Help to create a regular LAN to share drives/folders - not Home

Hello,

Firstly I apologise because I know there is so much written about this subject. However at the same time, when one cannot find the solution after literally hours, one must get help! I have thrown the towel in as they say, put the white flag up and here I am..

I have 4 PC's all with Win 7 Pro. I have access to web via cable via a CG3000 router.

All boxes belong to same named 'Workgroup'

Under Explorer/Network tree all boxes and drives can be seen.

All drives on all boxes are already Shared with small shared icons showing on drive's name in tree and all passwords are off.

All permissions are set for full use as I am the only one here who uses them.

Problem.

Whene evr I go to a drive on any box from any box, I get the dreaded ..

'Windows cannot access etc..

I have turned off, router, boxes and left and re created and joined a Homegroup but this only got me to the Public etc folders. I need to get to all boxes and all drives/folders.

It was hard in Dos and got easier thru 3.1 etc until it was a piece of cake in XP

Now it is a nightmare.

I was advided to not have a Homegroup so had all the PC's leave the Home Network. It does not exists anymore.

I have Googled and read all day but am still not clearer.

I still see all the folders in each box from every box but as soon as I click to see the files in the folders get the NO Access panel.

I can see and access all the Public User folders but not the drives and other folders.

I need to access many folders on many drives across all boxes every day

I hope I can get help here as I am exhausted spending 3 days at this.

Thanks in anticipation.

Are all PCs are set to the same location (Home/Work)?

(This is not the best approach but usually fixes things ) Go into the properties of the shared folder and switch to security tab. Add Everyone to the list with Full Control permission.

Note: Having a password protected network is better though, and you can make the PCs remember the credentials.

Hi,

Firstly many thanks for the help.

I checked the drives and they are all Shared have Full control for Everyone (There is only me so not threats)

They all have no Home but Location is Work and Network is Work Network

Any suggestions ?

Thanks again

Checked Security tab (NTFS permissions) as well? It is different than Share permissions. Since you are not using a password, system thinks you are a guest and if everyone doesn't have permission will deny access. Are you getting asked username/password while trying to access at all?

Also check your Avast and/or Windows Firewall settings. Temp disable them to see if you can access.
In Network and Sharing Center - Change Advanced Sharing Settings - check:
- Turn on File and Printer Sharing (I guess this is on already due to Public folders)
- Password protected sharing (on or off?) If off perhaps turn it on.

I believe a security software (most likely firewall) is interfering since you can see the shared folders/drives. Did you try disabling them yet? Can you access the share of the same PC you are using from Network?

Hi

Tomorrow when on my main machine I will try to disable Avast and check the firewalls and see if that helps.

Do you mean try to access my main computer from another one on the network ?

I just did that from another computer and found that I still got the No ACCESS panel to all drives, except I could access the 2 ext USB drives okay.

Not sure what this means.

oz

Try accessing Main from Main's Network folder in Explorer for example. You should only be able to see shared folders/drives not others when browsing through Network.

Yes in Explorer on the main box under Network in the tree, I see all the boxes which are still on at this time of night, but once again can't access the drives/folders.

When I click on the Main computer listed there I can access all the drives and folders on it including Public andf Users. I have 8 drives in the box and 2 external usb drives.

They are all shared so I have access to them from all boxes up until this problem that is.

I don't know why it happened, but we did have a power blackout so maybe that was it but can't say for sure.

Try resetting the router again in case. Since the network was working and all stopped working same time, I can only think of the router.

If you have 2 PCs with gigabit ethernets, connect them with a cable directly. Then try connecting with the IP addresses (enter \\IP-Address in Explorer address bar .i.e.169.254.X.Y). Run cmd and enter ipconfig to get the IP address, it will be in the form of 169.254.X.Y (called APIPA - Automatic Private IP Addressing). I am not sure if they can see each other in APIPA, maybe it will. If not IP address will be enough to reach other PC.