Win7 can't access Vista Biz on Workgroup

Here's what I found:

Reenabling the firewalls and scanners made no difference.
I'm getting strange behavior when I change Sharing and Security on folders. For instance, I removed sharing from the Vista\Users hierarchy, yet it still showed (but was unavailable) on Win7. I then went in and removed Everyone from the Security tab list, and Closed the Properties sheet. But when I went back in, Sharing was enabled again.
I've now discovered that there is a difference between Sharing Permissions and Security Permissions. I had no idea. When I assign sharing permissions in Vista to Win7, my access problem disappeared. When I took Everyone off sharing permissions on Vista\Users, that folder disappeared from Win7, as I wished.

I don't have a handle on this enough yet, to understand what the problem was previous to this experiment. I need to work with it some more, to understand what is going on.

I will get back as I reach conclusions. Thanks again for the guidance thus far!

p.

I've got to say, this is working well. This morning, I found my share folder no longer allowed modify permissions across the LAN. Failure of settings to stick has been an ongoing problem. But as soon as I re-granted those share permissions, the problem cleared up. At this point it looks like I needed a lesson on the difference between Share permissions and NTFS file permissions. Now I'm being tempted to retry using Linux as a server along with Win7 clients.

Once again, many thanks!

I've got to say, again, that this is screwed. I'm getting extremely uneven results across the network. I had Win7 set not to require passwords, yet one box, an XPh laptop, had to sign in before it could access the shares. I cloned the XP account on Win7: no difference.

I did the same with the Vista account, then set a share to Authenticated. Vista can't access the share. The only thing that seems to work is EVERYONE, period, and even then, I might have to log in from some boxes, on certain days.

This situation is out of control. I understand these things must have a certain degree of complexity, but MS has created a byzantine nightmare. Apparently the only way to get reliable, to say nothing of nuanced, performance is via Pro, with domains.

No, Vista is Business, which I guess is the equivalent of Pro. It supports domains.

After I opened everything up to Everyone, I've been using sharing all day here. But then I just expanded the network on the Win7 box, and nothing but the router showed - not even the Win7 box itself. Close/open Explorer: no difference. But on the Vista box, I could access the Win7 share. How on earth can anyone rely on a system like that? The whole thing is so unstable that it is hopeless. MS intentionally dumbed it down, looking for that almighty dollar.

I also played with TrueCrypt to try to get selective access, but it doesn't do it either. Ironically, I can get this pretty easily by uploading to the cloud rather than sharing on the LAN, but that's equally ridiculous.

I haven't tried mapping during this latest go-round, except with TrueCrypt, where it worked. The Win7 box decided to show the Vista machine just now, for no reason at all. Still doesn't show itself or the XP box that's on the LAN. I'm afraid this is hopeless. Probably a reboot will refresh things, but this is nothing I can count on. Really makes me want to switch to Linux.

Yes, all boxes are fully up to date.

Thanks for all you help. Be well and be blessed.

Paul

The pings went well, but again, by then I could see Vista in the Win7 Explorer. It would be an interesting test for when Vista drops out of Explorer.

All adapter drivers are up to date, as are the Windows installations.

I'm currently testing an external drive, so I can't reboot yet, but I suspect doing so will return the full network to the Win7 box. At that time I'll try mapping, but I don't hold out much hope for anything but an amateur level of file sharing from Home Premium.

Thanks again.