Win7 filesharing on home networking driving me mad...

[The111]

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. :-/

 

[JackMDS]

Maybe this can Help.

Homegroup-networking-the-easy-way - http://windows.microsoft.com/en-us/windows7/help/home-sweet-homegroup-networking-the-easy-way

HomeGroup-recommended-links - http://windows.microsoft.com/en-US/windows7/HomeGroup-recommended-links

HomeGroup-frequently-asked-questions - http://windows.microsoft.com/en-US/windows7/HomeGroup-frequently-asked-questions

Why can't I create a homegroup? - http://windows.microsoft.com/en-US/windows7/Why-cant-I-create-a-homegroup

Change-a-homegroup-password - http://windows.microsoft.com/en-us/windows7/Change-a-homegroup-password

How to leave a homegroup - http://windows.microsoft.com/en-US/windows7/Leave-a-homegroup

To enable/disable and fix IPv6 components - http://support.microsoft.com/kb/929852 -------------------------------------
Inclusive Post about other options of File Sharing in Win 7 and other versions of Windows.

http://social.answers.microsoft.com/Forums/en-US/w7network/thread/68d10f8c-2800-4e10-9cc1-9bcb44597d2b


😎

 

[The111]

I had every single one of these share connections working before (all on Win7) without homegroups. I prefer to stay away from homegroups, since I still have some non Windows machines needing access to the shares sometimes... and in general if it ain't broke why fix it? I never needed homegroups before, and I don't know why I need them now.

The only thing I can think of that changed in the past couple months is that all 3 machines got SP1. Which actually messed up some other stuff too. Ironic, that.

 

[Emulex]

i have found it helps to have the same username/password combo on each boxen.

ie having mrkrad on pc1 with password of abc
and mrkrad on pc2 with password of def

causes problems.

Also disable ipv6 🙂 this can add to problems as windows 7 tries ipv6 first then after it fails it falls back to ipv4 but some actions have already been done.

if you map drives - x: = \\mypc\sharename - you will find things easier to debug.