Domains, workgroups and sharing?

[Nozza]

When connecting my work (well school) laptop to my home network, it took a while for me to work out how to share some of the folders on my home PC. I got it work but I can't map a network drive so I have to go through the same process each time. both are running XP Pro.

 

is this something to do with the fact that my laptop is on a domain whereas my home network is set up as a workgroup?

 

A few other questions from my curiosity?....

 

What allows the shares at all under there circumstances? Is it Netbios/Netbeui or something else? Where does Simple File Sharing come into this, if at all?

 

Why can I only connect using the home PC's name rather than it's IP address?

 

Why did I have to set up a user account (on the home PC) with a password to get this working? - the user account with no password doesn't work.

 

Why can I not see shared folders on my laptop from my home PC?

 

THANKS!

[FN-GM]

why cant you map a network drive? do you get an error?

[Nozza]

Yes. i can't remember the wording right now but essentially I it doesn't seem to be able to find the folder. You can't browse to the shared folder using Network Places. I can only access the files by typing \\HOMEPC\ into Windows Explorer. It then takes a while, comes up with the password prompt and then shows the shared area on something it calls Unknown.

 

I should clarify that - once logged in as above the Unknown comes up in network places with the shared folders on it. it's just that you can't get to that situation via network places. Also, if browse up the tree it loses it. Now, on a pure workgroup setup, that Unknown would normally be called WORKGROUP or whatever wouldn't it? Which is why I'm wondering if it is an workgroup/domain issue?

Edited December 15, 2008 by Nozza