Restore Network Connections in XP Home

[omalleytrading]

Hi All,

I've got a Dell 5150 laptop running XP Home. It's using a Dell TrueMobile 1400 802.11g card to connect to an AP on my Ethernet LAN. I can connect to shared drives on other computers on the LAN -- no problem. I can also map those shares as network drives.

When reboot, however, it will not reconnect to those shares. I have to open windows explorer, go to those network locations, enter in a userid and password, and then it connects.

Is this a limitation with XP Home -- it won't remember userids and passwords? My XP Pro machine, Win 2000 machine and 98SE machines don't have this problem, so I doubt it.

The wireless connection? That's the only computer using wireless. The others are all CAT 5 hard wired.

Something else?

[AzKidd69]

is the user account that is trying to map the shares an existing acct on the box hosting the shares with the EXACT same username and password or are they different

[omalleytrading]

The account on the laptop has no password. The machine being connected to does require a password, and when it's entered, I can connect without a problem.

The question is, why is the laptop not remembering that password for next time. I do the same thing with my XP Pro desktop, and it never asks me to re-enter the password.

[omalleytrading]

Anyone else? Ideas?

[meese]

In a peer-peer network ALL machines need to use the same username and password to avoid the problem you are having. Make the notebook username and password the same as the other pc's on your network. If you don't like that then you need to go with a client-server network.

[omalleytrading]

That's not true. I've got an existing network of 4 PC's -- connected by Cat 5 -- and all have different names and passwords. They range from XP Pro to 2000 and 98, and they work just fine.

It's something particular to this new Laptop -- either the XP Home or the fact that it's a WiFi connection to the LAN. I just don't know which or why.

[meese]

I'm telling you in peer to peer network you need to use the same username and password across all pc's. Do you type in a use name and password on each pc when they boot, or do they autologon?

[AzKidd69]

sounds like he's got the guest account enabled across the lan and that is how the boxes are sharing.. try removing the password from the guest account and make sure that the netbios ports are null routed @ the router (IOW sent to a null address for WAN requests and don't forget the high numbered UDP netbios ports)

[omalleytrading]

Actually, what I've done is made the Windows 2000 box a "server". It houses the important files that I want to share with the other PC's. On that 2000 box I've created user accounts for each PC, with their own unique passwords.

When a box initially connects to the "server", we enter in the appropriate userid and password. We then map that share to a drive letter on the "client" machines, and we never have to enter in the userid / password again. The OS remembers them, and reconnects each time the system is started.

For some reason the Laptop with XP Home and a WiFi connection doesn't remember the userid / password. I have to re-enter it each time. That's the mystery. Why can the other XP, 2000 and 98 machines reconnect automatically at boot up, but the XP Home laptop can't?

[bamiller3]

Your problem is as a result of using XP Home. The feature of remembering network passwords, as in XP pro, is not available. I only know this because I also recently purchased a dell desktop with XP home on it. I ran pro on my old machine and never had a problem connection to network drives through my company's VPN. Now with the new machine, I have to enter a uname and pwd everytime I access a network resource. I will be investing in an upgrade. XP home is a pain in the ass to use on a network. I guess that's why they call it the "home" edition