Router: US Robotics M# USR8054; DHCP server is enabled and start IP address’s set to 192.168.123.100 to 192.168.123.199; mac address’s listed for each device and are correct. Computers: 2 with WINxp home, 1 with WINxp prof and the other with Win2000. File and print sharing enabled. I have been working on my home network now for 3 days as it seemed to be plagued with a few problems. Presently all 4 computers see each other but one is not accessible to the others (I assume a permissions problem). I have tried to research this as much as I can but I have not found another person with the exact problem that I have although many are similar. Two questions: 1. Setting Permissions; I understand how to set and remove permissions for folders in windows explorer. I have found it necessary to remove all permissions; reboot and then set permissions again and reboot for them to properly work. I was able to do this in all of the computers except for one. I have 4 computers networked using separate IP addresses and unique names. One of them (I’ll call it home3) I cannot access from the other computers. Home3 can be pinged using all other computers both using the IP address and unique name. Home 3 can also access all other computers. I was able to restore the icons in home3 in the network neighborhood by re-setting the permissions but… the icon is unavailable (but visible) to all other computers, I receive a message that I don’t have permissions to use see the administrator. Is there a way to reset (remove and re-apply) permissions in another method other than with explorer? I tried using computer management in admin tools but could not seem to find the proper way to complete. Can the registry be altered to remove permissions? Is there a way to re-install explorer or is it necessary to re-install WINxp completely? Or again can changes be made to the registry to fix this? 2. Icons in Network Neighborhood; what is the relationship of the icons “entire network” and the “individual unique name icons for each computer? More specifically how do they appear? Is this part of the network setup where windows places the icons after a network is established? It seems like any changes to the network will remove the icons and it is difficult to get them to appear again. In the past sometimes I have been able to get them to appear again by resetting the permissions as I explained in my first question. Is there a way to remove networking from a computer and then start from scratch running the network setup and setting all permissions again? I can’t seem to find the way to remove networking or maybe I am heading down the wrong path. Appreciate any feedback, computers are a real learning experience!

You are confusing share permissions with network access. Before you complicate things stick with the simple setups. File permissions should be set to "everyone" with read control. You can render your system inop if you take aways system/eveyone from the drive. Reinstall can be the only solution. Now work on differenciating network access by creating differnet level accounts and seeing what their network access is like. Once you have a handle on that move on to share permissions. After share permissions move on to file level permissions. An example of file level permissions is where you have two users accessing the share but you want one of them not to be able to read certain files in that folder. Give a person a fish, they eat for a day. Suggest they internet search and they learn a skill for a lifetime.

Thanks for the feedback wanderer. As I am a neophyte on this subject I only know how to set the permissions relating to the files in explorer. I have viewed the security settings in computer management but frankly did not know what to change without making matters worse. I believe my problem is network access on only one computer. I thought network access was setup by enabling file and print sharing and then giving permissions to the individual folders you wish to share.

hi i have an usb linksys network adapter, my friend has a router,i only have this ip 169.254.156.253, and i can not connect to the internet please help me