Access Windows file share between workstations in a Domain and a Workgroup

Question

I am having trouble accessing a Windows share on another computer that is in a Workgroup.

We currently have 2 networks:

• NetworkA which is a domain netA.net
• NetworkB which is a Workgroup netB local

The two networks share a gateway device. It is a Watchgaurd 510.

Each network has its own interface, each network its own subnet.

I would like to be able to access a file share from a workstation in NetworkB (Running Windows XP) from a workstation in NetworkA (running Windows 7).

Currently I have a policy on the Watchgaurd device to allow all traffic from NetworkA to NetworkB.

I can perform other tasks as if the device was actually on the same network. i.e. ping, remote desktop.

However, I can't access file shares or remote management. I never get a prompt for credentials I just time out and get a path not found dialog.

Solution

How are you connecting between the 2 machines, is it a mapped network drive, give this a try.

dos prompt on source, net use v: \destination\machine\share /user:username passwordhere

on the destination see if you can run a netstat (tcpdump), in addition on your watchguard device are you allowing file and print sharing.

Comments

[ndmweb]

I apologize if I am misunderstanding you but when I tried the command net use v: \\ipaddress\sharename /user:computer\username password i get an error The network path was not found. The computer is not reachable by name as it does not reside in our DNS servers zones.

[Nick O'Neil]

So the problem might not be network security based it is possible it is DNS based although you mentioned that you used ipaddress for share path. are you able to ping this host by ip address on source machine?

[ndmweb]

File this one under stupidity. I forgot that I had been messing with my computer firewall policy and never changed it back. Thanks for your help Nick.

[Nick O'Neil]

glad it worked!! happy holidays, tgif.