Really simple file sharing

[sm625]

Why is it so bloody difficult to share a folder on windows 7? Why does it never work properly or reliably? Is there any really truly extremely simple way to force share a folder on windows 7? All this crap doesnt work:

1. Homegroup. I dont want to mess with homegroups and codes, especially since it literally doesnt work! (I set up the homegroup, write down the code it gives, and give that code to my other computer... and presto. EPIC FAIL.)
2. Changing permissions and even changing owner. Are you kidding me? I'm not doing that. It doesnt work either.
3. I actually have a shared folder that indeed does work correctly. I try to replicate every single setting on another folder, and it doesnt work.
4. I have 3 computers on my network. All configured the same way. A can access B's share, but C cannot access B's share. This kind of garbage is so irritating.
5. Sometimes computers do not show up at all.Toggling discovery works sometimes, but only sometimes. Other times I have to reboot.

I'm just sick of dealing with it. Is there a way I can replace windows file sharing with a 3rd party program that actually works? Or is there anyone anywhere who has all the bugs figured out and has posted a guide that actually works? I've been to a dozen sites that tell you how to configure your network, and none of them work. Right now I am stuck using public folders, as well as my one single folder that does indeed share properly.

 

[RadiclDreamer]

Homegroup has always worked flawlessly for me, are you interested in troubleshooting it to see if we can fix that? If not, and you really want to try third party you could always setup filezilla ftp server on each and be pretty much done

 

[Nothinman]

All of what you listed should work fine. Browsing itself is a crapshoot, but \\name or \\ipaddress never fails for me. AFAIK HomeGroups rely on IPv6 working properly, have you been messing with the IPv6 settings?

 

[wirednuts]

im guessing youre trying to share from a win7 box to winxp? you need to disable 128bit sharing in the network and sharing center of win7.