Please help. The 3 computers on network are not connecting

Hi syedasimmeesaq,

The reason and workaround is listed here:

Inbound Connections Limit in Windows XP
http://support.microsoft.com/?scid=kb;en-us;314882

Greetings,

LucF

open explorer on the main computer, select the shared folder, go to properties Page --> Sharing and set a higher value to Alloed number of users field.
jo

Unfortunately XP will still not extend beyond 10 permitted connections.

That of course assumes you're not using a Server OS there.

Microsoft wants to sell Server Software... so they scramble their own clients to not fullfill the tasks they possibly could manage. We would call this crippleware, isn't it?
Whatsoever: 10 connections is the maximum - I tried this with only setting a Win2k-pro client as a printserver in a computer classroom: even printer connections are regular connections... so its not possible.

Chris-Dent is correct, and that's for XP Professional (for Home I believe the limit is 5 connections).  There's an (unofficial) way to bump that up for IIS connections but I'm not aware of any workaround for shared folders.  In any case, it would be in violation of the EULA which states in part (for XP Pro):
      You may permit a maximum
      of ten (10) computers or other electronic devices (each
      a "Device") to connect to the Workstation Computer to
      utilize the services of the Product solely for File and
      Print services, Internet Information Services, and remote
      access (including connection sharing and telephony
      services).  The ten connection maximum includes any
      indirect connections made through "multiplexing" or other
      software or hardware which pools or aggregates
      connections.

Chris-Dent, holger12345 and Wolfpup99.
Microsoft gave the workaround theirselves, please see the link I gave above.
That'll only work for a few extra connections and can't be used all together, but with only three extra computers it should do just fine.
It's fully allowed as you're allowed to use 10 connections at a time, so if one disconnects another my use it. So all that is needed to be done is disconnect them automatically after some time.

For further upgrades, yes, I fully agree with you all, a server version is needed. :)

LucF

Actually I think all of us are saying the same thing:  there is a hard limit of 10 connections, however, the main point here is that with only 8 computers accessing a network share, there is sufficient capacity for it to work.  The Microsoft article that LucF provided shows how to lower the timeout for any idle connections and that might help.

What I'm wondering is whether there might be shared printers involved here that are also tying up network connections.  In particular, there is a known problem if your main computer happens to be acting as a print server and a client workstation also has a shared printer.  You might want to take a look at this and see if it applies:
http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=kb;en-us;328459

LucF has the answer as far as I'm concerned, mine was only in response to _Jochen_ :)

Yes, no argument with that, I sort of got sidetracked on this 10-connection limit which should not be a problem here ...... :)

The article I posted describes a somewhat obscure situation where printer connections become persistent; it's worth looking at if there are shared printers here in the configuration described.........

see the problem is that I have the access database that the other computers are accessing and updating contineously. Now I have to run these computers on one network so the data is updated regularly in the main computer. Also I tried to change the settings by going to shared folder and then properties ...but it did not give me the option to change it.  
I just find out that I have to connect 16 computers with one main server..that makes it 17 computers on the network...I am currently using windows XP but if there is a better window version like server 2003 and can get my job done, I will not be hesitated to buy one. Please let me know ..I would prefer to keep using XP professional as I really never used Server 2003 before...and linux is out of question cause I have to use Access and some other windows program.
Thank you very much guys for taking your time in helping me out
Asim

using Server 2003 will be the best solution, because there is no connection limit.
If you buy a license you also have to buy Client Access Licenses (CALs) for every Client connecting to the Server.
If you want to share Ressources, it will be allways the best to use a Server OS, because this OS is build to offer Services to the Clients.
jo