Well, an update (I find this hard to believe ... it must have something to do
with sunspots or Karma). I did the following, and lo and behold, all of the
shares on the W98SE machine suddenly showed up and I was able to install the
printer sw on the XP machine:

START>Settings>Network Connections> and got to LAN Connection Properties.
Then selected "Autheticate as guest when user or computer information is
unavailable" ... and we now have a home run!!!!

Thanks again for your help thru the XP morass. I've been mucking with this
since early March '05!


"Jim W." wrote:

> I have two machines networked thru a Westell Versalink 327A DSL router/modem.
> Prior, I had two machines running MS Win 98 SE, SR2 installed. Both machines
> had full access to files and connected devices on the other (all drives and
> connected printers).
>
> Subsequently, I replaced one machine with a brand new Compaq which came with
> XP Home installed. The older machine has always had full access to the new
> one, BUT NOT vis versa. The XP machine can see the name of the older machine,
> but has no drive or peripheral access. Both machines can ping the router and
> the other machine successfully. Both machines have unrestricted internet
> access through the router and both can access the router configuration pages.
>
> Unfortunately, the only printer is attached to the older machine and it's
> not been accessible. I have shutoff all firewall stuff on the XP machine and
> tried temporarily shutting down Zone Alarm on the older machine, which is the
> only firewall product running on it.
>
> I've installed a lot of networks, but have run out of ideas with this mess.
> I suspect that XP Home is network crippled, but have nothing specific to base
> that on. I've tried the network wizard a lot of times. HELP!!!!

On Fri, 18 Nov 2005 10:09:10 -0800, Jim W. wrote:

>Well, an update (I find this hard to believe ... it must have something to do
>with sunspots or Karma). I did the following, and lo and behold, all of the
>shares on the W98SE machine suddenly showed up and I was able to install the
>printer sw on the XP machine:
>
>START>Settings>Network Connections> and got to LAN Connection Properties.
>Then selected "Autheticate as guest when user or computer information is
>unavailable" ... and we now have a home run!!!!
>
>Thanks again for your help thru the XP morass. I've been mucking with this
>since early March '05!

Jim,

good to hear that you could solve the problem. And thanks
particularly for reporting back!

Note that the setting you enabled is a subordinate setting to
802.1X authentication. In theory this subordinate setting should
not have any effect if 802.1X authentication is not used, which
it most likely isn't in your case. (You're most likely not
running a Radius authentication server.) I'll try to find out
more about this apparent defect.

I've added the following subchapter to the
http://winhlp.com/wxnet.htm web page:

802.1X authentication settings

Click on Start, Settings, Network Connections and go to LAN
Connection Properties, Authentication. Disable 802.1X
authentication altogether, unless you have the 802.1X
infrastructure, typically involving a Radius server or similar,
and can actually use IEEE 802.1X authentication.

In that case, leave it selected, but also select "Authenticate
as guest when user or computer information is unavailable". This
will enable you to access files and printers on other computers
on which you have no user account, including Windows 9x or ME
computers.

Hans-Georg

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