Network 2 Windows 7 computers

I recently acquired another laptop with windows 7 and I am trying to network it with my existing windows 7 laptop. In all honesty I do not like using the new "Homegroup" that 7 has. All I want is to network it regurlary like i did on my XP machines. If I open the Network window (from the desktop) I do see both computers (from both computers also), but from computer 2 (the new one) I can double click the other computer and see the shares on that computer, but if I try to open a shared folder, I get the error "Windows cannot access //Joe-Laptop/c... You do not have permission to access...". But vice-versa, if I double click on my new computer (from the old one) from within the network window, I get a dialog to enter the network password for that computer. I enter a user name that is on that computer (and no password because that user has no password associated with it) but it says access denied.

I do not know if this is required, but I did create the same users on both computers (although currently I am logged in as different users on each computer)

How do i get simple network sharing working?

the password protected sharing was off on my old pc but on on the new one. I turned it off, and now I can see the shares from both pc's but I still CANNOT access them. I am getthing the message "Windows cannot acccess //computername/sharename. You do not have permission to access //computername/sharename. Contact your network administartor to request access". What now?

Try a couple of things. Add a password to each networked computer, also make sure each computer is in the same workgroup. This is in addition to turning on file sharing, network discovery etc.

ok copy and past this in to the address bar of any folder: Control Panel\Network and Internet\HomeGroup then chose advance sharing settings, scroll down till you see password protected sharing select allow users accounts and passwords to connect to other computers and then select turn off pasword protective sharing and see if that works!

also trun off public sharing folder in the settings to.

and also network descorvery.

Both are in the same workgroup. I added a password to the user on computer 2 but not yet on computer 1 and now everything seems to be working. I can access shares from both computers on both computers. Although it is working now, is there any way to make it work WITHOUT having to have a passowrd associated with the user(s)?

Go to Network and Sharing Center and from left sidebar, click Change advance Sharing Settings. It will take you to Advanced Sharing settings, now scroll-down to find Password protected sharing section, enable Turn Off password protected sharing option and click Save Changes. Now on opening your public folder from other end would not prompt that user for any account credentials.

Try placing a file you want to share in the Public folder on one computer with this method and check if its sharable without a password.

Turn Off password protected sharing option was selected on both computers when i was still having the problem (prior to adding the password to the user account). BTW I am not just trying to share the public folder but rather several different folders inside C: drive. And, I would rather not have to place those shared files in the public folder to make them available.