Access to LAN connected PC WinXP Pro Documents & Settings folders

I'm not sure what you mean by "log on".  I'm on Computer "A" and I see in WinExplorer mapped drive (L:) of Computer "B".  I click on the drive and get an expanded list of folders.  When I click to get into Docs & Setting folders, specifically users, I get "access denied".  I can get to other folders under Docs & Settings, like shared folder or programs, etc.  But can't get to the user.  I have not set up any special security policies (what ever is default in WinXP Pro).  Simple file sharing is on for the entire drive.

The account your using when logged on to Computer "A" must have an equivelant on Computer "B", or you've got the guest account enabled.  On computer "B", grant that account share and NTFS permissions to the C:\Documents and Settings folder.  

If the account has administrative access, you can use Start-Run, "\\computerb\c$" to connect to the Admin share of the remote computer.  From there you should have access to everything on the C: drive, or be able to give yourself access.

This is definitely a local permissions issue - please review appropriate documentation regarding configuring windows permissions.

Account names and passwords are identical.  I've enabled share on all user accounts on "B".  I looked at the XP help for "sharing & security" and it says you can't share Documents and Settings. But WinXP does allow me to access under Docs & Settings the shared folder and once I disabled "private" on my admin account, I can get to that folder as well (but not the other user folders).  My ultimate objective is to run a back up application from Computer A to backup all the folders under Docs and Settings on Computer B.  But I can't because WinXP Pro "denies access" to the user folders.  Any other ideas?

Ok. If I disable simple file sharing, then enable access "everyone" under "Security" for Computer B, then I get to all folders. The only issue is that now users have access to each other's files.  So much for security between accounts on the same PC.  But it looks like it's the only way to do a backup of files on Computer B when running the backup app from Computer A.  Maybe a better way to go, to maintain security between accounts, is to install the backup application on Computer B, and run it locally.  Any other suggestions?

Remove the "Everyone" group from the access list, then grant access to only the user that will be running the backup application from the other computer.  You could also simply add the account that will run the backup app to the Backup Operators group on computer B.  Members of that group should be able to bypass the permissions when running a backup, but it doesn't always work for all backup applications.  

Yes, install dantz retrospect pro, it will set up on one, and allow you to set the other machine to do automatic backups to the main pc (and you can also do backups on the main one) oh, and after it makes the initial backup, it only does incremental changes each time (and it does it in the background).

And one more thing, it doesn't matter about the user rights, it simply reaches out to the connected computer and works

What you may want to do is set up a domain.  That way, you can administrer rights from a central point for All your PCs

I use BackUp MyPC and it didn't backup anything with "access denied".  I did change the permissions and ran the backup and that worked.  But being new to configuring permissions, even after removing "everyone", it looks like I still enbaled the various users to get access to each others folders!  I have two questions: (1)  how do I give permission only to the administrator on PC "A" to access PC "B"?  And is it possible to add the administrator account on PC "A" to the Backup Operator group on PC "B"?  If yes, how to do it?

I reset all user accounts to simple file sharing and I made one change: for the administrator account I disabled simple file sharing. I can now access from PC "A" all user folders on PC "B" and I just ran a full back up and it worked. It appears problem solved.

However, I did notice that about 20 or so files are skipped during back up. Files under Docs & Setting like NTUSER.DAT or USRCLASS.DAT were skipped as well as a bunch under Windows\System32\Config like SAM.LOG, SECURITY.LOG, etc. It looks like these files are always skipped as I ran a full back up twice and the same files are skipped each time.  So System State files are not backed up as part of a remote backup.  When I go to restore a failed hard drive, are these files part of the WinXP Pro re-install from the CD, so need need to worry about backing them up?  Or not backing up these settings will make restore a pain?

WIndows normally keeps a backup copy of these system files, so the backup copy should be backed up.