Windows 7 File Sharing nightmare

[koldchillah]

Maybe I've just been doing this for too long, but I'm about as frustrated as can be over the simplest file sharing issue between Windows 7 Home Premium (where the shared folder is) and Windows 7 Pro (needs to map a drive letter to the shared folder). I just don't see any reason why this shouldn't be working at this point after I've tried nearly everything and I've never had this kind of trouble sharing files before in Windows 7.

This is a small law firm with 2 attorneys. They have 3 PC's. The main desktops the attorneys use are Windows 7 Pro. The 3rd computer running their Needles software is Windows 7 Home Premium.

Simple workgroup environment. All computers belong to workgroup: WORKGROUP and can see each other fine within the workgroup, the problem is that the Windows 7 Pro computers get prompted for username/password when trying to view shares on the Windows 7 Home PC. Having matching usernames/passwords on both PC's is not helping me get past this part.

All PC's have the same local user accounts with the same passwords.

I turned OFF password-enabled sharing on the Windows 7 Home PC but still get prompted.

I heard the clocks had to be the same so I've double-checked that and all clocks are the same including time zone settings.

I added NTFS permissions for every user account on the network for full control on the folder I'm trying to share.

Share permissions are set to everyone full control. I also tried adding the individual matching user accounts that were created on the Windows 7 Home PC.

Windows 7 Network settings are set to "work" profile on all PC's. (I tried setting up the homegroup and had it working for the basic public shares but it still wouldn't allow me to access the PC via simple "\\computername" to find the correct share I need to map a drive to).

Any reason why I should be getting the username & password prompt after disabling that feature in the advanced file sharing settings on the host PC? I've turned off password enabled sharing on other Windows 7 PC's and it seems to work but not on this one. I'm stumped. Any ideas?

[mnosteele52]

Try using the Homegroup. Also, to map drives make sure you have the username and password correct. I know you probably know this but you need the username and password of the pc you are trying to connect to. I have also seen many times people change their user profile name via the control panel, if this has been changed you need to original user profile name that Windows sees. For example they buy a pc and the user profile is named Owner, they go to the control panel and change it to "Tom" their name, when you try and network this pc you don't use Tom for the username, you have to use Owner. Go to C:\Users and make sure you are using the correct username.

[RaisinCain]

"The 3rd computer running their Needles software is Windows 7 Home Premium." Really? Why not Pro? Found this and I hope it helps.

On the Home Premium workstation:

1 . Open registry editor (regedit)
2 . Browse to HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Control\Lsa
3. Create a new DWORD value with the following properties- NAME= LmCompatibilityLevel and set the value to 1
4. Restart your PC and try the connection again

[YeOldeStonecat]

Hence the reason if I ever have to unfortunately get stuck supporting a peer to peer network, I will only do it if all the OS's are "Pro" or higher. With Win7, Vista, and even back in the XP days...if you get a "Home-less" version of the OS in the mix, every now and then you'll run into this issue.

I doubt Needles support will support their software on a home version of an OS..so use that as excuse to coax the firm into ponying up 2 hundge to have you do an online upgrade to Pro.

Also enable netbios over IP in the advanced TCP settings, Needles can be finicky about ODBC and name resolution at times. Easy to setup backup routine in the database engine for doing snapshots for backup a few times a day.

[gquiring]

A security policy must be changed for blank passwords. The policy is called "Limit local account use of blank passwords to console logon only". Use GPEdit.msc to make the change.

If you don't have gpedit follow this link for help:
http://www.microsoft.com/en-us/downl...ng=en&id=25250

More info here:
http://blog.qdigi.com/2012/02/window...g-with-no.html

[koldchillah]

Solved.

Didn't need much more than a break from it and a fresh perspective. Thanks guys for the input!

I started from scratch with the shares and decided to try disabling simple file sharing on the Windows 7 Pro clients (something I always would have done with XP and I have no idea why I didn't think of it sooner) and viola!

[Philip]

Glad to see you around, and that you got it solved kc

[koldchillah]

Well I thought it was solved. ugh.. It worked great for 48hrs. Mapped the drives, installed the apps and plug-ins and he did a training sessions yesterday from the client workstation with no problems. He comes in this morning to start another training session and now he can't access the share again. Weird thing is that none of the PC's appear to have rebooted overnight nor are there any other clues that I can see in the event log. I made them do the anytime upgrade to Windows 7 Pro on the host PC and that didn't help either.

If you type \\needlesserver into explorer address bar you get prompted to "Enter Network Password" with the usual username and password pop-up. NetBIOS over TCP/IP is enabled on all PC's. I can access shares backwards from the "server" workstation to the client workstations but not the other way around.

I went through and double-checked all the user accounts to make sure the passwords were exactly the same. There are no users with blank passwords. Tried enabling/disabling windows firewall on host PC as well as making sure that file sharing was allowed through the firewall when it was on. Power settings are set to "always on" and I looked in the event logs and don't really see the usual service startups associated with a reboot. very strange. I've since rebooted all PC's but that didn't make a difference.

I don't have time to waste on a stupid file sharing issue. This is getting ridiculous. I'm starting to think something is corrupt and we may need to try a winsock fix or something. Scanning for malware now...

Hi Philip!!! How are things in Jax?

[YeOldeStonecat]

Ack...after the upgrade to "Pro" is should have worked.
Disable simple file sharing
Setup the shares on the root folder for Needles.....on the share level, full shares to all. On the security (NTFS) level...can strip down as you wish..or just leave full to all.
Same exact user/pass created on the "server" that the workstation(s) use to log in. Share to all users.
UAC disabled.
Make sure both are set to use the same network profile type (IE Work)
Advanced sharing settings for that network profile...ensure File and Print sharing are turned "On".

[koldchillah]

Ack...after the upgrade to "Pro" is should have worked.
Disable simple file sharing
Setup the shares on the root folder for Needles.....on the share level, full shares to all. On the security (NTFS) level...can strip down as you wish..or just leave full to all.
Same exact user/pass created on the "server" that the workstation(s) use to log in. Share to all users.
UAC disabled.
Make sure both are set to use the same network profile type (IE Work)
Advanced sharing settings for that network profile...ensure File and Print sharing are turned "On".

No malware.. sfc /scannow says all files ok.

UAC was disabled before I installed Needles.

I've narrowed it down to only 1 workstation with a problem. I have all 3 PC's open with a separate teamviewer window and went through every network setting and advanced share setting and they are all identical down to the usernames and passwords but yet I still have 1 workstation that is giving me trouble.

I tried putting them back to "home" network and they are all joined to the same homegroup but the problem PC took almost an hour before it even showed up in the homegroup list. I was able to get it working on this problem PC once after accessing the needles share from the other workstation, suddenly the problem PC was able to access it as well but then after a reboot it was back to the same problem.

I've recreated the share so many times now.. c:\needles share permissions - everyone full control.. NTFS permissions - everyone - full control as well as all user accounts full control. works fine from 1 workstation but not the other.

This attorney who uses the problem PC has just given me permission to wipe it and reinstall the OS from scratch because he says this isnt' the first time he's had this computer doing weird things.. I still would like to solve this without doing that, but I'm 6+ hours in on a stupid share issue so I'm almost willing to try anything at this point.

maybe twitchy NIC?

[Philip]

I'd also look into which machine is the "master browser" for the workgroup --> http://www.speedguide.net/faq_in_q.p...ory=90&qid=289

[Shinobi]

Hey Hi


Check all workstations. On the NIC card settings, see if "auto negotiate" is set the same on all 3 workstations, if they are not..
If not set them, and then reboot each workstation.

If all 3 are set with auto negotiation, then..
Then set all 3 workstation nic cards to "10MB Half duplex" and reboot each one. Just try it, and report back your findings.