Linksys e3000 "Enter Network Password"

Sorry if this has been answered, but I can't seem to find a thread that applies to this situation:

Just installed new router, linksys e3000. I'm on a Win7 box, wired, and connecting fine to the internet, and the Tivo and my ipod touch are connecting fine wirelessly. so far so good.

I can see the router via 192.168.1.1 from my BROWSER and adjust settings etc, all as normal, and as with old routers I've had.... again, so far so good.

The new router has a USB port, so I thought I'd see how that worked. Plugged in a USB HD to the port. The router recognizes it in its router admin setup pages under 192.168.1.1. So far so good.

Here's the problem. On the Win7 box, I go to "Network" and I see two things under "Computers". I see "WIN7PC" (my windows box) and I see "BOBNET" (the name I gave the router during setup). Clicking on WIN7PC I see my shared folders, as usual. Clicking on BOBNET, I get the prompt "Enter Network Password: Enter your password to connect to BOBNET (user box)(password box) domain WIN7PC "

I've entered every combination of user and password I can think of, nothing lets me in.

- I have NO password associated with my Win7 user name "Bob".
- I tried "admin" and the router password, as if I was logging into the router via the browser. No joy.
- I'm not part of a "Homegroup" as this is the only Win7 box. My shared folders are seen by my wife's Macs, no password required.
- I tried removing the credentials, no joy.

Not sure if this is new with this router, as I never tried to get at it this way before, via "Network", not having the USB drive on the router before.

Feeling a bit stupid here, can anyone help?

Bob (via BOBNET)

rgdaniel said:

Sorry if this has been answered, but I can't seem to find a thread that applies to this situation:

Just installed new router, linksys e3000. I'm on a Win7 box, wired, and connecting fine to the internet, and the Tivo and my ipod touch are connecting fine wirelessly. so far so good.

I can see the router via 192.168.1.1 from my BROWSER and adjust settings etc, all as normal, and as with old routers I've had.... again, so far so good.

The new router has a USB port, so I thought I'd see how that worked. Plugged in a USB HD to the port. The router recognizes it in its router admin setup pages under 192.168.1.1. So far so good.

Here's the problem. On the Win7 box, I go to "Network" and I see two things under "Computers". I see "WIN7PC" (my windows box) and I see "BOBNET" (the name I gave the router during setup). Clicking on WIN7PC I see my shared folders, as usual. Clicking on BOBNET, I get the prompt "Enter Network Password: Enter your password to connect to BOBNET (user box)(password box) domain WIN7PC "

I've entered every combination of user and password I can think of, nothing lets me in.

- I have NO password associated with my Win7 user name "Bob".
- I tried "admin" and the router password, as if I was logging into the router via the browser. No joy.
- I'm not part of a "Homegroup" as this is the only Win7 box. My shared folders are seen by my wife's Macs, no password required.
- I tried removing the credentials, no joy.

Not sure if this is new with this router, as I never tried to get at it this way before, via "Network", not having the USB drive on the router before.

Feeling a bit stupid here, can anyone help?

Bob (via BOBNET)

You may need to either edit the Security settings of the USB drive or take ownership of the drive before you can access it. This Technet thread shows a way to take ownership of the drive or you can edit the security settings to allow access. Also, from what I have read about this router and USB problems you will want to update it with the latest firmware in order to get Video streaming to work with the USB drive. http://homesupport.cisco.com/en-us/w.../linksys/E3000

Unable to access shared folders on Drive connected via USB to Linksys E3000 router. Unable to change permissions.

To share the entire drive: Security risk but should be ok on a local network.
Open My Computer -> right click Local Disk D or which ever drive letter your drive is using -> select Properties -> select Security tab -> click Edit button -> click Add button -> enter the name of the User you want to set Security permissions (it is the same user name you've set the sharing permissions for, ex. Everyone will set the read permissions to every user. Put check marks in the boxes for full access and control -> click OK hit apply-> select the desired permissions -> click OK -> wait while permissions are set -> and your Done.

Thank you both very much for the responses. I'm not sure they apply here, but I'll try some more with your suggestions in mind...

The prompt comes before I get anywhere near the USB hard disc. In fact, it comes even when the disc is not connected to the router. And when the disc IS connected to the router, there's no "D" or other letter associated with it, as it's external, not connected to the windows box at all... I'm never seeing the disk at all via Windows... just via the router setup interface, via the browser... and again, I'm asked for a password even without the disk connected, at the point I double click BOBNET under NETWORK...

Oh, okay, that makes sense, I'll try that, thanks Barman58!!

well, I managed to login as "guest" / no password after activating that guest account on the router interface under storage... I also have "guest" on the win7 box, but I wasn't logged on as that, and I think it's not even active... so that suggests the password prompt is for a router login, not for a Win7 login... but I KNOW the login/password for "admin" on the router is correct, and yet Windows won't accept it when I try to come in via Network or Windows Explorer... anyway, I can see "public" on the disk, so I'll take that as success... :) I may just go back to leaving the disk attached directly to my Win7 PC... share it on the network the usual way... Cheers for the help!!

The issue is that the win7 prompt is putting a local machine domain on that user. You should go into the Linksys router setting (Storage then Administration I think it is) and create a new user. It will put them in a domain (probably WORKGROUP). When win7 prompts for login preface the user name with the domain (ex. WORKGROUP\username).
That will fix it.

rgdaniel said:

well, I managed to login as "guest" / no password after activating that guest account on the router interface under storage... I also have "guest" on the win7 box, but I wasn't logged on as that, and I think it's not even active... so that suggests the password prompt is for a router login, not for a Win7 login... but I KNOW the login/password for "admin" on the router is correct, and yet Windows won't accept it when I try to come in via Network or Windows Explorer... anyway, I can see "public" on the disk, so I'll take that as success... :) I may just go back to leaving the disk attached directly to my Win7 PC... share it on the network the usual way... Cheers for the help!!

The solution here is much easier than I think is being explored. When you create the share via the Linksys web access, there are four tabs under the "Storage" heading. Disk is where you set up the disk info, but you also have to go under "Administration" to set up users for this share. The admin password to access this share is NOT the same as the router password (either admin/password to access the router or the network access password). The password to access the share is entirely different, which I think causes some confusion. It seems the default username/password for the shares is admin/admin. Obviously, you can create different accounts/passwords to access the share, but this works fine for most.

You may "KNOW" the password is correct, but you are wrong.

Good luck!
Aidan