Access XP from 8.1

I have a home network set up which includes an XP desktop, and a new addition (unfortunatly) of Windows 8.1. I have no problem connecting to my XP machine from my Windows 7 machines, however Windows 8 just can not get permission to access it.

The XP desktop, includes a large tb hdd I use for backups, and I'm trying to backup the new machine, but I can not access that extra hdd no matter what I do. I have 1. Shared the drive, including the 8.1 machine specifically, 2. opened a specific port in the firewall for the network, 3. opened a specific port in the firewall for the 8.1 machine 4. made sure I could access the 8 machine from the XP 5. installed logmein, and nomachine, and a couple others I've already uninstalled so I don't remember the names, all network programs to access other pc's on your network. They work at least some do but plain manual connections don't 6. tried connectiong to a 7 pc, then piggybacking to the XP pc, no luck 7. made sure all ports and settings were correct. 8. Bypassed the network, and tried to make a bluetooth connection. That sort of worked, it showed connected, but if I tried to actually access the XP, it gave me a 'can't find pc" error

At this point I don't know what else to do. I have never had this much trouble connecting a home network.I usually do all my computer stuff manually, just to try to prove to myself I can. But this has me beat. I will appreciate any and all suggestions. Thanks in advance.

 

http://windows.microsoft.com/en-us/...1&v2h=win7tab1&v3h=winvistatab1&v4h=winxptab6

you might try the above site, the down arrow lets you flip to win 7, vista, and then xp

but the one below might be better, even has a video

http://windows.microsoft.com/en-us/...computers-running-different-windows=windows-7

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here is the search page, there are many more that may be closer to your issue:

https://www.google.com/#q=How+to+connect+8.1+to+my+win7/xp+network

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Thank You Elizabeth, looking over those pages I see immediately that's a lot more ports than I opened manually. I'm not sure what the pc automatically opens, so I'm going to go back and make sure all of those are open. Then pick up from there and try the other suggestions.

Unfortunately this is a side project that I work on when I have time. I'm going to try to get to it today, but it may take a day or two. Please don't think I've just posted and ran, I will be back as soon as I get to try this. I appreciate the links and will put them to use. I'll let you khow how it goes.

 

Thanks, when you find a solution, you can post it and it will help others with the same issue. Will check back.