Question : Home XP Network, authentication removal

Hi;

I have a small home network, each PC has Windows XP Professional installed. The file sharing feature on the network was working fine, until I needed to reformat my PC and reinstall Windows. After installing, I entered the workgroup name (same as all the other PCs on the network).

The problem:
I am able to go on Start - Run - and type \\ComputerName

Where ComputerName is another computer on my network, when typing that and pressing enter I am able to view the files of other computers. However, when I try viewing the files of the PC that I formatted (from other computers on the network) I get a small dialog box appearing saying "Connect to Server" (note, Server is the name of the PC that I formatted). The dialog box asks for a username and password in order to connect to the computer. Before I formatted the PC I was able to view files of the Server computer from other computers without any authentication. Is it possible to remove this authentication so that other computers on the network can view the Server computers shared files without having to supply some username or password? If so how do I set that back to normal on the Server computer?

I am not using simple file sharing.

Thanks.

Answer : Home XP Network, authentication removal

Mr A Smith - I participate in dozens of questions and recieve 100 or more notifications a day... sometimes it can happen that a question gets lost.  If I or another expert doesn't respond, try to post a couple of "hello, are you there" type comments.

So, in short, I object to any deletion/removal of this question at this time.

Windows XP offers two kinds of file sharing - "Simple File Sharing" and a "classic style" (more words on the latter).  Simple file sharing doesn't care what account you are logged in as.  the Classic style requires user names and passwords to match on the source and destination machines.

You can also try enabling the guest account - but I never do this and I hate recommending it because it is a HORRIBLE SECURITY RISK.

These three links should provide greater details and instructions:
http://www.practicallynetworked.com/sharing/xp_filesharing/index.htm
http://www.practicallynetworked.com/sharing/xp_filesharing/whole.htm
http://www.practicallynetworked.com/sharing/xp/filesharing.htm