Can't see my desktop harddrive on my X50v via wireless network

[famousdavis]

Although my X50v connects easily to the wireless network in my home, I can't get it to recognize my desktop harddrive yet -- or have my desktop recognize my X50v.

My whole C: drive on my desktop is turned on for file sharing.

My desktop (running XP Home Ed.) can't see my X50v when I navigate through My Network. My desktop is in the workgroup named GATERNET, but I don't see anyway of specifying a workgroup on my x50v.

When I installed my network at home and bought a laptop, I had to make the laptop and desktop share the same workgroup name + user signon before the two computers recognized each other. Since I don't have a way of specifying a workgroup name on my PPC and I don't sign-in with a user name, either, how does the PPC get recognized wirelessly by my laptop and desktop -- and vice versa?

I am running Norton Internet Security, but even when I turned that off on my desktop, I still couldn't see my PPC connected to my wireless network.

Thoughts? What steps did you take to get your PPC to be recognized by your desktop/laptop?

[Sven Johannsen]

It won't be. The PPC does not have the bits required for it to be seen on the network as an independent host. Note that you have to share resources like folders and printers on the laptop and desktop to be able to do something with them. There is no facility on the PPC to share in that way.

You can attach to your PPC via AS over the network and then access it through AS Explore. That is from a partner PC and must be initiated from the PPC, though.

Yopur PPC will be able to see shares on your network, such as on your laptop or desktop. You can do that from the File Explorer by using the network icon at the bottom and entering a share address like \\mylaptop\sharedfolder. All you can do is copy files from the share to and from the PPC with this. Third party programs, like Resco File Expl;orer do make findinf shares mre friendly and add the ability to access network resident file directly.

One thing that generally messes folks up is the Work/Internet settings. Typically Internet will let you pop out to the net from your home network, but won't let you work within it. Work is intended for working in a private network even at home, but restricts access to the internet. The Work setting can be configured to understand that there is an internet connection available. That's on the proxy screen in the Work settings. No Proxy server needs to be defined, just that the Work (home, internal) network does connect to the internet. The drawback to the Work-connects to net setting, is that it doesn't allow you to set up a VPN back to home or the office from the internet. Stands to reason, if you are set to Work you shouldn't need a VPN..you are at work.

[famousdavis]

Whew! That's a pretty heady post, Sven. I see now why you're a Pocket PC Pope...and why I'm not! :)

I'll tinker with things tonight -- Steve Cedrone gave me a link for getting ActiveSync to work via my WiFi connection, so I'm anxious to get that up and running, firstly. Then, I'll tinker more to see if I can see the share drive on my desktop from my PPC. It'd be convenient to move certain files to/fro that way.

[Sven Johannsen]

Pope? I hadn't noticed that...who died and made me Pope ;) And what does that make Jason?? Hmmm

[ADBrown]

And what does that make Jason?? Hmmm

PocketPC God?

[sepicg]

Hi!
I have similar situation, I share my home PC disc like \\homecopm\c$ as home_c. When I browse that map with Resco Explorer, I can see all my folders. The problem is that I can't see content of only several folders - Windows, Program Files and Document and Settings. I understand that they are special folders, but I try with group policy, rights, administrator account -> nothing. With other folders I work normally, see content, copy, delete ,....

What I miss?

[kozak]

I don't know what you guys are doing, but I connected my Dell X50v to my WiFi and used Resco File Explorer 2003 to mount my Shared forlder. Then I turned on sharing on my Media Harddrive on my PC and mounted that aswell. I was able to stream all my MP3's over WiFi and even Beta Player was able to play my divx movies wirelessly. Works great.

[Sven Johannsen]

I don't know what you guys are doing, but I connected my Dell X50v to my WiFi and used Resco File Explorer 2003 to mount my Shared forlder. Then I turned on sharing on my Media Harddrive on my PC and mounted that aswell. I was able to stream all my MP3's over WiFi and even Beta Player was able to play my divx movies wirelessly. Works great.

That is the key. You get significantly more capability with third party additions. Some like Resco give you a very nice UI for attaching to and 'mounting' shares. Some like Netrunner just add some usability features like network file execution, to the built in explorer. Without some addition, the network capability is not very friendly. None of the solutions though give you the ability to 'see' the PPC from the desktop, without it being an AS connection.

For the truly adventurous there are ftp and web (http) servers available for the PPC though.

[famousdavis]

I don't know what you guys are doing, but I connected my Dell X50v to my WiFi and used Resco File Explorer 2003 to mount my Shared forlder. Then I turned on sharing on my Media Harddrive on my PC and mounted that aswell. I was able to stream all my MP3's over WiFi and even Beta Player was able to play my divx movies wirelessly. Works great.

What's involved in "mounting" your shared folder? I haven't done anything like that before.....perhaps that's one thing I'm missing?

[Sven Johannsen]

And what does that make Jason?? Hmmm

PocketPC God?

Given the 1st commandment, I wasn't going there :wink:

[kozak]

I don't know what you guys are doing, but I connected my Dell X50v to my WiFi and used Resco File Explorer 2003 to mount my Shared forlder. Then I turned on sharing on my Media Harddrive on my PC and mounted that aswell. I was able to stream all my MP3's over WiFi and even Beta Player was able to play my divx movies wirelessly. Works great.

What's involved in "mounting" your shared folder? I haven't done anything like that before.....perhaps that's one thing I'm missing?

Are you trying to access your PDA through the PC or your PC through the PDA. If you need to access your shared drives through the PDA, you need Resco File Explorer. You click on the icon that looks like a cylinder with a hand underneath, then click Map Drive. It will take you to a network browser. It should list all the shared drives available through the network. You will then need to select one to mount and it will prompt for username and password. That should be your computer logon or something different if you set it for that drive. After that, the shared drive will appear under My Network in Resco Filer Explorer. That's it.

[famousdavis]

I'm trying to access my PC through my PPC.

I have Resco's File Explorer (v5.11), but it doesn't recognize my PC under the My Network icon. I have my whole C drive designated as a share drive on my desktop -- and that works, too, since my laptop can fully see my desktop's C drive over the network.

There seems to be some underlying issue with my wireless network configuration that is preventing me from having my PPC and PC recognize each other through the network...I just don't know what that is, yet.

I use a password-protected sign-on for the PC. I use the same sign-on name and password between my laptop and desktop, which is why, I think, both machines can see each other under the network workgroup.

Are sign-on names/passwords part of the problem, you think? It doesn't seem to be a firewall issue (I have Norton Internet Security on the desktop), because nothing improves when I've disabled the firewall.

Getting my PPC to see my PC's harddrive and getting it to sync wirelessly over the network are the last issues I have with setting up my X50v.

[kozak]

The problem could be with your IP setup. Are you using DHCP, or assigning IP manually to the PPC?

[famousdavis]

The problem could be with your IP setup. Are you using DHCP, or assigning IP manually to the PPC?

Not knowing what DHCP stands for, I'd guess that I'm probably using it since I haven't manually specified an IP address for my PPC. I know that I'm using dynamic IP addresses on my DSL connection.

[Pat Logsdon]

Here are the steps I took to see if I could map a PC folder on my Pocket PC:

1.) Create a folder on the desktop, put some files in it.
2.) Right click the folder, share it. (my system is PAT, and the folder is TUNES, so the path is \\PAT\TUNES)
3.) Establish ActiveSync connection
4.) Fire up Resco Explorer
5.) Tap and hold "Network"
6.) Select "Map Drive"
7.) If you've got everything set correctly, Resco should eventually be able to find the shared folder.

If Resco can't find your system, you may want to click the "Settings" button on that same page, uncheck the autodetect box, and manually enter the IP.

After following steps 1 through 7, I was able to map the drive and stream the music in that folder to WMP on my PPC. Is Resco not finding anything at all, or does it find it but you can't access it?

[famousdavis]

Here are the steps I took to see if I could map a PC folder on my Pocket PC:

1.) Create a folder on the desktop, put some files in it.
2.) Right click the folder, share it. (my system is PAT, and the folder is TUNES, so the path is \\PAT\TUNES)
3.) Establish ActiveSync connection
4.) Fire up Resco Explorer
5.) Tap and hold "Network"
6.) Select "Map Drive"
7.) If you've got everything set correctly, Resco should eventually be able to find the shared folder.

If Resco can't find your system, you may want to click the "Settings" button on that same page, uncheck the autodetect box, and manually enter the IP.

After following steps 1 through 7, I was able to map the drive and stream the music in that folder to WMP on my PPC. Is Resco not finding anything at all, or does it find it but you can't access it?

Since I've already got shared folders -- in fact, my whole C drive is shared -- I skipped #1 and #2.

I didn't understand #3. Why would I need ActiveSync up and running, if all I'm trying to do is shift files from my PPC to the desktop PC? Anyway, I skipped #3.

I did the rest of the steps, and, initially, my PPC wouldn't recognize my PC. So, I unchecked the Autodetect checkbox and manually entered in my desktop's IP address.

Voila! Resco recognized my desktop PC and all the shared drives underneath it!

After re-adding my password on my desktop (I had removed the user account password during earlier trials), I had no trouble connecting to the desktop from my PPC.

I'm now copying some backup files out of my PPC onto my PC's harddrive. Seems to be working.

I'm going to try using ActiveSync wirelessly as soon as the copy function is finished.

Interestingly, when I reconnected to my desktop a second time, I set the PPC to connect using Autodetect...and this time, it was able to see my desktop PC???

I'm certainly making progress tonight! Thanks, Surgical Snack, errr, Pat and Sven and kozak for helping me work through this.

[benn600]

I'm glad to hear you got it working--I love being able to work on just about anything on my ipaq hx4700 because of the wireless!