Win7 to XP file sharing setup advice needed
May 14, 2011 7:07 PM Subscribe
I am computer competent and networking stupid. I have a pretty simple setup in mind, but I'm not sure how to do it. I have searched around and I found several guides and discussions related to my goal but after trying unsuccessfully to get this thing going on my machines I decided someone here could probably offer some good advice.
I want to have file sharing capabilities between my desktop and my netbook. No printer or internet connection sharing or anything else needed--just file sharing.
I have a desktop running Windows 7. It has no wireless card.
I have an Asus Eee PC netbook running XP.
Both connect through the internet through an Asus RT-N12 router. The desktop wired and the netbook wirelessly.
What is the simplest way to do file sharing between these two computers with this setup? Even just telling me the type of setup I need to use or a poke in the right direction would be helpful. ThankS!
If you don't mind putting your data into the cloud, get a Dropbox account and set it up on both the machines. You will now have a shared folder (2GB free space, more if you pay) accessible from both of them, and the whole thing will take you 15 minutes.
posted by Idle Curiosity at 7:28 PM on May 14, 2011 [1 favorite]
posted by Idle Curiosity at 7:28 PM on May 14, 2011 [1 favorite]
Windows file sharing is very strange. But it's vastly easier if you have exactly the same account name and exactly the same password on both machines.
Then what you do is create a directory on each machine and "share" it. (right-click the directory, select "properties", and then pick the "Sharing" tab.) Making those directories read/write for the remote is a pain, but making them read-only is a lot simpler.
posted by Chocolate Pickle at 7:29 PM on May 14, 2011
Then what you do is create a directory on each machine and "share" it. (right-click the directory, select "properties", and then pick the "Sharing" tab.) Making those directories read/write for the remote is a pain, but making them read-only is a lot simpler.
posted by Chocolate Pickle at 7:29 PM on May 14, 2011
Have you already tried setting the sharing tab on the folders you want to share, and made sure both computers have the same workgroup name? (Windows 7 also has a homegroup but, as I learned trying to connect a 7 machine and XP machine the past couple of days, that's not the same thing.)
posted by mittens at 7:30 PM on May 14, 2011
posted by mittens at 7:30 PM on May 14, 2011
Oh wait, let me just give you the link that helped me get set up.
posted by mittens at 7:35 PM on May 14, 2011
posted by mittens at 7:35 PM on May 14, 2011
Response by poster: Okay! Dropbox looks great, and I'll use it if I have to, but I rather prefer having my data kept within my little home network and not "in the cloud." Mittens, I have been through that guide but I never was able to see either machine listed on the other's network window.
posted by melko9 at 8:19 PM on May 14, 2011
posted by melko9 at 8:19 PM on May 14, 2011
Best answer: My first recommendation would be DropBox, if your just trying to share small files, its the easiest way to go. But if you wan't to keep things local...read. :D
You need to set up a shared folder on each computer. Right click on the folder and go to properties, both 7 and xp have a sharing tab you can click on. Basically, share the folder with everyone/everything and allow read write. If your network is secure, nothing to really worry about.
The sucky part about windows is you need a password protected account to access files on computers. So you will need to add passwords to the current accounts.
To access the shared folders on each computer, in XP, click start Run and a window will pop up, and type: //"computername" on the 7 computer, just click start and just type //"computername" and press enter.
To figure out the computer name for each computer, for both 7 and XP you go to start>right click computer>properties. A window will pop up and it will tell you the name of the computer. Thats the name you type when you want to access that computer from the other one. Ex. if your netbook was named Jim-PC, you would type: //Jim-PC on the 7 computer and press enter. A explorer window should pop up with the shared folders on that computer.
I'll check into this question later. See if it works out. :D
posted by NotSoSiniSter at 8:44 PM on May 14, 2011
You need to set up a shared folder on each computer. Right click on the folder and go to properties, both 7 and xp have a sharing tab you can click on. Basically, share the folder with everyone/everything and allow read write. If your network is secure, nothing to really worry about.
The sucky part about windows is you need a password protected account to access files on computers. So you will need to add passwords to the current accounts.
To access the shared folders on each computer, in XP, click start Run and a window will pop up, and type: //"computername" on the 7 computer, just click start and just type //"computername" and press enter.
To figure out the computer name for each computer, for both 7 and XP you go to start>right click computer>properties. A window will pop up and it will tell you the name of the computer. Thats the name you type when you want to access that computer from the other one. Ex. if your netbook was named Jim-PC, you would type: //Jim-PC on the 7 computer and press enter. A explorer window should pop up with the shared folders on that computer.
I'll check into this question later. See if it works out. :D
posted by NotSoSiniSter at 8:44 PM on May 14, 2011
One trick to networking Windows 7 to XP is that you have to turn the homegroup feature off on the Windows 7 machine (which can be done at Control Panel\Homegroup). Then follow the procedure in mittens link.
posted by sockpup at 10:45 PM on May 14, 2011
posted by sockpup at 10:45 PM on May 14, 2011
Is your XP box running XP Home or XP Professional? They handle authentication for file sharing in different ways.
posted by flabdablet at 4:03 AM on May 15, 2011
posted by flabdablet at 4:03 AM on May 15, 2011
Alternatively, if you wante to aave time but money, you could get the airport extreme base station. I have a Mac, but my three roommates use Windows. I plugged in my HFS+ formatted external hard drive into that router, and instantly the router showed up in everybody's shared folders with full read/write settings. Took no time to set up, and my impression is that I could easily share more drives on this router with a USB hub.
posted by JesseBikman at 7:02 AM on May 15, 2011
posted by JesseBikman at 7:02 AM on May 15, 2011
Best answer: Windows file sharing is pretty easy to set up. Doing it in your situation is kinda tricky, but it can be done.
Things you need to know and do :
1. You need to have a user account on both machines with the same name and password.
2. You need to know if your router is connecting both machines to the same subnet. Some don't and as a result will route traffic between the wireless and wired networks through your ISP which my block some types of traffic.
3. Ideally, you should have fixed addresses for both machines.
4. Ideally, they should be in the same workgroup.
Things that will confound you :
1. Windows firewall can be a pain. If your router has a firewall, or just NAT, then you are safe to disable it for testing and configuration.
2. Some versions of windows (home and basic) are designed to make this hard to prevent businesses from buying the cheaper versions for business use.
I can give you more specific help if you need it. Reply here or Memail me.
posted by Pogo_Fuzzybutt at 7:24 AM on May 15, 2011
Things you need to know and do :
1. You need to have a user account on both machines with the same name and password.
2. You need to know if your router is connecting both machines to the same subnet. Some don't and as a result will route traffic between the wireless and wired networks through your ISP which my block some types of traffic.
3. Ideally, you should have fixed addresses for both machines.
4. Ideally, they should be in the same workgroup.
Things that will confound you :
1. Windows firewall can be a pain. If your router has a firewall, or just NAT, then you are safe to disable it for testing and configuration.
2. Some versions of windows (home and basic) are designed to make this hard to prevent businesses from buying the cheaper versions for business use.
I can give you more specific help if you need it. Reply here or Memail me.
posted by Pogo_Fuzzybutt at 7:24 AM on May 15, 2011
Response by poster: Thanks everyone! @NotSoSiniSter, when I type in the run command I get "The network path was not found" on both computers. @flabdablet, its XP Home SP3.
posted by melko9 at 7:24 AM on May 15, 2011
posted by melko9 at 7:24 AM on May 15, 2011
Best answer: Much advice here is good. There are really three things that you need to get working in order for this to work.
1- TCP/IP connectivity between the two machines. ("Can they ping each other?")
2- Windows peer-to-peer networking working between the two machines. ("Can they see each other in network neighborhood?")
3- File shares and authentication working. ("Can they actually access files/printers on each other?")
You have to get TCP/IP connectivity going first in order for any of it to work properly. Each can ping the other by number, at least. If you get them to be able to ping each other by name, even better.
0- Yes, it is absolutely essential that you create administrator accounts on each machine with identical names and passwords.
1- go to a command window and run "ipconfig /all" on both machines. Your active network cards will have IP addresses that are probably something like 192.168.X.Y with a subnet mask of 255.255.255.0. You need to make sure the X is the same on both machines. If not, you might need to go into your router and turn off separate vlans for the two segments. Or turn on bridging.
2- Make both machines part of the same workgroup. Being XP home, I think you have to use simple file sharing, which might mean that you have to leave "homegroups" on in the Win7 machine. Not sure about that, however.
3- Once you have made sure that the two machines are on the same subnet, it might be advisable to just go through the "connect to a network" wizards on each machine and answer the questions.
4- The windows firewall is easy to configure for this, there is a place where you can add services you want to be on the machine and make sure file and printer sharing is checked.
5- Windows name-based networking is bizarre. There are behind the scenes things that happen so that the computers can know each other's names. Rebooting a machine can often break naming for a while until they re-orient themselves. It might be helpful to use the ip addresses when trying to connect to the machines.
posted by gjc at 8:28 AM on May 15, 2011
1- TCP/IP connectivity between the two machines. ("Can they ping each other?")
2- Windows peer-to-peer networking working between the two machines. ("Can they see each other in network neighborhood?")
3- File shares and authentication working. ("Can they actually access files/printers on each other?")
You have to get TCP/IP connectivity going first in order for any of it to work properly. Each can ping the other by number, at least. If you get them to be able to ping each other by name, even better.
0- Yes, it is absolutely essential that you create administrator accounts on each machine with identical names and passwords.
1- go to a command window and run "ipconfig /all" on both machines. Your active network cards will have IP addresses that are probably something like 192.168.X.Y with a subnet mask of 255.255.255.0. You need to make sure the X is the same on both machines. If not, you might need to go into your router and turn off separate vlans for the two segments. Or turn on bridging.
2- Make both machines part of the same workgroup. Being XP home, I think you have to use simple file sharing, which might mean that you have to leave "homegroups" on in the Win7 machine. Not sure about that, however.
3- Once you have made sure that the two machines are on the same subnet, it might be advisable to just go through the "connect to a network" wizards on each machine and answer the questions.
4- The windows firewall is easy to configure for this, there is a place where you can add services you want to be on the machine and make sure file and printer sharing is checked.
5- Windows name-based networking is bizarre. There are behind the scenes things that happen so that the computers can know each other's names. Rebooting a machine can often break naming for a while until they re-orient themselves. It might be helpful to use the ip addresses when trying to connect to the machines.
posted by gjc at 8:28 AM on May 15, 2011
Response by poster: Okay! I pretty much got it. Thanks to everyone who posted. I hope this thread will help out others with similar issues. My final hang-up was turning off windows firewall on the xp machine and Comodo on the Win7 machine. Later I'll config those properly so I can turn them back on.
I still have one issue. I can get at everything on the win7 machine from the xp machine. But I cannot connect to the xp machine from the win7 machine. When I try to connect windows security pops up asking for user name and password. Well, I am using identical names and passwords on both as administrators....neither comp has other users besides the guest accounts. I'm going to keep messing with this. Anyone have a clue what I may be missing here?
posted by melko9 at 2:14 PM on May 15, 2011
I still have one issue. I can get at everything on the win7 machine from the xp machine. But I cannot connect to the xp machine from the win7 machine. When I try to connect windows security pops up asking for user name and password. Well, I am using identical names and passwords on both as administrators....neither comp has other users besides the guest accounts. I'm going to keep messing with this. Anyone have a clue what I may be missing here?
posted by melko9 at 2:14 PM on May 15, 2011
First thing is ditch Comodo entirely. If your Internet connection happens via a NAT router you don't need a software firewall, and consumer-grade software firewalls as a class are hell's own obstacle to getting LANs working properly.
The authentication issue you're striking is a "feature" of how XP Home handles file sharing. It actually ignores the credentials presented by remote clients, instead using its own inbuilt Guest account for all sharing-driven filesystem access.
The only folder that XP Home will share without annoying amounts of fiddling is its inbuilt Shared Documents folder which, once you've used XP's inbuilt Network Setup Wizard to turn on File and Printer Sharing, will have Full Control NTFS permissions for Everyone by default and will therefore be accessible to Guest. That folder will show up as \\machinename\SharedDocs for network browsing purposes.
This is the same behaviour exhibited by XP Professional when "Simple File Sharing" is turned on.
I do not know of any method to force XP Home to use the user credentials actually sent by the client.
posted by flabdablet at 5:10 PM on May 15, 2011
The authentication issue you're striking is a "feature" of how XP Home handles file sharing. It actually ignores the credentials presented by remote clients, instead using its own inbuilt Guest account for all sharing-driven filesystem access.
The only folder that XP Home will share without annoying amounts of fiddling is its inbuilt Shared Documents folder which, once you've used XP's inbuilt Network Setup Wizard to turn on File and Printer Sharing, will have Full Control NTFS permissions for Everyone by default and will therefore be accessible to Guest. That folder will show up as \\machinename\SharedDocs for network browsing purposes.
This is the same behaviour exhibited by XP Professional when "Simple File Sharing" is turned on.
I do not know of any method to force XP Home to use the user credentials actually sent by the client.
posted by flabdablet at 5:10 PM on May 15, 2011
Also, unlike Windows 98, XP doesn't positively require all machines that share files to have the same workgroup name. If machine Foo is in workgroup FOOGROUP and Bar is in workgroup BARGROUP, you should still be able to open \\Foo\SharedDocs from Bar, and vice versa, explicitly; they just won't show up in each other's Network Places lists by default, so you have to do it by typing things into address bars or via NET USE from a CMD window instead of point-click-grunt.
posted by flabdablet at 5:16 PM on May 15, 2011
posted by flabdablet at 5:16 PM on May 15, 2011
Response by poster: Alright I got it. Thanks, flabdablet. I ran the network wizard on xp turning on sharing and am now able to get in both ways--no more does win7 ask for user/pass to get into xp.
posted by melko9 at 6:28 PM on May 15, 2011
posted by melko9 at 6:28 PM on May 15, 2011
This thread is closed to new comments.
posted by hwickline at 7:28 PM on May 14, 2011