Windows 7: Windows 7 Networking Sucks!

There are 2 PC's in my house (soon to be 3), and they are running Windows 7 RC. I have a couple of drives that are dedicated to media (TV shows & Movies). When we both had XP Pro installed, all I had to do was right-click on the drive, go to Properties, Sharing and share the ENTIRE drive and it worked with no problems.



Now the problem I'm having is that when I try to share my media drive, I go through the same steps. The other Windows 7 computer can see the drive, he can go into it and see the folders inside that drive, but cannot access the other folders.

I also tried sharing the individual folders that are in the drive with the Homegroup and the same thing happens. He can see the folders just fine, but when he tries to view the contents of the folders it doesn't let him. Keeps telling him he doesn't have permission.

Here I thought Windows 7 improved their home networking, but it's really just became a big pain in the ass.

Can someone help? I just want to be able to share the entire contents of the drive with the other computer.

Thanks

*** UPDATE WITH FIX ***

I figured out what the issue was and it all had to deal with Windows Security. For anyone else that is interested in this fix, here is what I did.

Start>Control Panel>Administrative Tools>Local Security Policy

Then:

Local Policies>Security Options>Network Security: LAN Manager authentication level
Set it to Send LM & NTLM - use NTLMv2 session security if negotiated

I went back to share the entire drive this time with no problems, and was able to map the network drives on the other computer.

Try it with your AV program off, if you use Homegroup and have done the password try the built in troubleshooter.
Ensure that you have set your sharing criteria correct for both computers ie. discovery and password requirements.

David

What "other folders", and where is it exactly?

The Media drive has 2 folders inside of it

1. TV Shows
2. Movies

Inside each of these folders are other folders containing individual media. I just want to be able to grand FULL access to the drive without having to set folder specific permissions.

Is that so much to ask for? When I went into Computer Management>Shared Folders>Shares you can setup a New Share. From there I chose the Media drive, which it even warned me telling me that it's not safe to share an entire drive and asked if I was sure. I clicked yes and it setup the share. But once again the other computer can see the drive, I can go into it and see the TV Shows and Movies folders, but when I try to access those folders it tells me that the computer doesn't have permission.

When you share that folder using the sharing wizard (which u did), did u choose "Customize permissions" where u click on the Custom button, give the Everyone group Full control, and in the Security tab, the account that is listed (you can add which ever account you want to use as credentials) make sure you are accessing your share with one of those account.

Good advice AEM. +1

What has to be realized here is that - Windows 7 networking is exactly the same as its predecessors! Nothing different at all. Precisely the same.

Only difference is the addition of Homegroup but we can effectively forget about that since you aren't trying to use it. So in reality in this situation, nothing different at all.

Why not use a homegroup, since you don't have other OSs to worry about?

I added the folders to the homegroup to share as well, and got the same error message.

In XP, you could just right-click the drive, click share and anyone on your network would access it. Why can't it be that easy anymore?

I figured out what the issue was and it all had to deal with Windows Security. For anyone else that is interested in this fix, here is what I did.

Start>Control Panel>Administrative Tools>Local Security Policy

Then:

Local Policies>Security Options>Network Security: LAN Manager authentication level
Set it to Send LM & NTLM - use NTLMv2 session security if negotiated

I went back to share the entire drive this time with no problems, and was able to map the network drives on the other computer.

Hey,

Thanks for that tip good to know.