Windows 7: network sharing problems with windows vista

i am trying to configure network sharing for my home network. i have a 3 total computers:

• a laptop with windows vista installed (c1)
• desktop with windows xp 64-bit (c2)
• laptop with windows 7 (c3)

i was able to network share between the windows 7 laptop (c3) and c2. both comps see each other and i was able to access files and share a printer to c3. however, the problem now is between c1 and c2. the desktop computer is able to see c1. however, c1 does not see the desktop. when i try to access the laptops files through c2, it says that i do not have permission to access them, even if i have administrator rights. one thing to keep in mind is that c1 and c3 are able to see each other. however, i do not see the same content on c3 through the c1 as i do through the desktop.



c1 has some antivirus installed onto it but when i turn it off (exiting the program), there were no improvements. any suggestions would be immensely appreciated!

Big Red Hi and welcome

You did not specify if you were using "homegroup" or workgroup" to network these computers. Typically homegroup is for windows 7 only machines and uses a newer version of IP. Workgroup is more designed for mixed environments.

If you are using homegroup on some networks it has sharing, and connectivity issues.

You can test this rather simply by setting up a new network connection using the workgroup model. If this new connection solves the problem then you can disable IPv6 and kill homegroup


Let us know if you require more assistance

Jan

what if i look under the properties of the windows 7 comp? i believe i used homegroup to set up the network, but when i look in the properties of the comp, the name of the homegroup still appears as a workgroup. ive attached an image file to show you what i am referring to. also i have used the same workgroup/homegroup name for all pc's.

Hello BigRed,

You would be far better served setting up a workgroup for this type of mixed network. What you are seeing in the picture you posted is that the name of your Workgroup is "Home".

You will need to make sure that all of your machines are using the same name for the Workgroup. It can be "Home" or better yet use the name "Workgroup" for the Workgroup instead.

You should leave the Homegroup and set up a workgroup instead.

Homegroup - Leave

Although it is possible to set up a Homegroup in a mixed Op system network it would be much easier to set up a Workgroup in your case. This is especially true because you only have one Windows 7 machine in your network which means that your single Windows 7 machine would not have another machine to share libraries with. For this reason there is absolutely no reason to set up a Homegroup.

As for the A/V problem, sometimes uninstalling the A/V completely is the best to fix those types of problems.

Have a look at Microsofts help page on this subject.
Networking home computers running different versions of Windows

i have tried to do both suggestions. i have removed the homegroup that was made on the windows 7 machine. i have also uninstalled the a/v software on the vista machine. however, i still remain with the same problem. the only improvement made is that the windows 7 and windows vista machines now see each other and are able to access each others files. however, the main problem still remains with the windows vista laptop and the windows xp desktop. they both see each other, but i am not able to access either one through the other. i have provided attachments to show you the error message that i receive. i also noticed that the vista machine uses windows firewall with advanced security. are there any settings that need to be adjusted with this? am i better off just downgrading to regular windows firewall? if so, how is this done? again, any help would be greatly appreciated!

in addition, i also found some information regarding a/v with vista through this windows help manual:

Networking home computers running different versions of Windows

i tried opening the ports listed for sharing devices and file and printer sharing within the windows firewall with advanced security, but this did not make any improvements.

I had a workgroup problem at one time so I renamed the workgroup to a new name
" worklinksys " on all the computers & then rebooted all of them & it worked.

" Home " is almost to common of a workgroup name.

In order to access the files on those machines you must also use the permission settings and actually share some files. You are reading much into this problem than there really is.

Pay close attention to the part about adding "Everyone" to the permissions list. You should always make sure that you can share files before installing any type of A/V software. I would also make sure that all machines are using the same name for the Workgroup.

It's best to use the Windows 7 default workgroup name "Workgroup" on all machines in the workgroup.

Sharing and Permissions

i have shared one folder on the vista machine. i was able to access the file through windows 7, but the xp machine still denies access. i have tried to change the name of the workgroup several times and i even tried using "workgroup". either case, the same error message appears on both the vista machine and the xp machine. also, i am more concerned with using this to share a printer that is connected to the xp machine with the windows vista machine.