I am using server 2008 foundation in a workgroup. I have created a file on the root of C; to be shared on the network.... and it seems to be configured as a shared folder. All the computers have the same name for the workgroup. However, while some of the workstations (running XP Pro) can "see" the server, they cannot access it.

Also, the server cannot "see" any of the other workstations.

The server can PING other workstations but they cannot PING the server.

Finally, I cannot turn on "Network Discovery"

Suggestions as what I might try???

Sounds to me like the server thinks it is connected to a public network: go to the 'Network and Sharing Center' and change the 'Public Network' you see there into a 'Work network' or a 'Home network'.

Furthermore, on the left click the 'Change advanced sharing settings' and make sure that for the 'Home or Work' section the following options are turned on:

• network discovery
• file and printer sharing

Good luck!

The guest account of the Windows Server machine must be active for non-domain clients to connect to the share in the workgroup.

In command prompt:

net user guest /active:Y


Windows server uses the root of C: drive as an admin share as well. Your Admin shares are usually marked with a $ such as \\SERVER\C$; which would be the ADMIN share to the root of C:.

Thanks, didn't know that these things were related! I always enable the Guest account to allow my sister to log on to the console while I'm almost always working via Remote Desktop so never had problems with sharing files/folders over the network.