Problem with XP/Win7 file sharing

Hey guys/gals.

I'm having a weird issue when it comes to to accessing shared folders on my Win7 machine from my XP machine. First, nothing worked. But now, after few hours of researching the web about how to get this sh*t working, I'm stuck with one small irritating problem.

On my win7 box, everything works like a charm. I can access my xp box flawlessly.
On my XP box, I can find the win7 box. I can ping it, and I can see it in the network map. But when trying to get into the win7 box, and accessing the shared folders, I hit a dead end with the error:
'\\<computer> is not accessible. You might not have permission to use this network resource. Contact the administrator of this server to find out if you have access permissions.'

However when manually entering the address to the shared folder (\\win7\folder\), everything works fine and I'm able to browse through the content of the folder.

Any ideas folks? People wont always know the name of my shared folders e.g. on a LAN.

When mapping the drive(s), set them to automatically reconnect at Windows startup. There's a check box for that right where/when you enter the address. It's called "reconnect at logon."

Not quite sure hos this relates. The thing is, that I want people (and myself) to see which folders are currently shared on my win7 machine. So they can access them without knowing the name of the folder in advance.

Yeah. My last post will do that for you. The shares will automatically show up in Windows Explorer, right where C:, D: etc....are....if you map them like that from remote machines.

Then... all of the computers that want to access my folders, would have to do this on their machines?

Yeah. They have to map the share(s) to your Win7 machine while checking that box. Only a one time thing. Never need to be looked at again, if done right.

The issue at hand, it that my win7 box is blocking access to people trying to list my shared folders, or so to speak. The only way to access my shared folders is to know the name of the folder being shared. I want it to be like it is on my win7 machine, when i try to access other computers. By just going into another computer via the network map or direct address e.g. \\<computer>, it would list all the resources that computer is sharing...

Edit: I go to LAN-parties about 3 times a year. At which this would be really annoying.

Hello there,

I tried everything...like remove password and some other option and at last i map that drive but nothing happened.. i still cannot share...

i am using a lptp with win 7 and one pc with xp over a linksys router ..so i can access files frm xp but not frm win 7 ,,,
the only thing i can access is a folder users..

plzzzzz help