LAN file sharing between 2 specific computers on home WiFi network


  1. Posts : 3
    Windows 7 Ultimate 64bit
       #1

    LAN file sharing between 2 specific computers on home WiFi network


    Hello everyone!

    I don't usually go the "beg for help on an unknown forum" route but I'm clearly out of my depth on this issue and hours of furious Googling and tweaking have not helped me one bit.

    What I'm trying to do is trying to setup file sharing between 2 computers connected by an ethernet cable.
    So far so good, except those 2 computers are ALSO part of a Wifi network to connect to the internet through a wireless router. There are other computers on this network (other roommates) that must NOT have access to anything shared on either on those 2 computers.

    I've tried fiddling with homegroups but the only homegroups we can create are on the WiFi network. If I set the LAN connection to anything else but public by setting PC2 as a default gateway, I can't get access to the internet anymore.

    How on earth can I set that up properly, if that's even possible?

    EDIT: my brain is so close to imploding that I forgot basic curtesy-

    Of course, thank you in advance for your help.
    Last edited by aljady; 20 Feb 2013 at 17:24. Reason: being an airhead
      My Computer


  2. Posts : 8,870
    Windows 7 Ult, Windows 8.1 Pro,
       #2

    aljady said:
    Hello everyone!

    I don't usually go the "beg for help on an unknown forum" route but I'm clearly out of my depth on this issue and hours of furious Googling and tweaking have not helped me one bit.

    What I'm trying to do is trying to setup file sharing between 2 computers connected by an ethernet cable.
    So far so good, except those 2 computers are ALSO part of a Wifi network to connect to the internet through a wireless router. There are other computers on this network (other roommates) that must NOT have access to anything shared on either on those 2 computers.

    I've tried fiddling with homegroups but the only homegroups we can create are on the WiFi network. If I set the LAN connection to anything else but public by setting PC2 as a default gateway, I can't get access to the internet anymore.

    How on earth can I set that up properly, if that's even possible?

    EDIT: my brain is so close to imploding that I forgot basic curtesy-

    Of course, thank you in advance for your help.
    Sounds to me like you are using ICS to create a secondary wired connection for the second machine.

    You need to use the LAN ports on the router or a switch rather than sharing a connection using ICS "internet connection sharing". Homegroups won't work with ICS.

    Once you are connected to the router with a regular LAN connection with both machines, you should have no problems setting up a Homegroup between those two machines.

    Once the Homegroup is set up it will lock the other machines out of your shared C:>Users folders on both of the Homegroup machines. You will be able to share exclusively between those two machines while the other wireless machines will have no access unless you give it to them by adding Everyone to the shared with list.
    Last edited by chev65; 21 Feb 2013 at 13:22.
      My Computer


  3. Posts : 3
    Windows 7 Ultimate 64bit
    Thread Starter
       #3

    Thanks for your answer.

    I think I explained the problem wrong though. So I made a crappy diagram to explain the context and what we're trying to do:

    The 2 PCs on the left are the ones we're trying to share files through, and the other ones are the roommate's PCs that we don't want to share anything with. The router is in a different room and can't be connected to with a cable (to everyone's everlasting sorrow).

    In the meantime we're managing with a common workgroup and user account permissions for specific folders (which given the transfer speeds do seem to go through the LAN connection), but I was wondering if there's a more simple solution - i.e. a homegroup on the LAN network (which windows won't let us do because the LAN connection is set as a public network).
      My Computer


  4. Posts : 8,870
    Windows 7 Ult, Windows 8.1 Pro,
       #4

    aljady said:
    Thanks for your answer.

    I think I explained the problem wrong though. So I made a crappy diagram to explain the context and what we're trying to do:

    The 2 PCs on the left are the ones we're trying to share files through, and the other ones are the roommate's PCs that we don't want to share anything with. The router is in a different room and can't be connected to with a cable (to everyone's everlasting sorrow).

    In the meantime we're managing with a common workgroup and user account permissions for specific folders (which given the transfer speeds do seem to go through the LAN connection), but I was wondering if there's a more simple solution - i.e. a homegroup on the LAN network (which windows won't let us do because the LAN connection is set as a public network).
    Correct, you would need to change to a Home or Work network in order to set up a Homegroup. If you can't change the setting it usually means that your router isn't secured properly, you should be using WPA2 with AES encryption for the wireless connections. So if the router isn't secured properly Windows won't allow you to change from private to a Work or Home network.

    You shouldn't need that cable between those machines in order to share files, as long as all machines are in the same workgroup using the same default gateway you should be able to share. I believe the cable is to work around the lack of security settings in the wireless network which forces you to use a private network with limited sharing.

    Once you change to a Home network you will have no problem setting up a Homegroup between those machines. With a Homegroup set up those two machines will have exclusive access to all shared folders and files on the two Homegroup machines. The other machines will be locked out of the Homegroup.

    This assumes you haven't changed the NTFS security permissions. You only need to enable sharing through the Sharing tab for Homegroup sharing to work.
      My Computer


  5. Posts : 3
    Windows 7 Ultimate 64bit
    Thread Starter
       #5

    chev65 said:
    Correct, you would need to change to a Home or Work network in order to set up a Homegroup. If you can't change the setting it usually means that your router isn't secured properly, you should be using WPA2 with AES encryption for the wireless connections.

    You shouldn't need that cable between those machines in order to share files, as long as all machines are in the same workgroup using the same default gateway you should be able to share.

    Once you change to a Home network you will have no problem setting up a Homegroup between those machines. With a Homegroup set up those two machines will have exclusive access to each other's folders and files. This assumes you haven't changed the NTFS security permissions. You only need to enable sharing through the Sharing tab for Homegroup sharing to work.
    The WiFi connection used to access the internet is already set up properly, and appears as a home network, and can have homegroups created on it.
    What I want is to ALSO have the LAN connection set as a home network and homegroup-worthy to benefit from the higher transfer speed and have a simpler system than managing user permissions "by hand".
    Is there any way to make windows understand that: the internet goes through the wifi, the file sharing goes through the ethernet cable.
      My Computer


  6. Posts : 8,870
    Windows 7 Ult, Windows 8.1 Pro,
       #6

    aljady said:
    chev65 said:
    Correct, you would need to change to a Home or Work network in order to set up a Homegroup. If you can't change the setting it usually means that your router isn't secured properly, you should be using WPA2 with AES encryption for the wireless connections.

    You shouldn't need that cable between those machines in order to share files, as long as all machines are in the same workgroup using the same default gateway you should be able to share.

    Once you change to a Home network you will have no problem setting up a Homegroup between those machines. With a Homegroup set up those two machines will have exclusive access to each other's folders and files. This assumes you haven't changed the NTFS security permissions. You only need to enable sharing through the Sharing tab for Homegroup sharing to work.
    The WiFi connection used to access the internet is already set up properly, and appears as a home network, and can have homegroups created on it.
    What I want is to ALSO have the LAN connection set as a home network and homegroup-worthy to benefit from the higher transfer speed and have a simpler system than managing user permissions "by hand".
    Is there any way to make windows understand that: the internet goes through the wifi, the file sharing goes through the ethernet cable.


    Windows networking does not see a difference between wired and wireless connections so setting one up as Public and the other as a Home network won't work for you unless you set up a new network on a completely different subnet. This is not practical in your situation.

    You can easily gain exclusive access to the other Homegroup machine, just set up a Homegroup and you will have what you want.
      My Computer


 

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