Hi,

I want to share files between two Windows XP pro computers. I would also like that these shares can only be accessed with a password.

Here's a description of my setup:

I have two laptops: over 1 yo Fujitsu-Siemens (FS) running on Windows XP pro (finnish) and a brand new Thinkpad T61 (TP) running on Windows XP pro (english). Both of theses computers have guest account enabled and these accounts have also been password protected. FS's guest account is called "vieras" because of the language settings and TP's guest account is of course just "guest". Guest account passwords have been enabled using "net user <user name> *".

I've disabled simple file sharing on both computers, set shared folder permission to only contain these users: TP - "Guest (TP\Guest)" and FS - "Vieras (FS\Vieras)". Both computers have F-secure on them so I've made firewall rules which enable following services both ways to a specific IP: Ping / ICMP echo request and reply ; Windows file sharing and network printers ; Windows network browsing ; ICMP / Internet Control Message Protocol. I've also enabled these services on Windows firewall.

These computers can connect to each other either via Wi-Fi access point (b-mode) or directly using an ad-hoc Wi-Fi configuration (g-mode). Obviously the latter is used for more bandwidth hungry file transfers. Also, sometimes a cross-over Ethernet cable is used as well for even faster file transfers.

Everything on my setup works just fine except just one thing. I connect to a shared resource by running the computer's IP address. When I connect from TP to FS it prompts for username and password. FS accepts both english and finnish names for  the guest account provided that the password is correct. But here's the problem... When connecting from FS to TP _no password or username prompt appears_. If I browse TP's shared folder sessions (under My Computer -> manage) I can see that FS is logged on as "vieras" i.e. FS's guest account.

Since I enabled FS's network shares over a year a go I can't remember everything I did to make it work. Every relevant configuration on TP and FS seem to be identical (e.g. "Security settings -> local policies -> security options -> Accounts: limit local account use of blank passwords to console logon only -> enabled") but still TP accepts connections without password prompt.

I've tried to get TP's password prompts enabled for a while now without any success. I did a lot of searching on the subject but I could only find instructions on how to disable guest account password prompts for network shares.

Has anyone had similar experiences or does anyone know what I should try out next? Thanks...

Success!

I solved my problem by changing guest account passwords. I tried to keep things simple by using the same guest password on both computers. This however allowed FS to log on to TP without guest password for some unknown reason. My logic would tell me that having the same guest password would allow both computers to log in without password but this wasn't obviously the case. I guess Windows has its own logic that I can't figure out or this issue had something to do with different language setups. Anyhow my shares work now like I want them to work. :)