Problem sharing folders

[rockstar_wild]

Im in need of some help.

Im trying to access my documents on my main computer from my laptop wirelessly.
The only problem is all my folders are private as they are not shared on the network.

Is there any way i can share my folders to just my laptop?

Hope this makes sence.

Thanks

 

[wonko]

It's not too easy to give a clear answer without knowing what OSs you've got, how your network is setup, etc., but from the question I'm guessing you've got several pcs on your network and are trying to keep the outside world and other pcs out of your main pc.
Sorry if this bit is obvious but the first step is to secure against the outside world by setting secure encryption (WPA) on your wireless router, whether you think you are sharing folders or not.
Depending on what OS you've got on the main computer you can set up access rights on network shares to only allow certain users priveliges. With the right user name and password, you could then access the files from anywhere on the network.
Restricting access to a specific laptop, if username and password aren't enough, is a bit more tricky - you could set up firewall rules on the main PC to only allow access from the laptop, but this would only work if you used static IPs.
Alternatively, if you've got the more expensive versions of xp/vista on the desktop pc then you could look at using remote desktop to 'take it over' from the laptop.

 

[swinnie]

1. Make sure both machines are in the same workgroup
2. Enable File Sharing

What OS are you running? XP Home/Pro, Vista Home Basic/Premium etc...

But to summarise what I do (to run my backups):

I don't have any folders set to private, my computers are in the same workgroup, and I share my D: drive using 'hidden share' (put $ at the end of the sharename).

I then tell my robocopy script to access the path like this: \\COMPUTERNAME\DDrive$

But to tell you exactly what to do, knowing your OS would be helpfull

 

[rockstar_wild]

Im running windows media center(XP).

I thought about remote destop but the main reason im doing this is so my girlfriend can use my main computer while i can still look at files etc on my laptop from my main computer.

Hidden shares might be the answer as long as no-one bothers to try and access my computer by typing the name.

My other reason for this is im building my server soon as a backup/storage solution and need it to be able to access my files.

Any other suggestions.

Been very helpfull so far, forgot all about hidden shares.

 

[rockstar_wild]

bump

 

[andy_n64]

I think in a lot of cases under XP you need t be logged on as an administrator to access everything. As swinnie said, you can access any drive using \\comptuername\drive letter$ (using the $ sign after). If their both part of the same workgroup and your logged in as an administrator then i think it should work. Not sure if a user with admin priviledges is the same as an actual administrator though, to be sure i think if when you connect to the network drive and it prompts for a username and password, use the administrator account (also you can't use blank passwords). if it doesnt prompt then log in as the administrator and try it