Symptoms
This can affect clients using Windows XP Home Edition or Windows XP Professional which are not a member of a domain, that is to say are not on a corporate network. When navigating to the Softalk Share Server Client Setup share on the server an access denied error message may be reported.
Cause
For clients running Windows XP Home or Windows XP Professional, that are not upgraded from Windows 2000 Professional and are not part of a domain, Windows will use the simple file sharing. This provides a simpler interface for managing shares. By default all users connecting to shares over this kind of network are forced to use the Guest account; this is a process called ForceGuest. However, the guest account is disabled by default meaning shares can be seen but not accessed.
Resolution
Disable Simple File Sharing on the Softalk Share Server and reshare the ClientSetup folder as Softalk Share Server Client Setup, giving everybody access.
Detail
Disable simple sharing by opening My Computer and then selecting Tools, Folder Options. In the Folder Options dialogue, click on the View tab and scroll down to the bottom. Uncheck Use simple file sharing and then click OK.
Browse to the Softalk Share Server installation folder (%ProgramFiles%Softalk Share Server) by default, and select the “ClientSetup” folder. By right clicking with the mouse, choose Properties, Sharing. Un-share the folder and click Apply to save the settings. Then re-share the “ClientSetup” folder using a name of Softalk Share Server Client Setup and giving Everyone Read permissions.
If there is a Security tab (present when the volume is NTFS), select it and click Add…. Type everyone and press OK and check that the everyone group has been given the default read permissions. Click the Advanced button and check the option Replace permission entries on all child objects… to cause these ACLs to
Propagate, and then click OK.
From the client, browse to SERVERSoftalk Share Server Client Setup, where SERVER is the name of the Softalk Share Server server computer, and run ClientSetup.exe.