6/2/2007, 1:15 PM [Sunthar
Visuvalingam]
This blog des=
cribes
how I succeeded just now in completely (and relatively easily) resolving t=
he
Windows internetworking issues that are causing so much chagrin to (even
technically savvy) users, who have recently introduced a Vista computer in=
to
their preexisting well functioning XP network. These woes — punctuated by much frustration vented
against Microsoft — is to be f=
ound even
and especially (in several threads) on the TechNet Vista Networking forum.=
My
thanks however to several contributors [Cyanna, Redondo77 ] to the longest=
of
these TechNet threads, from whose attempts I was able to sift out the most
important configuration settings based on my own experiments here at home.=
Our home netw=
ork
consisted until last week of 3 notebooks, all running Windows XP Professio=
nal,
that were clients of a wireless network named MSHOME: a Dell Inspiron 6400, an HP Pavilion =
XH-365,
and my wife's Sony VAIO PCG-R505JS (click
here for detailed system configurations).
All 3 computers could easily access, with full rights, the D (and a=
lso
CD-ROM) drives on the Pavilion and VAIO, and could also back up to a Maxtor
OneTouch external hard drive att=
ached
to the Dell. Security was ensure=
d on
all 3 by Norton 360 (i.e., Windows Firewall was turned off), which caused =
no
problems at least as far as Windows XP networking was concerned. We had to
replace the VAIO (see
my Norton 360 blog) on 30 May with a modest Compaq Presario C511NR (a
variant of their C500) that came with Vista Home Basic and Norton Internet
Security (60-day free trial) preinstalled.
I successfully connected it to both our Internet gateway and wirele=
ss
print server the same evening. However, I've had difficulty till now in
getting the 2 interconnected XPs to access, and even see, the Vista
and vice-versa: the varying symptoms corresponded pretty much to the
behaviors described by those complaining on the TechNet threads referenced
above.
The following
procedures address the core of these interconnectivity problems in order of
importance:
- Ensure the appropriate
Security settings on the Vista drive (or folder) you want to share: grant Everyone full rights (so th=
at they
exactly match the Share rights). To do this right-click the (say, D) d=
rive
in the Explorer window, open Properties, click open the Security tab, =
then
the Advanced button at the bottom. This will open the Permissions tab,
where you can click Edit…, then Add...,
to type and add "Everyone" to the user-groups already
displayed there. Then select Everyone on this list, click Edit…, and check the Full Control box un=
der
Allow (which will automatically check all the specific permissions bel=
ow.
(Thanks to Cyanna for sharin=
g this
tip from the Microsoft MVP on the TechNet forum). Ensure that the
appropriate (combination of) objects (drive, folders, subfolders, file=
s,
etc.) is chosen from the Apply (to)
dropdown list at the top.
- Ensure that the Norton
firewall on each of the clients trusts the remaining computers in the
network:
- In Norton
Internet Security (Vista) this was done by adding the individual IP
addresses (actually not static but dynamically assigned by DHCP) of t=
he
other (XP) machines to the Trusted list. Click on Settings on the main
NIS window, then on Personal Firewall (in the Web Browsing group), th=
en
on the Configure button. Cl=
ick on
Trust Control in the list of choices (in the Personal Firewall groupi=
ng)
on the left side of the configuration window. You should see your tru=
sted
networks already listed under the Active tab. Now click on the Trusted
tab, then the Add... button at the bottom to manually type in and add=
the
IP addresses of the XP machines. (If you are using Windows Firewall, I
believe the corresponding trusts may have been automatically created =
for
you, for it seems to better integrated into the rest of the Vista
security and share environment).
- In Norton 360 (the 2 XP
machines), I moved the SSID of the wireless network and Gateway Physi=
cal
Address (listed as 2 separate items ) from the Limited to the Trusted
pane in the Network Locations tab (the last to the right) in the Fire=
wall
Protection Settings window. These two (additional) steps was all it t=
ook,
for each computer to fully and seamlessly access the others. (Caution: if you keep turning the Norton 3=
60
firewall on and off — or =
keep
tinkering further with the related security settings — in the course of troubleshooting,
there's a good chance of the Trusted computers reverting to Limited without your knowledg=
e. For
example, I found that my Dell mysteriously became completely inaccess=
ible
to the other 2 computers , and I could not access the workgroup even =
from
within the Dell! This happens especially when the Auto Assign option =
is
set to Limited instead of Trusted.)
- Once file sharing and
network discovery are turned on and functional by applying the above
firewall settings, you won't be able to switch them off using the
corresponding option buttons in the Vista Network and Sharing window.=
If
you attempt this (by clicking the down-arrow button to the right), yo=
u'll
see a notification saying that the option is now controlled by the
firewall program. So you'=
ll have
to manually remove the trusts from Norton 360 or Internet Security.
You should be=
able
to ensure the corresponding settings in your own (non-Norton) firewall
programs (check your manual or the Help file).
- There was no need to ti=
nker
with individual NetBIOS, UDP, TCP, etc., settings. In fact, on all the
machines, the Norton firewalls (360 on both XP machines and Internet
Security on the Vista) still show Inbound NetBIOS (Name) requests and =
even
Windows
File Sharing as blocke=
d in their Firewall Gene=
ral
Rules tab (apparently Norton makes an exception for those machines in =
your
Trusted list). The "restrictanonymous" value was already
set to 0 (as opposed to 1) i=
n the
registry of the 2 XP machines when I checked last night. My impression=
is
that such low level settings are automatically configured by Windows a=
nd
Norton when the global firewall rules are applied.
- The above procedures as=
sume
that you've already taken the following steps:
- Make sure first that all the machines are part of t=
he
same workgroup (I changed t=
he
default WORKGROUP on the Vista to MSHOME, the XP default, at the very
start of troubleshooting).
- Then go through the steps lucidly
outlined and explained in the TechNet article on "File and Printer Shari=
ng in
Windows Vista."
- Download and install t=
he
LLTD (Link Layer Topography
Discovery)
Responder on each of your XP clients, so that the computers may
automatically discover each other an other supported devices on the
network. (Be aware that the=
re are simplifications,
complications, limitations, bugs, and compatibility issues to the LLTD
responder
that might prevent it from working properly on your XP system. The ab=
ove
link provides instructions =
to
uninstall it if necessary.) To
further customize the behavior of this new facility, see: How to Enable the Wind=
ows
Vista Network Map.
- The above steps are for
unrestricted access across wireless, but they should work just as well=
for
a wired (or hybrid) network (i.e.,
the problem is with permissions in each client). Also, it should
work fine for user level (as
opposed to publicly shared) security as well. For example, on trying to
access a protected Vista folder from an XP client, I'm asked for my Us=
er
ID and password, and it works.
- If the network shares do not become transparent even af=
ter
completing all the above steps, you might then want to try fine-tuning
your firewall settings by
unblocking (allowing) inbound NetBIOS, NetBIOS Names, and File
Sharing (as suggested by Redondo77, whom I thank for the tip-off about
including all the networked IP addresses in the firewall trusts). This
seems to have worked for at least one user (posting on 6/6/07), though
it's not clear whether these low-level steps were really necessary.
- Even when file sharing =
is
(finally) working as it should across the (hybrid) network, Vista may
still insist on your providing a username and password in order to be =
able
to backup files or do a complete computer backup to (a storage device
attached to) another machine. This seems to be a yet additional level =
of
security that Microsoft has added specifically to the backup routine,
though you can continue to copy files manually over the forbidden netw=
ork
folder....
- If your workgroup is actually part of a
(business) domain (as opposed to a home network), file sharing is centrally managed by an Active=
Domain
Controller from which the relevant permissions should be downloaded to
your computer and firewall settings.
For more information on how to deal with network domains, see: […]
- Chronology: when I first 'plugged' in the Pre=
sario
into our (wireless) MSHOME workgroup, it was visible in My Network Places from the XP comput=
ers but
could not be accessed despite having been shared to Everyone (and late=
r to
my administrator account on all 3 machines); the latter would not appear at all in the Ne=
tworks
window on Vista. I eventuall=
y got
the Presario to see the XP machines after installing the LLTD Responde=
r on
the latter (it may have also taken some time for the computers to disc=
over
each other on their own regardless of whatever I was doing…), and was
subsequently able to access their shared folders after creating the tr=
usts
in the XP firewalls. Access to the Vista Public folder was enabled only
after adding the IP addresses of the XP machines to its firewall's tru=
sted
list. Access to the D drive required its security (in addition to the
share) permissions be set as accessible to Everyone (which is already =
the
default security setting for the Public folder when Vista is installed=
). Having discovered Vista (Home) th=
rough
my wife's Presario, I got ar=
ound to
upgrading my Inspiron to Vista Ultimate 8 June (so we now have to Vist=
as
networked to an XP). Finally, after upgrading the Presario to Vista Ho=
me
Basic to Premium on 14 June,
I removed the 60-day trial of NIS
from the Presario and replaced it with Norton
360 (the license is v=
alid
for 3 machines) , so the firewall settings are now identical across the network.=
What I find r=
ather
surprising — if not downright disconcerting — is that there is no indi=
cation
in either the TechNet Vista Networking
forum nor in Symantec's online knowledge base (at least I've not be=
en
able to find these resources through repeated searches against likely
keywords…) that their technicians have sought to troubleshoot such a bar=
ebones
setup. At least, I can't find such a checklist in order of priority despite
all the bad (and snowballing...)
publicity that both companies have been receiving!
Sunthar