I've set up a home network running the wizard on both my desktop and laptop. The desktop is connected through a cable to a D-Link wireless router, while the laptop has a wireless connection.

Both computers are visible in the network, but the folders which I want both PCs to share are inaccessible. A pop up window appears saying that I may not have administrator privileges or that I have to have an administrator account. But both PCs have only one account each. Both as administrator.

How do I [correctly] go about accessing data between the 2 PCs? Cheers!

I've set up a home network running the wizard on both my desktop and laptop. The desktop is connected through a cable to a D-Link wireless router, while the laptop has a wireless connection.

Both computers are visible in the network, but the folders which I want both PCs to share are inaccessible. A pop up window appears saying that I may not have administrator privileges or that I have to have an administrator account. But both PCs have only one account each. Both as administrator.

How do I [correctly] go about accessing data between the 2 PCs? Cheers!

Check your Firewall settings in Router and pc/Laptop! Temporarly disable the firewall and try to connect.

Check your Firewall settings in Router and pc/Laptop! Temporarly disable the firewall and try to connect.

Thanks Reimar! Done that, but still no access.

If both machines are logged in as 'administrator' makes sure they have the same password, there seem to be issues otherwise.

A better solution would be to have different user names for each machine, then you can actually control what gets shared.

EDIT I seem to recall also having trouble when I had a blank (no) administator password.

Check this site: winhlp.com It's very useful for troubleshooting network errors like yours.

There could be several reasons, as pointed out above, if you are using the same username on both computers, but different passwords, this could be the problem. Blank passwords could also lead to problems. Unfortunately you don't exactly state what error message you get.

try the following:

start, run and type cmd enter

This will get you a commmand prompt.

Now enter the following inside the command prompt:

net use X: \\computername\sharename

where x: is the driveletter, you could also omit this.

See what happens, and what error message you get if any

Enter netuse to see "mapped drives"

That's right, it can be that the password for the administrator are different.

But also need to set the permission to the right level. If you use the both comp at home just set the permission to full from both side.

Which OS version you using? XP is different from VISTA.

Also check the computer name and the IP settings. If you set the IP settings to auto that can force some problems as well. Both Name and IP settings must be different from each other, but the name of the Workgroup and SubNet Mask must be the same and set the Gateway on the Laptop and PC to the Router IP, for example:

Router: IP 192.168.1.1

SubNet Mask 255.255.255.0

PC: Name PC-xx001

IP 192.168.1.10

SubNet Mask 255.255.255.0

Gateway 192.168.1.1

Laptop Name Lap-xx002

IP 192.168.1.20

SubNet Mask 255.255.255.0

Gateway 192.168.1.1

Also check the computer name and the IP settings. If you set the IP settings to auto that can force some problems as well. Both Name and IP settings must be different from each other, but the name of the Workgroup and SubNet Mask must be the same and set the Gateway on the Laptop and PC to the Router IP, for example.........

If he's used the setup wizard he's probably got DHCP turned on so 'should' be no issues with IP and gateway settings (famous last words here).

for the OP

just to check the basics - you have enabled sharing on the folders you wish to share ?

The laptop now has access to the desktop, but not vice versa. But is it possible to access files with the firewall on? I usually have downloads running in the background and it might be too much of a risk if I have zone alarm turned off.

BTW, both PCs are on XP Pro. Thanks all for your replies!

so check your sharing settins on your laptop. You need to open the netbios ports on zonealarm (for your internal network only) of the top of my head, tcp ports 137 - 139 but again make sure only open them for your internal network. Usually the router or modem is blocking them from outside anyway. To check you could run a shields up (google for web address).