How to network share with home PC running XP?

I just bought a new PC with Windows 7 Professional.

I want to keep using my old PC running XP Professional but pretty much have it act like a server where I can access or share it's hard drives with my Windows 7 system and my laptop which is also running XP.

I noticed that XP uses the workgroup name as MSHOME and Windows 7 uses something else. I should also add that at times, I have found (in the past) sharing my drives with my laptop kind of flaky where sometimes it wouldn't show or allow the drives.

In addition, I have three profiles or users attached to XP. What I plan to do since I only have one monitor is to turn on my old (XP) PC and then leave it running without accessing a particlular profile or user. None of the users are password protected and I have disabled all firewalls including Zonealarm and Windows Firewall to ensure that my connection isn't blocked when I am trying to access the drives.

Any comments or suggestions on how to network share given my situation? I do realize that I am putting myself at risk by disabling the firewall, but at the present time, I want to ensure all the PCS can communicate with each other.

S

1) On XP, select the folder you wish to share, right-click > Sharing and Security. Then tick the boxes as shown (Here i have elected the test folder under C:\ to be my shared folder). Then click Apply and OK.

2) On Windows 7, mapping to this test shared folder can be done in many ways. One way is typing in the search box under the Start menu as shown. Then hit Enter make sure the cursor is inside the box otherwise you will engage the shutdown box

Should you be prompted with logon credentials. Use the username and password with appropriate rights. Here I used the ID I log onto the XP machine with. You may need to put computername\username as the userid should the username alone doesn't work.

That's it, the explorer window will pop up and you now ready to share files. Just put any files in the folder from XP and it'll show up in the share.

Thanks for the links. zzz2496 . Can you be more specific when you write "tutorial section"?

However, I think I may have more issues. I tried FIRST to connect my PC with laptop. Both are running XP. My PC is running XP Pro and my laptop XP home. I wasnt able to access the files, at best. I was able to access the laptop's shared drives but something happened and I lost that ability. I only was able to see one PC on the home network but never fully accessing the shared drives.

Like I posted in my initial post, I found network sharing rather flaky with my wireless router. Perhaps someone can steer me in the right direction in getting XP to see access both XP computers? If I can't get my XP PC to allow itself to be shared withn XP, I doubt it will allow me to share within the Win 7 environment.

Thanks.
Now, my Windows 7 doesnt have a password, just log-in. MUST I have a p/w for the network sharing to work?

You should disable simple file sharing on the XP machines if you want to use password protected sharing. Think if it like this, you create a common workgroup on the Win 7 machine then join that workgroup from all the XP machines by running the network set up wizard.