This is getting annoying

I've had this recurring problem on my machine. The only thing that seems to fix it is a reformat, but only for a month or two. For that month people can access my machine no prob. however, after about a month, they can no longer access my machine and get an error saying they don't have permission to access it. i've set the permissions for folders i'm sharing so that everyone can read/write. however, they can't even see the folders i'm sharing in 'My Network Places'. When they type in my machine's name into the address bar, it says they don't have permission to access. i don't have any firewalls up that i'm aware of, and i've looked to see if i have any anti-virus software with firewall built in but i don't. i've disabled windows firewall so i'm not sure what's goin on. this happens on wired and wireless. any and all help would be greatly appreciated. I'm running XP pro on my machine and the other machine I've been testing this with also has XP pro.
Thx,
Ryuusen

 

sadly, it's not a virus or spyware. i've scanned many times with many different programs and my machine is clean as a whistle, so i'm not sure what's going on. but i've also noticed that the other 2 machines in my house also have this problem, altho i'm not sure as to if a reformat works, but they get the same error.

 

well, i think i found out what the corruption may be, but i'm unsure how to fix it, and i don't want to reformat to check it.

but anyway, under control panel -> admin tools -> computer management
go to shared folders, then click on shares. in the right pane there should be a share C$(or whatever your hdd is named plus a '$'). that is the default hidden share created when you first install xp. however, i've noticed on mine that i don't have it. i checked with someone who has filesharing to find this, and they have it. so my theory is that the default hidden share to your hdd was somehow turned off. that hidden share doesn't give access to the entire hdd, but it makes it so you can share files off your computer. so my theory is that something gets rid of that, thus turning off file sharing, leaving the user unable to re-enable it. i'm currently going thru some steps(besides a reformat) to see if i can get that default share back. if anyone would like to prove/disprove this theory, plz post. so basically, if you're filesharing doesn't work and you have that, or if you're filesharing works and you don't have that, it would be helpful, thanks

-Ryuusen

 

ok. i've found out how to remake that default share, but after about 1 minute the default share dissappears. i plan to run a more in depth virus scan again tonight to see whats going on. i've monitored to see if a process shows up outta the blue to kill it, but that's not the case. also, the default share dies if someone tries to connect. i'm not sure if a C$ is required to share files though. Preferably XP pro machines too. Thanks to TerryNet, I'm not sure if Home requires a C$. also, i'm not using simple file sharing, so i'll check to see if that leaves the C$ alive. i'll post a solution or more questions when i find out.

 

I was excited to read your solution as I am having the same issues. Even though I am signed in as the administrator, I do not have permission to enter the network from any computer of the three on the network.

However when I followed your instructions, I found that the value was already @0! any other ideas? I have dsl and can access the internet from any computer, but cannot access anyone's files---even my own from a different computer when logged on with the same name or a different one.

To me this is more than just annoying