Windows 95/98/ME cannot access Windows XP/2000 shares - Networking Computer Tips

When it comes to networking, the earlier versions of Windows are not the greatest at making it easy to get the job done. Older versions of Windows such as 95, 98 and ME were never really designed to be networked operating systems. So if you are trying to use of those versions on your network then you may run into some problems when trying to access shares from computers running Windows 2000 or XP.

When you try and connect to a shared folder on a computer running Windows XP or Windows 2000 you may see a dialog box like the following. It will have the resource listed as \\computername\IPC$ where computername is the name of the computer running Windows XP/2000. Entering your local password in the Password box will not let you access the share.

In order to get around this, you need to create a user account on the XP/2000 machine that is the same as the name of the user on the 95, 98 or ME computer. For example if you are logged in as jsmith on your Windows 98 computer you will need to go into the users section of your XP/2000 computer and add a user with the name jsmith. It's a good idea to use the same password too instead of leaving it blank. You should also check the box that says password never expires to avoid future problems. See out section on adding users to Windows 2000 & XP for help on how to create and edit users.

Related Computer Tips:
Sharing Folders and Printers
Accessing Shared Resources
Windows File Management

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