I had a working network between my laptop (win XP pro) directly to my desktop (win 98/2). Now I've upgraded my desktop (win XP pro) and I can't get the network going. It's a simple cable from the desktop to the laptop : when trying to access the network from the desktop I always get this message (after 1 minute of waiting) :"home is not accessible. you might not have permission to use this network. contact the administrator of this server to find out if you have acess permissions. the list of servers for this workgroup is not currently available". What am I doing wrong ? how do I give myself permission to access the network ? I've tried all wizards and settings ... thanks, Henk

Both systems must have a common list of users who has access rights to each system.

Hi, this is what alot of users forget to check. All computers must be in the same workgroup. If Home is like Pro, I'm running Pro, and it defaults to MSHOME as the work group. Check it out and give some feedback on your progress. Bob

Thanks guys, but ... I'm aware that the workgroup name must be the same. But it's even in an earlier stage that things don't work. When my laptop is switched off the network is basically just 1 computer : the desktop. it should be able to show me that the only computer on the network is himself : he sees the mshome (or home) network, but when I double click that it takes him 2 minutes "thinking" and then he gives me the message that I don't have access (as described in the first mail) ... are there some hidden permissions to be given ? why is he not accepting "himself" ? thanks for the help, Henk

Its very simple . since u have upgraded winxp (pro) u will need to change the security settings also. changes u should make is in LOCAL security settings which is in administrative tools. u will have to check out all the policies in that template. there should be one policy that says allow access of this computer from the network -} click that ->add -> add your computer name. Thats it.