Windows 7 Networking Sucks!

[SouthSeaPirate]

Sorry about that. I can see how that gets a bit confusing. I was just saying at this moment Im on a domain (at work).

My post is entirely about my home network. Its actually quite like yours.

Our network shares are woking perfectly from my station here at work. Im only 1 of 2 with Win7. Only issue I had was getting it to take to the domain. My home network is the hell. My guess is its any share coming from Win7, not to...

 

[NNSVolunteer]

It's now July 24, 2010, and windows 7 networking has been SUCKING my time for the last month.

For Christmas I got my wife a new win 7 laptop. Don't recall having any problems integrating it into my small home network of 1 vista and 3 xp machines one of which is also a laptop. Things were running along nicely. We took the laptop on trips. Connected in motels, got home and connected to our network. Shared printers and files. All machines were running McAfee security suite, courtesy of our DSL provider.

Then sometime in early July. Wife said it wouldn't print. No known changes had been made to the network. Tried numerous suggestions on several posts. The one on this no longer applies because the location for the changes suggested do not exist in Windows 7 v6.1(build 7600).

Of the many things I tried, was restoring the system back to June 12, 2010--VOILA! It worked as it had for the first six months. OOPS! Then a couple of updates from Billy Gates and McAfee and it stopped working again. So, restored back to 6/12 then disabled McAfee and manually downloaded the windows critical updates. Networking again worked. Enabled McAfee and networking still worked. Set a new restore point.
Couple days later not working. Went back to restore point that was working and still not working. All the while the non-7 machines are happily playing together. So, yesterday I completely uninstalled McAfee including manual removal of any reference to McAfee in the registry. WINDOWS 7 is STILL SUCKING. Well today I swapped out routers from netgear to a linksys. Everything came up, the non-7 machines are playing together-- the win7 machine surfs the net just fine but doesn't see the win XP's or Vista and they don't see the win7. So, my wife cannot print from her win7 machine. REALLY SUCKS!! Oh! also completely took down the windows firewall. The 7 machine is still hiding.

I GIVE UP!!!! As it is again late tonite, tomorrow I will re-install McAfee, restore the system back to the last point it worked and wait for whichever outfit screwed up my machine with UPDATES to figure out the problem and fix it with another update. If he wife wants to print she'll have to go to any of the other computers.

 

[Petey7]

Don't reinstall McAfee!! Did you use the download from the McAfee website to remove the files and registry entries that are usually left over? After you remove McAfee completely, Windows Firewall needs to be enabled. You will then need to set up a workgroup all over again. You may need to restart some or all of the computers. You did make sure you have a workgroup set up and not a homegroup right? If you have a homegroup set up, you will get no communications between XP and 7/vista. If you have McAfee installed, it will not work, ever. I just fixed this same problem with these steps. Since your using such a pathetic AV, you should install MSE or MalwareBytes to remove any viruses that got past McAfee.

EDIT: Yes, all my problems were caused by McAfee and McAfee alone. We had a perfectly working net work until my mom got a new laptop with McAfee preinstalled.

 

[profdlp]

...all my problems were caused by McAfee and McAfee alone. We had a perfectly working net work until my mom got a new laptop with McAfee preinstalled.

Agreed.

I think even Satan could learn a thing or two about dirty tricks from McAfee... :devil:

 

[Petey7]

http://www.sevenforums.com/network-sharing/98768-work-group-problem.html

^thread where i had to get help to determine what the problem was. It was McAfee, plain and simple. After getting rid of it and rebuilding the workgroup, things started working again. I'm not even sure I had to redo the workgroup. I just did it as a precaution to make sure everything would work. I can't remember if we still had problems without doing it or not. I've worked on a lot of stuff sense so it is hard to remember.

 

[NNSVolunteer]

It still puzzles me why Windows 7 quite playing nicely after six months. ALL MACHINES during the six months they worked together had McAffee.

Yes, I have used the McAfee download removal tool which does not remove ALL references to McAfee in the registry. After making a copy of the registry, I manually deleted about seven or so references to McAfee in the registry.

Yes! have been using a workgroup for the past 10 years. Have home group disabled in Win 7. If it were soley the problem of McAfee why is it only the windows 7 machine that quit playing with the others?

 

[Petey7]

I don't fully understand it but if you read the thread I linked to, you can see what the main cause is and the one of the respondents knows the answer better than I do. All I can tell you is that McAfees new firewall kills workgroups between XP and 7/Vista. I had the exact same problem you describe. The two 7 computers could see each other but not the XP machine. The XP computer could see both 7 pcs. I removed MsAfee, then made sure all computers had the same name for the workgroup. I think I rebooted all three. Problem solved. Keep in mind the last two steps might not have been necessary, I just did them to make sure everything would continue working fine.

 

[profdlp]

It still puzzles me why Windows 7 quite playing nicely after six months. ALL MACHINES during the six months they worked together had McAffee...

One of the inherent dangers of any anti-virus program is that they need to be updated on pretty much a daily basis. We all know what happens to computers with out of date definitions, etc.

This in effect means that we are all beta testers on a daily basis. It's no use for a company to wait days, weeks, or even months to release a solid and tested update because we'd all already be infected by then. Chances are, one of their recent updates broke something on your machine.

The reason I dislike McAfee so much is that they seem to do it far more often than most. (That, and the fact that you can have a computer with enough resources to run your programs, or you can have a computer with enough resources to run McAfee. Doing both is tough.)

...If it were soley the problem of McAfee why is it only the windows 7 machine that quit playing with the others?

Win 7 handles a large number of things quite differently than other operating systems. Most likely, one of the improvements that makes Win 7 so good (in my opinion, anyway) was also what McAfee managed to screw up.

 

[NNSVolunteer]

To clarify. Since the problem started in early July, the other machines neither see the win 7 machine nor does win 7 see any of the others.

SOOO! To continue the saga. I now only have the XP print server and the win 7 machines attached to the router. Win xp is hardwired. Win 7 is wireless.

I uninstalled McAffe from XP, rebooted--still not networking with 7; downloaded and ran the uninstall cleanup tool from McAfee, rebooted--still not networking with 7; did regedit found and removed all instances of McAfee still in the registry, rebooted--still not networking with 7.

Changed the workgroup name to LINKSYSA on the XP machine and rebooted, changed the workgroup name on the Win 7 to LINKSYSA and rebooted--still not networking with 7.

Also, have disabled windows firewall on win 7 machine for the network -- not the internet.
Checked windows firewall on XP and it lists the local network as excluded. Oh! forgot to mention that during the 6 months everything was working, even the XP machine that dual boots to UBUNTU would play on the network nicely.

Just rechecked and XP can't see win 7. It's been at least 10 minutes since I rebooted the win 7.
So, went to the basement and unplugged the router, waited for a minute and plugged it back in. My XP see' only itself and win 7 see's only itself. SO! McAfee is completely out of the picture on these two machines, and they are the only ones connected to the router and WINDOWS 7 is still SUCKING my time!!!

 

[Petey7]

You have something set up wrong then. I have had no other issues with networking between the two OSs, nor do I personally know anyone that does. I'll agree that your problem sounds odd, but I can assure you using McAfee will keep you from realizing when you have found an actually solution. You might want to use the search function here and do a google search to see if anyone else has your issue and has resolved it. I don't know what else might have changed, but I have seen few others blame windows 7 for this kind of problem.

 

[profdlp]

...Win xp is hardwired. Win 7 is wireless...

Since the only computer not working right with the Network is the wireless one perhaps this is a problem with your wireless settings. Did the wireless adapter come with its own setup/config program?

 

[NNSVolunteer]

That would be possible except the wireless win 7 gets on the internet. And last night I had the wireless XP laptop on and it played with the network just fine.

I guess another frustration is the apparent difference in windows 7 versions. My windows 7 doesn't have the same options that fixed someone's in May on this thread.

This fix from an earlier post does not work because my Win 7 doesn't have a "Local Security Policy" option.

*** 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'll google from time to time and post if I ever find a solution.

 

[profdlp]

It gets interesting with Post #4:

http://www.sevenforums.com/network-sharing/95149-need-change-local-security-policy-win7-starter.html

 

[NNSVolunteer]

Read the thread and although I haven't mucked around the registry in windows 7 yet, I have managed to fix an early problem with Vista not requesting an IP with additions or changes to the registry.

BUT!! The pentultimate sentence of this referred post indicates it only partially solved the problem.

Talk about half baked OS's--My Home Premium doesn't have all the BASIC fuctionality of more pricey versions. I have to muck around in the registry. But first I need to be sure of where my Toshiba OEM restore disk is or make one lest I really muck things up. Tell me again how windows 7 is not SUCKING my time.

 

[profdlp]

Tell me again how windows 7 is not SUCKING my time.

You are right, it is sucking your time. Funny how you don't seem to take any notice of the time that others have spent in trying to help you.

Read some of the other threads here and pay attention to the tone of the people who come here asking for help. Did it ever occur to you that your attitude may be turning a lot of people off? People who might otherwise be willing to help you?

Did you ever wonder why you, and a handful of other like you, poor unfortunate soul that you are, were singled out among the over 175,000,000 people who have purchased Windows 7 to have to endure such deprivations?

Did you ever stop to think that if you put as much effort into describing your problem and trying to fix it as you do into griping that you might be closer to a solution?

Good luck with your problem.

 

[NNSVolunteer]

I do appreciate the efforts of the Windows 7 forums to assist me and others. Before I retired I supervised a computer staff that provided assistance to our offices in a 4 state area. So, I have an intimate knowledge of the efforts individuals put forth to assist. The time that windows 7 doesn't suck up, I spend volunteering to a local charitable thrift store. I rebuild/rehab donated computers for their resale. A task I might add, that would be impossible without the internet, and helpful posts from the user community. My frustration is just kinda boiling to the top after spending about 3 hours a night for the past month trying to get win 7 to play nicely.

P.S. Found my oem restore CD's so will probably muck around the win 7 registry.

Will post any succesful results.

 

[NNSVolunteer]

WORKAROUND SUCCESSFUL!!

To recap, my network consists of 3 xp machines hard wired, 1 xp wireless and 1 win 7 wireless attached to a netgear router. Am using WEP wireless security with a 26 digit hex code. From Christmas '09 'til about the middle of June this setup acted as a normal network. One of the XP machines I use as a print server for a Samsung Laser printer, another is a print server for an Epson color printer and the other wired xp is my has a large USB external drive connected--that I back up all pcs to using xcopy and/or robocopy.

During the above period I was able to do normal sharing and mapping of all the computers files and resources. Each computer could see all the others in windows explorer.

Then, with no changes to the network on my part, windows 7 went stealth and blind. The XP machines could not see it and it could not see the XP machines. I been googleing and trying various suggestions but nothing seemed to work. I disconnected all but one XP and the Win 7 machine from the network. Swapped routers, changed network names. Added IPv6 protocol to xp adapters. Removed all vestiges of security suites on these 2 computers and took down their windows firewalls. Still, they couldn't see each other.

Each was able to ping the others Ip address. Something may have clicked from one of the numerous posts I've viewed over the last month so here is the workaround.

*********************WORKAROUND!!

On win 7 machine I mapped the IP address plus folder to a drive letter e.g. \\192.168.1.10\c\mine and sure enough I was able to access that folder on the XP machine. Did the same for the XP machine mapped \\192.168.1.11\users\public and it also worked. Now for the printer, after trying various things I found that going to the Win 7 Devices & Printers>add network printer "Click on Printer Not Shown" in shared printer by name enter the ip address of your XP printserver. Mine is \\192.168.1.10\SamsungM and sure enough it connects and is printing. To further test, I did the same for the IP address of the XP machine that has the epson. It works tonight. CAUTION!! One thing working for me in this workaround is the ability of my router to reserve and IP address for a particular computer name & mac address.

The XP with the laser and the win 7 laptop are shut down each evening. Will only post again if it doesn't work tomorrow, or if win 7 suddenly works with the network in a NORMAL manner.

 

[SouthSeaPirate]

That would be possible except the wireless win 7 gets on the internet. And last night I had the wireless XP laptop on and it played with the network just fine.

I guess another frustration is the apparent difference in windows 7 versions. My windows 7 doesn't have the same options that fixed someone's in May on this thread.

This fix from an earlier post does not work because my Win 7 doesn't have a "Local Security Policy" option.

*** 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'll google from time to time and post if I ever find a solution.

This is what got everything to stop going crazy for my network aswell.

Still never got it around the password and username issue. So I just created the same username and password on all PC's and then set them to all 'auto logon'.

It still sucks though LOL. And that homegroup crap! AGH!

 

[NNSVolunteer]

WORKAROUND SUCCESSFUL!!

To recap, my network consists of 3 xp machines hard wired, 1 xp wireless and 1 win 7 wireless attached to a netgear router. Am using WEP wireless security with a 26 digit hex code. From Christmas '09 'til about the middle of June this setup acted as a normal network. One of the XP machines I use as a print server for a Samsung Laser printer, another is a print server for an Epson color printer and the other wired xp is my has a large USB external drive connected--that I back up all pcs to using xcopy and/or robocopy.

During the above period I was able to do normal sharing and mapping of all the computers files and resources. Each computer could see all the others in windows explorer.

Then, with no changes to the network on my part, windows 7 went stealth and blind. The XP machines could not see it and it could not see the XP machines. I been googleing and trying various suggestions but nothing seemed to work. I disconnected all but one XP and the Win 7 machine from the network. Swapped routers, changed network names. Added IPv6 protocol to xp adapters. Removed all vestiges of security suites on these 2 computers and took down their windows firewalls. Still, they couldn't see each other.

Each was able to ping the others Ip address. Something may have clicked from one of the numerous posts I've viewed over the last month so here is the workaround.

*********************WORKAROUND!!

On win 7 machine I mapped the IP address plus folder to a drive letter e.g. \\192.168.1.10\c\mine and sure enough I was able to access that folder on the XP machine. Did the same for the XP machine mapped \\192.168.1.11\users\public and it also worked. Now for the printer, after trying various things I found that going to the Win 7 Devices & Printers>add network printer "Click on Printer Not Shown" in shared printer by name enter the ip address of your XP printserver. Mine is \\192.168.1.10\SamsungM and sure enough it connects and is printing. To further test, I did the same for the IP address of the XP machine that has the epson. It works tonight. CAUTION!! One thing working for me in this workaround is the ability of my router to reserve and IP address for a particular computer name & mac address.

The XP with the laser and the win 7 laptop are shut down each evening. Will only post again if it doesn't work tomorrow, or if win 7 suddenly works with the network in a NORMAL manner.

This workaround is still working

 

[DHag]

Used to be simple...

I've worked with Windows networking since 1995 when I started as a Senior Support Engineer for Windows 95, Network Specialist. I've architected and worked with networks ranging from simple peer-to-peer systems to Enterprise domains. So I know Windows networking. Yes, it's true, Windows networking itself has not changed. But Microsoft has gone paranoid with security stuff that makes it suck.

For sharing and storing files, and running machine-to-machine backups, on my home network, it used to be simple. I would simply map a drive to the other machine's hidden Administrative Share (C$, D$, etc.), using the network machine's Administrator account, and everything just worked.

No more. I cannot connect to a Windows 7 machine's admin shares using the Admin account. Not with basic workgroup sharing. Not with the HomeGroup active. It just won't connect. It just asks for the password over and over and over and....

How can it be a security risk to connect to the Admin share using the Admin account?

I'm about to try the Security Policy settings suggested earlier in this thread. Just wanted to chime in with my complaint about Microsoft's making simple stuff hard with all their "Cover My A**" security crap.