge
>
> WinXP SP2 with all the updates. SATAs are on a Promise SATA300 controller

This has nothing to do with the hardware in your desktop. Do you have
any shares set up on the desktop? Are you able to access any shares on
the desktop? Have you actually set up File/Printer Sharing on the Local
Area Network?

If not, see this standard "networking problems" primer:

Run the Network Setup Wizard on all computers, making sure to enable
File & Printer Sharing, and reboot. The only "gotcha" is that this will
turn on the XPSP2 Windows Firewall. If you aren't running a third-party
firewall or have an antivirus with "Internet Worm Protection" (like
Norton 2005/06) which acts as a firewall, then you're fine. If you have
third-party firewall software, configure it to allow the Local Area
Network traffic as trusted. I usually do this with my firewalls with an
IP range. Ex. would be 192.168.1.0-192.168.1.254. Obviously you would
substitute your correct subnet.

If one or more of the computers is XP Pro or Media Center:

a. If you need Pro's ability to set fine-grained permissions, turn off
Simple File Sharing (Folder Options>View tab) and create identical user
accounts/passwords on all computers.

b. If you don't care about using Pro's advanced features, leave the
Simple File Sharing enabled.

Simple File Sharing means that Guest (network) is enabled. This means
that anyone without a user account on the target system can use its
resources. This is a security hole but only you can decide if it matters
in your situation.

Then create shares as desired. XP Home does not permit sharing of users'
home directories (My Documents) or Program Files, but you can share
folders inside those directories. A better choice is to simply use the
Shared Documents folder.

If that doesn't work for you, here is an excellent network
troubleshooter by MVP Hans-Georg Michna. Take the time to go through it
and it will usually pinpoint the problem area(s) -
http://winhlp.com/wxnet.htm


Malke
--
Elephant Boy Computers
www.elephantboycomputers.com
"Don't Panic!"
MS-MVP Windows - Shell/User