# Solved: XP SP3 network access suddenly asking for password



## Living Fossil (Apr 22, 2009)

I have a netbook running Windows 7 Home Premium (name is Gary-asus-pc), a laptop (my wife's) running Windows XP SP3 (name is Dell640m), and a desktop running Windows XP SP3 (name is Dell8400). My Canon printer is USB-connected to my desktop. Until this week, my wireless network in my house was running fine and I could access the desktop files and printer from both the netbook and the laptop.

No software or hardware changes have been made to the laptop recently except for automatic updates.

Today, my wife tried to print a document from IE8 on her laptop and it didn't work. I tried from the netbook and it worked fine. When I tried to check the properties of the printer from the laptop, I received the message Access Denied. Checking the properties from the netbook worked fine.

Figuring that something got screwed up on the laptop, I deleted the printer from the laptop and tried to add it again. The wizard found the printer, but when I clicked Next a window appeared showing the following:

Title of window: Connect to Dell640m
Message: Connecting to Dell8400
(greyed out) User name Dell640m\Guest
Password

There is no password set on any of the machines. Just pressing Enter or clicking OK simply brings the same window back.
I closed the window and went back to try to add the printer again. The laptop found the desktop but didn't find any printers on either the laptop or the desktop. This behaviour is pretty consistent. The first attempt after a reboot to find the printer is successful, but then asks for a password to access it. Subsequent attempts find no printers. Attempts to access the desktop system itself also ask for a password.

I have run the XP wizard to re-establish home and office networking on both the laptop and the desktop. Both machines can see each other, the desktop can see the laptop and netbook and their files and printers, but the laptop cannot access anything on the desktop (password required) even though it can access the netbook. All machines have been rebooted (multiple times).

On the laptop, I clicked Sart and then right-clicked My Network Places and selected Search for Computers. When I search for my netbook, I get two identical entries as follows:

Name In Folder Comments
Netbook (Gary-asus-pc) James Netbook
Netbook (Gary-asus-pc) James Netbook

I can access the netbook from my laptop.

However, when I search for my desktop, I get the following two different entries with no Comments field:

Name In Folder
Desktop (Dell8400) James
Dell8400 Unknown

When I try to access the desktop, I get one of two responses:


If I double-click (or right-click and Open) either desktop entry, I am asked for a password.
If I right-click on either desktop entry and select properties, I get the message "You do not have the appropriate access rights for this server. For more information, contact your network administrator."
The laptop cannot access the desktop, but the desktop can access the laptop.

If I go to Control Panel> Printers and Faxes, the laptop sees the following on the Desktop: Auto Microsoft Office Document Image Writer on Dell8400 and Auto Microsoft XPS Document Writer on Dell 8400 (but shows no Canon physical printer). Right-clicking and selecting Properties successfully brings up the properties window for each one.

Does anyone have any ideas on what might be causing this strange behaviour? I would really like to restore my network printing capability.


----------



## JohnWill (Oct 19, 2002)

Turn off any firewalls for debugging. If the firewall is the problem, you'll have to configure it to allow access to "trusted zone" addresses. Note that some firewalls must be completely uninstalled to stop them from affecting your networking.

Hold the *Windows* key and press *R*, then type *CMD* to open a command prompt.

In the command prompt window that opens, type type the following commands:

PING each remote computer by IP address, and if successful, PING by name. Open a command prompt as described above and type.

PING _<ip address>_ 
or
PING _<computer name>_

Where: 
_<ip address>_ - is the x.x.x.x IP address
_<computer name>_ - is the computer name

*A failure to PING is almost always a firewall configuration issue. Any failure to PING needs to be corrected before you go any farther.*

_*Note:* You can obtain the IP address and computer name of a computer by opening a command prompt (DOS window) and typing *IPCONFIG /ALL*. This should work for any Windows version. The IPCONFIG /ALL display will provide a wealth of useful information for debugging your network connection._

Check your Services are Started on all PCs: 

COM+ Event System (for WZC issues)
Computer Browser
DHCP Client
DNS Client
Network Connections
Network Location Awareness
Remote Procedure Call (RPC)
Server
TCP/IP Netbios helper
Wireless Zero Configuration (XP wireless configurations)
WLAN AutoConfig (Vista wireless configurations)
Workstation

_*Note:* You can check the services in Control Panel, Administrative Tools, Services._

All of these services should be started, and their startup type should be automatic.

If a service is not running, open it's properties and check the dependencies. Check each of the dependencies and see which one is preventing the service from running. Checking the event log is also a good idea here, there may be clues to what is failing.

All computers should be in the same workgroup for computer browsing to function properly. File & Print Sharing has to be enabled on any computer you wish to share files or printers from. You also need to actually share the resource in question from My Computer, right click on the drive/printer/folder, and select sharing.

If you encounter difficulties accessing computers that are visible in Network Places (_Network and Sharing Center in Vista_), make sure the computer being accessed has an account with the same name/password as the system connecting to it uses to login. NOTE: Vista's default is to require a password on the account to enable file/print sharing.

While the default NetBIOS setting is correct for normal network configurations, it's possible for it to be altered, and it costs nothing to make sure it's correct. NETBIOS over TCP/IP must be enabled for normal network browsing. You can open a command prompt as described above and type the following command: *nbtstat -n*. This will display the status of NetBIOS or indicate it's not configured.


----------



## Living Fossil (Apr 22, 2009)

I can ping in both directions using either the ip address or the computer name.
I have confirmed that all services are started and are automatic on both PCs.
All computers are in the same workgroup.
File and printer sharing is enabled on all systems.
The printer is set up as shared.
Both systems are Windows XP SP3 Home Edition, so as far as I know they would use the Guest ID to perform file and printer sharing (that's what the password request indicates). I'm curious about how the laptop can be asking for a Guest password when you can't define a password on the Guest account in Home Edition.
I checked netbios on both systems and it is enabled. I don't know enough to interpret the rest of the netbios information.
I have uninstalled and re-installed the security software on the laptop.
I ran a registry cleaner on the laptop to fix registry errors. It found and fixed several, but encountered an error trying to fix one.
I ran chkdsk to check for C: drive errors. There were some, so I ran the /F option at reboot to fix them.
I re-ran the registry cleaner and it successfully fixed 8 errors.
I have re-run the network setup wizard on both systems.

The only thing that has changed is that when I search for the Dell8400 computer from the laptop, I now get 2 identical entries just as I do for the netbook:

Name ------------------- In Folder (dashes inserted by me for readability/alignment)
Desktop (Dell8400) --- James
Desktop (Dell8400) --- James

That looks better than what I was getting before.

The rest of the problem symptoms have not changed. 
Any other suggestions?


----------



## JohnWill (Oct 19, 2002)

I cringe when I see Registry Cleaner! 

Try this on each machine.

Create a file in notepad named FIXANON.REG with the following contents:

You should have 3 boxes on the bottom in NOTEPAD.
1)Filename : FIXANON.REG
2)Save as type: all files
3)Encoding: ANSI
If you do not change it from txt type to All files type, then the file will actually be FIXANON.REG.txt, this won't accomplish the desired result.

*------------------- Use ONLY the text after this line in the FIXANON.REG file -------------------*
Windows Registry Editor Version 5.00
[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Control\Lsa]
"restrictanonymous"=dword:00000000
*------------------- Use ONLY the text before this line in the FIXANON.REG file-----------------*

Double click on the file and say Yes to the merge into registry question.

Reboot the computer.


----------



## Living Fossil (Apr 22, 2009)

FYI, I checked each system beforehand with regedit to see if that value already existed, and it did. I ran the FIXANON.REG on both anyway. I did that on both systems and rebooted both; nothing has changed. 

By the way, why do you cringe when you see Registry Cleaner? I have used registry cleaners for years (only once a quarter on average) and they have never caused me any grief; in fact, they have fixed some issues over the years. NOTE: I can assure you that the registry cleaner wasn't the cause of this sudden problem. I hadn't run it for several months until yesterday while trying to fix this problem.

Can you explain why a Windows XP SP3 Home Edition system would ask for a password on a Guest account when it won't let you set one on a Guest account? Could it be related to this anomaly?
- Both systems run Windows XP SP3 Home Edition. That is shown under Start>MyComputer>View system information on both machines.
- On the desktop, when I click Start>My Network Places>View workgroup computers and right click on the laptop or the desktop icon and select Properties, both of them say Type: Windows Professional.

Any other thoughts you have would be greatly appreciated. This issue is truly bugging me!


----------



## JohnWill (Oct 19, 2002)

A good read: *Ed Bott:* "Why I don't use registry cleaners"

Another opinion from a Microsoft MVP: Thoughts about Registry Cleaners and System Tweaking Tools

I'm confused about your conflicting version reports. You say they're XP-Home, yet they're saying XP-Pro? Did you create the matching user accounts on the opposite machine?


----------



## Squashman (Apr 4, 2003)

JohnWill said:


> Did you create the matching user accounts on the opposite machine?


Ditto. I have never had file or printer sharing problems as long as I have the same username and password on each system.


----------



## JohnWill (Oct 19, 2002)

Workgroups should match too, I'm not sure that XP-Home allows browsing across workgroups.


----------



## Living Fossil (Apr 22, 2009)

JohnWill, thanks for the registry cleaner articles. I'll look at them after I get this issue fixed.

Are you and Squashman saying that I need to create identical usernames and passwords on both machines?
Currently, the two machines have the following users:

Laptop: MyWife with no password and Guest with no password.
Desktop: Myself with no password and Guest with no password.

The Guest user on both machines is turned off, but the net user guest is active.

I've been running these two machines together for 3 years with no problems in file sharing or printer sharing until last week.

Are you saying that I need to create a user of Myself on the laptop and a user of MyWife on the desktop? If so, is there a way to stop the extra user account from showing on the Windows startup after a reboot?

Both machines are in the same workgroup.


----------



## JohnWill (Oct 19, 2002)

Well, I'd first create the accounts and see if they solve the problem. If they do, we'll address the second issue. 

For one, you can configure the machine to automatically boot to the desktop with no name/password prompt, would that solve your issue?


----------



## Living Fossil (Apr 22, 2009)

Both machines now have 3 identical user accounts: Myself, MyWife, and Guest. I rebooted both, but the problem remains. I even logged on to both machines with the same user name, but I'm still asked for a password for Dell640m\Guest. None of the accounts have passwords.

The desktop still thinks both machines have Windows Professional when checked through properties in the workgroup computers list.

Regarding, "For one, you can configure the machine to automatically boot to the desktop with no name/password prompt, would that solve your issue?", the answer is yes.


----------



## Living Fossil (Apr 22, 2009)

I decided to try setting passwords, so I gave identical passwords to the 3 users on both machines. Then I rebooted both machines.

When the request for a password appeared on the laptop for user Dell640m\Guest, I entered the password (for "Guest" - the one I had set) and just got the same password request back.

So, nothing has changed; I'm still locked out of file and printer sharing between the laptop and the desktop.

In the meantime, my Windows 7 netbook continues to behave without any need for changes, even after all of my "playing around" with settings on the XP machines. The netbook only has users Myself and Guest with no passwords.

I think the "Windows Professional" type in networked computers properties may be a red herring --- my desktop gives the same type to my Windows 7 netbook, which has never had Windows XP of any type installed.

If I thought it would solve the problem, I might consider upgrading my XP systems to Windows 7. However, given the dollar cost and the fact that I have to re-install all of my software because Microsoft provided no reasonable upgrade path from XP, that is not a choice that I will pursue until I have no other option (I have too many programs and related data installed on my desktop to consider that option lightly -- we're talking about several days of work to re-install programs and backup/transfer data). At that point, Apple comes into the picture.


----------



## Squashman (Apr 4, 2003)

If they are Windows XP Pro, I would turn off simple file sharing.

They are bringing back the Windows 7 Family Pack offer. Three copies of Windows 7 Home for $150.
http://windowsteamblog.com/windows/...in-time-for-the-anniversary-of-windows-7.aspx


----------



## TerryNet (Mar 23, 2005)

You could also reinstall XP. Possibly a Repair Install would be sufficient to rectify whatever corruption is causing this frustrating mess.

I found, and joined, this forum trying to fix pretty much the same problem 5 1/2 years ago. I eventually reinstalled XP clean; at the time I did not know about Repair install.


----------



## Living Fossil (Apr 22, 2009)

Squashman, they are not Windows XP Pro; they are both XP SP3 Home Edition. They show as XP SP3 Home Edition when I go to Start>My Computer>View system information. But when I go to Start>My Network Places>View workgroup computers and right-click on the two system icons to get properties, they both show as Windows Professional. But then, so does my Windows 7 netbook, so I don't know that this is a real issue since the netbook is working fine.

TerryNet, if I'm reading the Repair Install information correctly, I can't do a repair install because both of my systems are Dell machines that came with OEM restore CDs, not with XP CDs.


----------



## TerryNet (Mar 23, 2005)

You are reading the Repair Install information correctly. If you can find one to borrow you could use any OEM XP Home install CD to do the Repair--just use your own Product Key.


----------



## Living Fossil (Apr 22, 2009)

TerryNet, thanks for the link to Repair Install. I'll keep it in mind if I can find a CD of XP Home, but everyone I know has computers that came with Windows pre-installed and they all have OEM recovery CDs, not Windows CDs.

I am reluctant to go through that onerous exercise to fix one specific problem that occurred out of the blue last week. From what I've read in various forums and in the MS Knowledge Base, this problem symptom has been around for several years, yet there seems to be no clear cut answer to how to fix it.

At this time, I'll keep digging for a simpler solution.


----------



## Squashman (Apr 4, 2003)

TerryNet said:


> I found, and joined, this forum trying to fix pretty much the same problem 5 1/2 years ago. I eventually reinstalled XP clean; at the time I did not know about Repair install.


And now he lives here!


----------



## Living Fossil (Apr 22, 2009)

Problem Solved!

I don't know why I didn't think of this earlier. The problem has been that I was constantly asked for a password for user Dall640m\Guest. I finally thought, "Why don't I get rid of user Dell640m\Guest?"

So, I ran the Network Setup Wizard on both systems and changed the computer names from DELL8400 and Dell640m to new names, changed the name of the workgroup, then rebooted both.

My access to the printer and shared files is back.

By the way, I removed the extra user accounts so I'm back to MyWife and Guest on the laptop and Myself and Guest on the desktop and everything is running fine. If I check properties through looking at my workgroup computers, they still both show Windows Professional, so I guess that really was a red herring in this adventure.

Thanks to everyone for their suggestions in trying to fix this problem!


----------



## TerryNet (Mar 23, 2005)

Gotta admit I've never thought of changing the computer name or the workgroup name for this issue!


----------



## Living Fossil (Apr 22, 2009)

TerryNet, I don't know whether changing the workgroup name was even necessary, since the Guest account is associated with the computer name. 

I just ran the Network Setup Wizard on both machines with all new information in computer name, comments, and workgroup based on the hope that starting a new network with a "totally clean slate" might work. I knew that, at minimum, user name Dell640m\Guest would not be used to access the network, so it was worth a try. Thankfully, it worked.

My wife thinks I'm crazy to spend so much time and effort on an issue (printing) that she uses about once a month. But hey, I'm retired, spent 40 years in the computer business, and I expect systems to work properly. So, this is one of my "hobbies"; getting the "stupid machine" to do what it's expected to do.


----------



## Squashman (Apr 4, 2003)

I guess I would have just gone and bought a network printer and even an NAS.

I have never used the network Wizard in my life and have never had any issues with sharing files or printers.


----------



## Living Fossil (Apr 22, 2009)

Squashman, I can assure you that my next printer will be a network printer so I don't have to leave my desktop running to provide access. And, as you said, I probably wouldn't have this sharing grief. Cheers!


----------

