Use ip adress and make sure the shared folder has a user and password assigned.
Nice one! Thanks. Got there in the end. Using ip address instead of the computer name, which I hadn't been doing, was the trick. The actual shared folder did not need a user and password assigned to it but the xp user account which contains the shared folder needed a password assigned to it and mine didn't. For any other XP users ( if there is any ) having the same problem then here's the way. First make sure smb v1.0 is selected in the services menu ( advanced setting ) of the kodi gui, make sure the xp user account on the pc being used for sharing has a password assigned to it and then share a folder using the properties menu. Then in kodi add a network location using windows smb protocol entering ip address for server name, name of folder that's being shared along with the relevant xp account user name and password. Once this has been done for the first time then your credentials will have been saved and to add any other or future shared folders you only need to add them by using, for example in the "add video source" menu by typing in smb://ipaddress/nameoffolder. There's no need to enter the full path.