Hi experts,
I apologize in advance for this being a little harder given I am trying to help a friend figure this problem out. I spent quite a bit of time remoting in with no success. I probably wasn't helpful, because I am not that familiar with WIN7.
Anyway, the network consists of three computers: One running Windows XP Home, one running WIN7 Pro and a laptop running Windows Vista Home. I know, not the best setup. They are connected with a Linksys router I was unable to access using the username and assword of "admin" and "admin" or a blank username and "admin" for password.
The program that needs to have its database shared is on the WIN7 computer. The XP computer can access WIN7 with no problem. The laptop can access the XP computer and vice versa, but it CANNOT access the WIN7 computer.
When I first started trying to help, none of the computers could ping each other. After uninstalling Norton360 from all computers, they could all ping each other. The inside IPs were basically 192.168.2.xxx and the default gateway for all was 192.168.2.1. All three computers obtain their IP, subnet mask and default gateway from the router.
No matter what we tried, every time the laptop computer tried to browse to the WIN7 "main" computer, it asked for a username and password. We tried every imaginable combination. We tried turning simple file sharing on and simple file sharing off. All of the computers could see the other computers in the network window and the two "good" computers could click on any of the other computer icons and see the shared folders, but the laptop could not. Even though the laptop could see the other two computers on the network, it could not see any computers if it tried to map a drive. Each computer was using MSHOME as the workgroup and the WIN7 was set to Work Network and Discover was turned on. I doubt it matters, but the WIN7 computer was 64-bit.
I hope this is enough information to start. Thanks for any help.
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As joinaunion said, make sure the computers are in the same workgroup first.
The next thing to try (and bear in mind that this isn't very secure, but it will allow you to access the directory in which the files reside) is giving the Everyone group full control on the directory.
To do this on Win7, right click on the folder and click Properties. Click on the Sharing tab. Now click on the Advanced Sharing button. Make sure the Share this folder box is ticked and give it a single word name (for instance Share). Next, click on Permissions. Click on Add and type Everyone, then click OK. Make sure that Everyone has the "Full Control" allow box checked. Click OK. Click Apply on the Advanced Sharing box, then click OK. Now, go to the Security tab and click Edit. Click on Add and type Everyone again. Check the Full Control allow check box and click OK. Close the folder properties.
At this point, you hopefully won't get prompted for a password when you attempt to access the Windows 7 share.
If you do, try typing \\WIN7NAME\SHARENAME (putting in your own Win7 machine name and whatever you named your share of course) instead of just \\WIN7NAME.
Thanks guys, That is great info.
"Each computer was using MSHOME as the workgroup" Thanks for the workgroup tip. I had included it in my question above, but it was kind of buried, so I apologize for that. I am a bit stale on the "simplicity" of workgroups as I run a domain on SBS2003 on my network and am crippled a bit in helping my friend. I find the networking and connections a bit more convoluted than what I am used to in XP Pro.
Great ideas. I will try them tonight and report back.
One question though. And this is why I always recommend everyone using the same OS on a network -- maybe not mandatory but helpful. Given, his "main computer" is WIN7 Pro and his other two computers are XP and Vista, if any of the issues above solve the problem for the laptop Vista, why didn't XP Pro have the same issue?
Thanks again.
Check the setting for the following on Windows 7 and Windows Vista machine
Local Security Policy->Security Options->Lan Manager Authentication Level. Make sure they are set at the same level. Apart from wrong user and password. - This is the primary reason when you can see the machine but cannot authenticate to it.
Note - by default - Vista and Win7 this is set at the same level. The only reason it will be different is if someone dinked around with these settings on Vista or Win7 machine.
Well since the WIN7 was just purchased and the Vista machine has been around longer, maybe the settings have changed.
Again, these are all great ideas. Maybe even more than one will work. It's been awhile for me, but nothing is more frustrating than not connecting to a computer on the network when everything seems set up correctly.
I also wish this were just my issue. I have to find the time to log into my friend's network to try these troubleshooting ideas. But, I will get back to you soon. Thanks.
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by: vahiidPosted on 2009-11-04 at 21:53:23ID: 25747045
When you were trying to connect from Vista to w7 and it was prompting for username and password, did you try entering the username in form of computername\username instead of just the plain username (i.e. HOMEW7\administrator)? Try that with the password if you haven't.
Also try creating a new local admin on the Windows 7 machine and enter that as credentials when Vista asked for username/password and see if that works.