Home networking issues

[lycan246]

OK here's my set up: Main Floor= Acer tower running Windows vista, Modem hooked up to wireless router. I have cable coming from router to 2nd floor where i have Compaq server running Windows server 2003, Compaq presario runnning xp pro, and a gaming machine running windows 7 ultimate x64, to have all these computers hooked up to a router i converted to a switch by turning off DCHP. Windows server and pro machines are seen on network but dont see my windows 7 machine, neither does my Acer notebook running Ubtuntu + Windows XP home + Mac OSX. But my vista machine on main floor can see it. My problem is that i am trying to share devices hook up to my server and Win 7 machine (NAS units and external HDDs, an the machine itself) but i cant get anything to show up on it or see but the vista machine. I have tryed turning off all my security checking acceptions to firewall, cabling, that network setting are correct to see it, But whatever i do it just doesnt show up. I have tryed Google the problem i got some fixes but none of them have worked. So i am starting to believe it may be an issue with the switch i am using or something to do with Windows 7 to XP network compatibility? So any help anyone could give would be much appreciated.

[dawtcalm]

windows 7 by default has more security built in. Pretty sure you just need to go through the network sharing wizard. Also ensure all pcs are using the same WORKGROUP name...
I do not believe the problem is anything to do with the physical layout etc, if the win7 machine is getting an IP@ then you know for sure and can start focusing on the network settings of the win7 machine.
Another thing you could quickly do to be certain its not a problem with the 2nd router (switch) is bring the win7 pc to the main router and connect directly, once it's working there my guess is it will work back at the original location

[lycan246]

Thanks for the reply. I have been thorugh evey known network set/wizard and maunually setting all premissions and making sure there all on the same network domain. I'll try the moving computer directly to router to see what happens.

[linuxguru]

With Windows Server 2003 why not just use the Active Directory features and have people log on to the server for everything.

[Erik]

I agree with Linuxguru an Active Directory domain on the Server 2003 machine may be the best solution to the problem. Problem is an XP Home computer can't join a domain you'd want to upgrade that laptop to XP Pro - the Vista PC might also be an issue generally speaking you want Pro or Ultimate edition. Having a Domain will also centralize account management in one place.

Whether you use a domain or not, try using UNC pathways instead of browsing for resources such as shares and printers. It works in the form of "\\computername\resourcename". This path can be entered when mapping network drives, when connecting to a network printer. It can also be used in Windows explorer address bar or after clicking Start----->Run. Browsing isn't the most reliable thing in general, and I've found it works very poorly between Windows XP machines and Vista/7 computers.

[Rufus]

Unlike XP, where if I want to share a drive, I share the drive and it is done. W7 will allow you to do that, but if you rt clk on a drive in windows explorer and share, you can go thru that whole thing that I did and all that it gets you is to SEE the drive on the XP system. If you clk on it in XP you have no permission even though I enabled "everyone". If you don't share it you don't see it, but sharing a drive provides no useful result.

You must individually share every top level folder you want access to. Yeh, some design. The folders actually have the same sharing function under PROPERTIES as appears for drives when you click SHARE WITH, which also doesn't get you access to the folders, only visibility.

You just have to do the same thing differently to get the results you want. The "SHARE WITH" function for a folder is different than that for a drive. THAT share function looks different than the other and it is the one that actually allows you to access the folder - It is not available for a drive. It will provide access to the folder and ALL sub-folders.

*SO........ Rt clk on EACH top level FOLDER in W7 that you want access to on the XP system. Select SHARE WITH - SPECIFIC PEOPLE.
The cursor will be in an empty box waiting for input. Click the dropdown arrow and select EVERYONE, then clk ADD. Then click the dropdown next to READ and select READ/WRITE, then SHARE on the bottom. When it is done, clk DONE.

It may be that setting the drive to full control carries down so that once you have read/write access you can also delete (which is what full control gives you.) Otherwise you may have to also do each top folder that way under PROPERTIES-SHARE.

You may as well not share the C: drive as it will just provide confusion since you will see it but can't access it at that level.
The other shared folders will show up even though they are on C: which you can't access................a little bit of MS logic.

Of course, the workgroup needs to be set the same on all systems. and other network settings must be valid. This is just why it doesn't work when you think you have done everything you are suppose to do.