Sharing files between two computers without internet

[strep3241]

I have somebody I know that wants to connect two different computers together so he can share files between the two. Both computers are running Windows 7. I have looked at it and I can't get it figured out, I know it is something simple.

There is a desktop and a laptop. The laptop is connected to the internet wirelessly from a router and he does not want the desktop to have internet. The desktop is where the files are stored at. The laptop and desktop are connected to an ethernet switch via a ethernet cable.

In the network map, the computers can see each other but require a password when I try to access it. The laptop is a homegroup but I can't get the desktop to connect to the homegroup. Do both computers have to have internet in order to be a part of a homegroup?

Would I be better off connecting the two computers directly and not using the ethernet switch?

 

[lakedude]

Do both computers have to have internet in order to be a part of a homegroup?

No, but both must be hooked up to the same network. The internet matters not as far as the file sharing goes.

Would I be better off connecting the two computers directly and not using the ethernet switch?

No

Directly connnecting the computers will require a crossover cable and will eliminate the possibility of internet access because the 2 computers will only be able to talk to one another.

 

[lakedude]

You should be able to set up a homegroup on one computer and then join that homegroup with the second computer.

Are both computers hooked up to the same switch?

 

[lakedude]

http://windows.microsoft.com/en-us/...o-finish=windows-7&v1h=win81tab1&v2h=win7tab1

 

[strep3241]

I just did some experimenting with my computers which is basically the same setup as his. I hooked up an AIO(with internet) directly to my desktop(without internet) with a regular ethernet cable and I was able to share files between them.

This is the part I don't understand. The networks were not the same and it still worked. The desktop was a public network and the AIO was a work network.

On his setup, yes both computers are hooked up to the same switch.

Let me try to clear something up, with his setup, the only thing that needs to be connected to the internet is the laptop. The desktop does not need to be connected to the internet. As long as the laptop is connected and both computers can share files back and forth, then everything is good.

Since it worked here, I am going to try to see if I can get it working with his setup. I think it was something as simple as turning off password protected sharing. I don't know how I overlooked that part of it. Even another guy that is involved with this didn't think of that either. It seems that the simplest thing is what gets overlooked.

 

[JackMDS]

Permission and Security issues with Vista/Win7, check the following settings.
All users that are allowed to share need to have account on all the computers that they are allowed to connect to.

Everyone is an account, it means a group of all of the users that already have an account and been established as users.


Using the Everyone feature saves the need of configuring permission to each of the established users, it does not mean Everyone that feel that they would like to login.

Users that do not have an account on the computer are Not part of the Everyone Group.
If security on the LAN is Not needed and users are Not established, then switching On the Guest account provides semi-open configuration.


http://windows.microsoft.com/en-US/windows7/Turn-the-guest-account-on-or-off
---------------------
Point to the a Folder that meant to to be share. Right click and choose properties.
In the properties
Click on the Security tab shown in the pic bellow to the right) and check that the users and their permission (shown in the pic bellow center and left) are correctly configured. Then do the same to the Permission tab.


This screen shot is from Win 7, Vista's menus are similar.

http://www.ezlan.net/Win7/Permission-Security.jpg

In both the Security panel, and the Permission panel you have to highlight each User/Group and examine that the Permission Controls are checked correctly.
When everything is OK, Reboot the Network (Router, and computer).

* Note . The Groups and Users shown in the screen-shoot are just an example. Your list will look the way your system is configured.

 

[lakedude]

Using my terminology, if both computers are plugged into the same Ethernet switch they are on the same "network", meaning they are using the same range of IP addresses.

The "networks" you are talking about are really just security settings inside Windows. The more private the network setting the less security Windows thinks you need because in theory the other computers in a home network are "friendly" . The more public the network the tighter the security because other computers on a public network could be less friendly.

 

[lakedude]

If both computers are plugged into the same Ethernet switch both will most likely have internet access unless something unusual is going on. One port of the switch should be an internet connection which will give all the computers hooked up to that same switch access to the internet.

What is hooked up to the switch? 2 computers and the internet connection? Is it possible you have any of the cables in the wrong place or with the wrong crossover configuration?

Do the lights come on the all the ports when everything is plugged in?

 

[strep3241]

Both computers are plugged into the same switch but I am not sure I need that switch. He only needs the laptop to have internet, which is picking it up wirelessly from a router. The desktop does not need to have internet.

I will check into the user and permission settings.

I plan on going back over there in the next day or two and see if I can get it working.

Like I said earlier, I did some testing with my computers and I was able to share the files by directly connecting the two computers with no switch.

 

[lakedude]

Like I said earlier, I did some testing with my computers and I was able to share the files by directly connecting the two computers with no switch.

Really? Sorry I missed the no switch part.

Maybe things have changed but normally you would need a crossover cable to hook up 2 computers without a switch, or are you talking wireless?

Are you using the same cable at both locations? Maybe the cable you are using is a crossover cable? Maybe that is the problem, a crossover cable is not generally what you use if you are using a switch.

How about the green lights (or whatever color they are)? Are they coming on the network ports?

I guess it will work, hooking up the desktop to the laptop and using the laptop's wifi, but that is a strange way to do things.

Normal cables that are not crossover cables require a switch to do the crossover, which is to hook up one end's transmit to the other end's receive and vice versa. Without a crossover somewhere in the circuit the transmit of one will hook up to the transmit of the other which does not work. This is why hooking up 2 computers without a switch should not have worked, unless the cable happens to be a crossover cable.

 

[lakedude]

So I did a little reading and it looks like a computer with Auto-MDIX might not need a crossover cable. My training is a bit old school, sorry.

This might also explain why something could work on some configurations and not others, for example if some of the computers or switches involved have Auto-MDIX and some do not...

 

[strep3241]

So I worked on this guys setup today and I got it working but did have a little trouble.

I hooked the two computers directly to each other with a regular ethernet cable. Well I assume it is a regular ethernet cable. How would you tell if it is a crossover cable or not? Would it say on the cable?

I got the computers to see each other but was a little tricky. On the desktop, I needed to join a homegroup so I could turn off password protected sharing under the network profiles. I was not able to join or whatever reason but still was able to turn off password protected sharing. After that, I was able to share files between the computers with no issues so I thought I had it fixed.

This is when the real fun began. He is using a program called Quickbooks to keep track of his inventory and he wanted both computers to be able to access the same file.

The file is stored on the desktop. When I would share that file, I could not open it on the laptop. It kept giving me a few errors, h202 and h505. It also gave me the error h202 when I would try to switch to multi user mode in Quickbooks. I did a little searching on the net for h202 and it gave me a few things to do which I did. One thing was open up some ports in the firewall for the Quickbooks program. I also found a couple of services for Quickbooks that were not running on the laptop so I started them.

I could finally get it to open the file up on the laptop but when I would enter new info in, the updated info would not show up on the desktop.

After that, I didn't know what to do, I am no expert at all. I started playing around with the network location on the desktop and changed it to home and after that, it was working.

The network part is what I don't get. On the laptop, it is connected to two networks, the one for the internet and the other is the local connection(desktop and the laptop). One of the networks on the laptop says unidentified network, local area connection. This is the network for the two computers connected together. But the desktop said public network(until I changed it to home). Now the network for the internet on the laptop is called home. The desktop is not connected to the internet.

I know some of that is probably a little confusing, I have a hard time explaining stuff like this. I don't know all the technical terms for everything. But for now everything seems to be working.

 

[lakedude]

Gald you are making progress.

FYI a regular cable with have the same order to the wires on both ends. Both ends will look exactly the same. |

A crossover cable will have a different order to the wires so that one end will look different than the other.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ethernet_crossover_cable

 

[piasabird]

USB FLASHDRIVE works. It helps to use one directory for sharing. Use a directory and turn on sharing for it like My Documents or C:/share or some such location. If you have 2 computers that can see each other then they can share. It helps if both computers have the same workgroup. That makes them visible to each other. Hell you could disconnect the Internet connection and the computers on your network should be able to share.

 

[lamedude]

Yup good ol sneakernet works every time.
If one of the NICs are gigabit a crossover cable isn't needed.

 

[ch33zw1z]

Yup good ol sneakernet works every time.
If one of the NICs are gigabit a crossover cable isn't needed.

http://forums.anandtech.com/showpost.php?p=36146392&postcount=11

http://www.transition.com/pshelp/cross.html

It's about firmware supporting Auto MDIX

 

[code65536]

As already mentioned, "home" and "work" are not networks; they instead are security profiles for the Windows firewall. They are actually completely identical, and the reason they appear separately was because Microsoft thought that a user presented with the choice would have an easier time understanding and deciding between "home", "work", and "public" than between just "private" and "public" (i.e., the user would get stuck on "what does private mean in this context?"). In Windows 8, they changed it to just two options and changed the names and text to make it more self-explanatory.