I posted this over at the MS help forums to no avail...hopefully I can get some answers here: Running 4 puters..all with Windows 7 Ultimate...all joined to the same Homegroup..all have made sure that all of the puters have the same name "Workgroup" for the homegroup...Network Discovery turned on for all....File/Printer sharing turned on for all....password protect turned off for all..public sharing turned on for all....have the proper sharing set up on all the folders I want to share on all...same password set up on all when I joined the Homegroup on all. I can see all the puters in the network when I click on Network on the desktop...but when I click on one...it says I don't have permissions the view on all...BUT...I see my network printer and it works on all puters...have tried leaving the Homegroup and re-joining on all. Oh....and here's another little tid-bit to make this even more bizarre.....in the folders (any folder) side navigation pane...if I expand the Homegroup...all my shared folder show up and I can access them.....but as I said......when I go to the Network folder(on desktop) and try to click on the puters name itself (eg: Livingroom-PC...I don't have permissions ?????????? I have tried everything to no avail !!!! I'm about to rip my hair out...can anyone help....thanks. PS...It's not the firewall nor my AV...cause I've tried disabling both on all....and everything was working fine until a day or so ago.
Sorry for sounding ignorant...what exactly do you mean ? Can you explain in a little more detail please...thanks
Thanks...but I understand what the differences are...a domain doesn't work for me, neither does a workgroup...the homegroup is what I am looking to do...that's what I had setup before and it worked fine...and then all of a sudden it quit working......as a note.....I re-did everything on all 4 puters......on all 4 puters I left the default homegroup(re-boot)...I then created a new homegroup on my main puter and named it MY NETWORK(re-boot)....I then joined that homegroup on the other 3 puters(re-boot)....I then set up the folders to share on all the puters...sharing with both "everyone & homegroup" also the same in the advanced settings(re-boot)...all network settings on all 4 puters are the same (file and print-ON,network discovery-ON,public shares-OFF.password protect-OFF...and still the same thing...I go to Network on the desktop...all 4 puters show up...but when I click on them...I get message that I don't have permissions, contact admin....BUT....as before...in the side nav pane...under homegroup...I'm able to see/ and use the shared folders on all 4 puters.....this is very frustrating...I never changed anything on any of the computers...but it quit working and now absolutely nothing works...arggggggg !!!!!!!
Well...I disabled the 2 items mentioned in the article...problem is..I'm familiar with setting up a network in XP...but now that thoses 2 services are stopped, I'm not sure what to do next in 7...sorry to be a pain here...but can you walk me thru it..or point me to another article where they explain it...thanks.
Thanks...but that won't work...SQL Server is a little over the top....any other ideas ? This seems to be stumping peeps all over the place...
Well guys....I figured it out on my own using what I used to do in XP when I had problems networking and what I have learnt about advanced sharing in 7...I'm going to explain what I did here just in case anyone else ever has this problem: Set up your network as described by MS on all computers, and yes...that's using the dreaded "homegroup" settings....now...this is VERY important...it may be a long way around the problems that I was having....BUT IT WORKED....go to "run" and type "control userpasswords2"(no quotes).....highlight the Guest acct.....click properties....now click the Group Membership tab....choose "Administrators" and then choose the "Other" again...this will allow you to bring down the dropdown list....choose Power User...apply.....OK....hit apply again...OK....you can still set the Guest acct. as off. OK...now we are done with that (this is the process that I used to have to go thru with XP sometimes) Now on each computer...go to the folder/drive that you want to share...right click it and go to Properties...click the Sharing tab...then advanced sharing...click permissions....click add....click advanced....click find now....in the list that shows up...highlight the Power Users...click OK in the window that pops up....make sure that Power Users is highlighted...and set your permissions in the bottom box (for me it was full control)..click apply and OK until your done and out of the windows and finally close. Whaaaaallllaaaa...my network is back on all puters !!!!!! As I said...there may be someone out there that will think this is a long way around a simple problem...but as I said....IT WORKED. Thanks for all the posts and suggestions guys...I appreciate your wanting to help !!!!!
Before I applied this fix...all 4 puter had the same 2 acct.'s (admin and Guest)...the guest was turned off and permissions(acct type) for both where the same on all 4.....and the problem persited...but when I did the above changes...and still left the Guest acct. turned off..everything was good to go...I can't explain it...but as I said...it worked.
I figured someone would say that...the strange thing is..all 4 computers where set up the exact same way when I formatted them..I did no special things during formatting...pretty standard...I set up the network on all 4 the exact way that MS recommends...and as I said...the network worked fine for months...and then all of a sudden everything stopped working...without me doing ANY changes at all on any of the 4 puters......I have no idea what went wrong..I do realize that my solution is "out there"......BUT it worked...and because the guest Acct. is turned off...it in no way compromises my security.....let me add...that I posted my problem on at least 4 different forums and did tons of research on this....also found out that I am not the only one who has had this problem......I have read about solutions that run the gambit of being simple to the absolutely absurd...to the completely dangerous (doing major changes to your registry)...some peeps have just given up on networking altogether....90% of the time...no solution was offered to me (or anyone for that matter) that worked....bottom line...no matter how stupid my fix seems or sounds...IT WORKED....Thank God !!!! LOL
The above is the operative phrase in your situation. Your problem is the same as you had before with the exception you just maybe haven't gotten to the next "...and then all of a sudden everything stopped working..." part. Homegroup doesn't buy you anything you can't get by simply setting up the same users (not guest and built-in admin) on all computers and sharing folders, drives and printers individually. For drives and folders you do that via the context menu. Yes there is a little upfront work but that's what we do ... dink with computers. As is the case with many Windows things, there are multiple ways to get a given job done. For me, Homegroup adds an irksome additional layer I just don't need or want. It's just too simple and straightforward to use simple context menu sharing.