Vista - Permissions problem on folder sharing

Hello,

I have encountered an odd problem whilst trying to set up some folder sharing on my home PC's. Basically, I have three folders I wish to share. The first worked without any real problems but the other two deny me access.

The folders are located on the main PC, and are not within the Vista partition (separate hard drives)

I have:
Network discovery: On
File Sharing: On
Public Folder Sharing: Off
Printer Sharing: On (This works by the way)
Password Protected Sharing: Off
Media Sharing: Off

I am trying to access those three folders on my notebook which are set up as the same above.

Even though I have password sharing set to "off", it still asks for a password when I try to access the main PC. Yet, I have no password set on my accounts for this PC, only the laptop. Should I still be asked for a password even though none is set up? I can just enter my user name and no password and I get the same response, i.e. I can access one of the folders but none of the other two I set up.

When I try to access the folders that deny me, it says the folder is available but the user account I am logged on with was denied access.

What is odd is that all three folders are set up exactly the same with "Everyone" set with full permission.

Does anyone have an idea how I could progress here?

ovbg wrote:

Create identical user accounts on both computers. It is better to also
create identical passwords and then set the machines to log on automatically
if so desired, but try the connection without passwords first if you like. If
it works, fine. If it doesn't, add a matching password to both accounts so
they are truly identical on both machines.

"Everyone" in a Workgroup means all user accounts on the *local* system, not
everyone from other computers.

I don't know why those particular folders are giving you problems, but try
doing the above.

Malke
--
MS-MVP
Elephant Boy Computers - Don't Panic!
http://www.elephantboycomputers.com/#FAQ

Thanks for your quick response.

I actually managed to find a solution of sorts. I went to the MCC and then Disk management, and added "Everyone" to the security tab there. I now have access to all folders.

Odd still that I have the "login" window every time I first try to access one of the folders when logging in. As this should be set to no passwords. What makes it annoying is that I have mapped the drives, but when I log in, it tells me some drives are not accessible. I have to manually connect to one of the drives and enter a password then I once again have access.

I have tried selecting the "remember" this password option, but it does not actually remember it and asks each time. Is there a way to avoid this password window?

ovbg wrote:
The login is because you don't have identical user accounts/passwords on the
account. If I were you, I would do as I previously suggested and add the
user accounts and assign passwords. Since security isn't an issue for you,
the passwords can be simple and you can set the computers to log in
automatically. Here is how to do it:

In Vista, turn Password Protected Sharing ON. Create matching user accounts
and passwords on all machines. You do not need to be logged into the same
account on all machines and the passwords assigned to each user account can
be different; the accounts/passwords just need to exist and match on all
machines. DO NOT NEGLECT TO CREATE PASSWORDS, EVEN IF ONLY SIMPLE ONES. If
you wish a machine to boot directly to the Desktop (into one particular
user's account) for convenience, you can do this:

XP - Configure Windows to Automatically Login (MVP Ramesh) -
http://windowsxp.mvps.org/Autologon.htm

Vista - Start Orb>Search box>type: netplwiz [enter]
Click on Continue (or supply an administrator's password) when prompted by
UAC

Uncheck the option "Users must enter a user name and password to use this
computer". Select a user account to automatically log on by clicking on the
desired account to highlight it and then hit OK. Enter the correct password
for that user account (if there is one) when prompted. Leave it blank if
there is no password (null).

If one or more of the computers is XP Pro or Media Center, turn off Simple
File Sharing (Folder Options>View tab).

Malke
--
MS-MVP
Elephant Boy Computers - Don't Panic!
http://www.elephantboycomputers.com/#FAQ