Solved What to do with old XP PC-local net maybe

[durango1]

Hi,

I have had my new pc for about 3 years now and from time to time i have used the old XP pc

this one

HP Pavilion a1000la Desktop PC Product Specifications HP Pavilion a1000la Desktop PC | HP® Support

which has 2 160gb hard drives and i really dont want to lose the storage space.

for a long time now i have been use tight vnc to communicate with it doing some small storage and some other stuff, but tight vnc is sooooooooooooooooooooooooo slow that i wish there was a better way.

I think my new and old pc each have one ethernet port so i would still have to go thru my router, or do i?

can i connect them pc to pc for faster file xfter via ethernet or what is the best thing to do with this old thing. It still works great but it has xp and the os cannot be upgraded to another version. It would have to be as is because as we know xp is no longer supported or updated.

Any suggestions or maybe even a link to a good video of how to set up a peer to peer thru a router and take tight vnc out of the loop...

thanks ")

 

[Kaktussoft]

XP and win7 computer are connected both wired to same router? If so... it doesn't use the router part at all. It uses the switch that's built inside the router.

Speed should be 100mb (or 1Gb if using gigbit port). Divide by 8 and you have Bytes instead of bits. About 30% of communication is overhead btw.

Why use tightvnc or any other vnc flavor? That works great for remote control. But you don't need it for windows file sharing.

 

[durango1]

hi thanks, all i want to do is use the hard drive space, i took the keyboard away and also the monitor off the old one. So all it is is a box with drives in it and windows xp pretty much.

I thought i had to use vnc in order to xfer files and see the startup page and directories. if i dont thats awesome, is there a good guide on how to set this up via sharing if thats what i need to do.

Oh and yes same router, win7 on 1 and xp on 4

 

[Kaktussoft]

winxp home or professional?

So the winxp machine has many drives you want to share over the network from any home computer? You want to share whole drives, or just some folders? You want it password protected?

 

[durango1]

winxp home, and yes share everything and yes pw protected

 

[Kaktussoft]

Just share the root folder of each drive. How to use the Simple File Sharing feature to share files in Windows XP
Password protect is only possible in winxp professional.

 

[durango1]

i have c ad f dives on the xp machine set to shared by i still dont see them on my workgroup list on the 7 machine, and both machines are set the same netwrk group name..

the xp machine is telling me i need to create a cd and run the network wizzard on all machines

 

[Kaktussoft]

The xp machine is telling me i need to create a cd and run the network wizzard on all machines =>don't do that!

What is the ip address of the winxp machine? In command prompt on winxp do:

ipconfig

Post output

 

[durango1]

pk5001z is the modem
192.168.0.4 ip
255.255.255.0 subnet
192.168.0.1 default

 

[Barman58]

Try replacing your VNC with team viewer (free for home use) as it's the go-to remote access software if you cannot use windows RDP ( not available as a server on Home editions)

To set up the items follow this Microsoft step by step guide Networking home computers that are running different versions of Windows - Windows Help

Make sure the xp is running SP3 which adds some extra functions to improve windows networking with Windows7

TeamViewer - Free Remote Control, Remote Access & Online Meetings

 

[durango1]

thanks, problem with teamviewer is that i wont have a monitor or kb hooked up to the xp machine and so there would no little way to start teamviewer on the machine first unless i just want to leave the userside running 24/7

im half way there, i can see the win7 pc on the xp machine but not the other way around, so i will have to do some diging i guess to see why on win 7 i cant see my xp machine. i did follow that guide you sent in the link for the vid.

 

[Kaktussoft]

On win7 in windows file explorer address bar type: \\192.168.0.4
and press enter. What happens?

 

[Barman58]

Teamviewer has an untended mode for just this purpose, you need to set it once with a fixed password and it will start with the system, you would not use it for day to day access to the stored files but just for maintenance purposes. Another "trick" is to go into the advanced options and set it to use direct connections (Lan) so you get the best quality and speed.

If you wish you can try forcing the view by setting a network location on a 7 machine pointing to the //Local IP/sharename. (the XP machine). for some strange reason even when everything is set correctly it can take quite a while for A win7 System to "see" XP shares

 

[durango1]

On win7 in windows file explorer address bar type: \\192.168.0.4
and press enter. What happens?

it times out and cannot find it

 

[durango1]

Teamviewer has an untended mode for just this purpose, you need to set it once with a fixed password and it will start with the system, you would not use it for day to day access to the stored files but just for maintenance purposes. Another "trick" is to go into the advanced options and set it to use direct connections (Lan) so you get the best quality and speed.

If you wish you can try forcing the view by setting a network location on a 7 machine pointing to the //Local IP/sharename. (the XP machine). for some strange reason even when everything is set correctly it can take quite a while for A win7 System to "see" XP shares

ok ill see what i can do

 

[Kaktussoft]

Has winxp a firewall that's blocking filesharing requests?

 

[durango1]

i will check that out, i did notice that even though the xp shows the items when i try to get into them it says (and it says this on the 7 side as well)

.......is not accessable. You might not have permission to use this network resource. Contact the admin of this server to find out if you have access permissions.

on xp side it says access denied
on 7 side it says the specified network provider name is invaid

 

[durango1]

i did this and also installed the network client as suggested

The specified network provider name is invalid ? - Microsoft Community

i have to reboot i will keep you posted

 

[durango1]

and wammmo bammo got it.... it was the network client that was missing.... i see everything now and can access on the 7 machine..

It still says access denied from xp to 7 (upstream) but thats ok i wont be doing that anyway, i just wanted to go downstream and look at the xp from 7.

I think we got it....

thanks soooooo much...