Access Denied: Configuring XP File Sharing

My organization uses a team of consultants who frequently work off-site and need to share files among their workstations and with client workstations. I'm upgrading the consultants' computers to Windows XP but can't get file sharing to work correctly. I created separate local Consultant and Client user accounts, but whenever I connect remotely to a shared folder on an XP workstation, XP logs me on as Guest—not as Consultant or Client. This approach worked in Windows 2000; why isn't it working in XP?

XP has a new policy called Network access: Sharing and security model for local account under Computer ConfigurationWindows SettingsSecurity SettingsLocal PoliciesSecurity Options. You can set this policy to Guest only—local users authenticate as Guest or to Classic—local users authenticate as themselves. By default, XP sets the policy to Guest only, a useful setting for the more typical scenario in which you don't want anyone to use a local account to access a workstation. (When you set the policy to Guest only, then disable the Guest account, you can't use a local account to get into the computer remotely, although domain accounts are still valid.) To solve the problem, set the policy to Classic.