It took me an entire day, and about an hour of online searching to connect my Windows XP Pro box with my families 98 and ME installations.
Things required to do this:
Local Area Network Properties
Computer Management (mmc.exe)
Local Policy Editor (mmc.exe)
RealVNC (easy access to other desktops)
Here's what I had to do:
*Try and figure out what was wrong and why the 9x and ME boxes couldn't see my XP, yet I could see theirs.
*Find a practically hidden "Enable netbios over tcp\ip" (Took about an hour). The NWLink NetBios/IPX-SPX protocol will not work, and thats all I could find to begin with
. Lots of trial and error here. I also had to restart about 4 times.
*Fix the workgroup problem I accidentally created with my trial and error strategy. (NAME CHANGED) And of course, reboot again.
*I get excited because the other boxes can see me now ^_^
*Crap, I can't access my shares from them because of access denied and resource nonexistant errors.
*I spend a lot of time searching online.
*Find and install DSClient (Directory Services) for 9X and ME so i can browse, and now get IPC$ password prompt, and I have NO idea what the password is.
*After searching a long time, I create accounts on their computers for "Client for Microsoft Networks", and then create local accounts on my XP box that match their usernames. (That's a 2K/XP "Security" Deal)
*STILL DOESNT WORK! YAY!
*Read tips about working with the Local Policy Editor and Computer Management and Trial and Error with them for about an hour and 30 minutes and it still isn't fixed.
*Decide to go it on my own with Local Policy editor and have some fun (and remove wierd usernames apparently used internally by windows).
*Reboot system, then it shuts itself down because apparently I shouldn't have messed with those really ugly looking usernames but it fixes my deletions on next reboot.
*System starts up again, and finally they're networked!
*I decide to put a program on the ME computer from my FTP but for some wierd reason IIS FTP and HTTP services have been stopped by the operating system.
*Start up services and try again.
*Everything appears to be working now
Trying to Share a Lexmark X5150 All-In-One Printer:
(I'm not going to bother because this is in itself is an installation from hell that i've given up on)
I would like to note that SAMBA can communicate just fine with 98 and ME boxes, yet XP/2K don't get along with them. Another operating system's utility can access Windows shares easier than window's interal engine for doing so.
Microsoft REALLY needs to work on their networking friendlyness between operating systems, because this is one of the most annoying issues i've ever worked with. Apparently i'm not alone either. There are tons of people having this problem.
And for those of you who tell me to install Linux, I could if I could. My C:\ parition has about 500 MB free and my D:\ parition has about 200 MB free. Knoppix is the closest i'm going to get for awhile. (Until I get my new computer later this year)
[ January 11, 2004: Message edited by: anphanax ]
