Configuring non-simple file-sharing in Windows XP

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1. Either disable windows firewall or Create exception for file and printer sharing in windows firewall.
2. Disable all virtual network interfaces created by VMWare, Virtual Box, Hyper-V, openVPN etc.
3. Change computer name by choosing properties window from My Computer. Change workgroup to something other than "Workgroup" so that machines with default workgroup do not show up in the created workgroup. Restart computer.
4. It takes four / five minutes for computer to search for workgroups and computers in that workgroup. Hence wait for some time after rebooting machine before testing new settings.
5. Go to "My network places" directly or Go to "Network Connections" and from there go to "My network places". In "My Network places" use option "View workgroup computers". The computers part of your workgroup should be visible in 5 to 10 seconds if things are fine. Note that even if one computer in the workgroup has bad firewall configuration, "View workgroup computers" on all machines would work slow. Hence it is important to use some other custom workgroup name and not default name "workgroup" to avoid problems from machines which are not under our control in heterogenous environments.

   There is also option titled "Microsoft Windows Network" that allows you to see names of other workgroups that exist in same LAN in "View Workgroup Computers" window.

6. Open Windows explorer and goto "Tools" -> "Folder Options". Here in view tab disable "Simple file sharing" if you want to access drive shares C$, D$ etc. using administrator username and password. This way one does not need to share any folder explicitly and all drives are shared and require administrator username / password for access.
7. Try to open other computers from Run using IP address as "\\<other computer IP>". If prompted for username / password enter windows administrator username / password. You can then type names C$, D$, etc. on address bar and open desired drives. The share names that end with $ are hidden and will not show automatically while browsing. One needs to manually enter this names in address bar to use these shares.

   Within same LAN one can also use "\\<computer_name>" instead of IP address to browse other computer. But if other computer is not in same LAN then a WINS server is required to use names to access computer.

8. To see folders shared on given computer, how many users are connected to various shares and which files they are accessing currently. Right click on "My computer" and choose "Manage". In "Computer Management" window see sub-options "Shares", "Sessions" and "Open Files" under "Shared Folders" option. One can see if someone is using files/folders shared on current computer and also see using which users credentials has other person logged in. We also have option of closing session from here.

To learn how to configure Samba (Windows file sharing) using Linux refer to Samba server configuration

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