Connecting Two Windows XP Pro PC's

Greetings,

I am trying to connect two pc's running Windows XP Pro on both machines. A little history... I am a controls engineer and have to load custom written software on industrial machines from time to time. In the past, the pc's we purchased for the machines had Win2K. All I had to do was set a static IP on both machines (usually used 192.168.100.xxx & 255.255.255.0) and connect with a crossover ethernet cable. Once connected, I could go to Start -> Run & type in \\computername\c$ and it would bring up a login dialog and I was in with full access to the machine pc's hard drive. The newer pc's have WinXP Pro. I am wondering if there is a similar way to do what I did with Win2K. When I try it now, it comes up with a login dialog but the username is unchangable and has computername\Guest inserted in it. Also, full access to the machine pc's hard drive is a must. Any ideas would be appreciated. Thanks in advance.

Sincerely,

Kyle

Creatye a local user account on both machines (named whatever you like) and give that account full access permissions to the entire drive. It doesn't has to be an admin account, just total access. Create a new share called engineer$ (or whatever) and make sure the new user account has full rights to the share. The other part you had right, but most time by default the guest accoutn is disabled.

Another easier option get yourself a hub, then you would not need a cross over cable, and I found it makes life much easier, playing around with computers.