Thread: Win7 filesharing on home networking driving me mad...

I must be missing sometime incredible obvious here...

3 PC's in house:
1) Win7 Ultimate
2) Win7 HP
3) Win7 HP

All are on the same network (1 is hardwired, 2 and 3 are laptops on wi-fi). I have some folders shared on #1.

- each PC has only one account, with admin powers, and no password
- I am not using Homegroups

#2 is able to connect to #1's shared folders no problem.
#3, on the other hand, "windows security" keeps prompting me for a network account/password when attempting to connect to #1's shared folders.

I've gone through every single one of the "advanced network settings" on both #2 and #3, and they are completely identical, and they should allow connecting without accounts/passwords. Why then are they acting so differently?

To make matters more confusing:
#1 cannot connect to #2 or #3
#2 can connect to #1 but not #3
#3 cannot connect to #1 or #2

Thanks in advance for any tips...

Also, there is a WinXP virtual machine on the #1 PC which has no problem connecting to #1 Win7 share... I find it funny this is so easy since XP<-->7 shares are supposed to be harder... and I'm having problems with basic 7<->7 shares. :-/

Go here:

Control Panel\Network and Internet\Network and Sharing Center\Advanced sharing settings

Check "Turn off password protection".

Originally Posted by DonVitoJr

Go here:

Control Panel\Network and Internet\Network and Sharing Center\Advanced sharing settings

Check "Turn off password protection".

Already done. :-/

I'm surprised you're having any trouble, I can connect my com to our others (Win7, vista, and XP) as well as sharing to the ps3 with no problems. However I am using a homegroup. Maybe that's the problem with your set up.

File/printer sharing on? And did you check off the password protection off on both public and home settings?

Originally Posted by Adretheon

I'm surprised you're having any trouble, I can connect my com to our others (Win7, vista, and XP) as well as sharing to the ps3 with no problems. However I am using a homegroup. Maybe that's the problem with your set up.

Homegroup makes no difference. Just adds to confusion.

Originally Posted by Adretheon

I'm surprised you're having any trouble, I can connect my com to our others (Win7, vista, and XP) as well as sharing to the ps3 with no problems. However I am using a homegroup. Maybe that's the problem with your set up.

The weirdest thing is I did have them all connected fine in the past (along with a PS3). I don't even think I've changed anything since then, except maybe installing SP1 on all 3 (which ironically has messed up some other crap on one laptop too). And I agree with DVJ that homegroup is unnecessary and adds to the confusion, which is why I stay away from it.

Grr... I think I will just completely DISable sharing on all 3 and then start over. :-/ And yes DVJ, home and public settings are the same.

Gaahh... here is something REALLY weird. Every time I make changes on one laptop, and it asks me to log out and back in, when I log back in Firefox launches and goes to homegroup.com (which is a bogus site). That almost seems like a virus or something, but I just reformatted this damn computer yesterday and only have installed trusted stuff. Kind of funny though that it is HOMEGROUP dot com. :-/

HomeGroup works great, but requires ALL your PCs to be running Windows 7. If you need to mix in non-Win7 systems, that's where you face what Veo is facing.