Networking - aka Black Magic!

I've always thought of networking as one of the black arts.

4 PCs - One Vista, 2 W7 Home Premium, 1 W7 Ultimate. All see each other. All have appropriate folders shared.
Try accessing A from B and I get "Enter Network Password (to connect to B)". I never set one up to start with, so why is it asking me for it. How do I access/change something I never set?

Try accessing B from A - I see the PC, and the folders I want but trying to access them results in "You do not have permissionto access folder\names\ Contact your network administrator - who he? Obviously me but I don't know what the answer is!

Trying similar things with the other two PCs in the mix results in various permutations of the same problem.

I have tried all the various links suggested through Networking and Help, but most of the actions seem to be boxes to click to make the PCs try to sort themselves out. When it fails I can't find a manual way of trying to sort it out.

Any suitable tutorials that may help? Couldn't see any.

Sigurd said:

I've always thought of networking as one of the black arts.

4 PCs - One Vista, 2 W7 Home Premium, 1 W7 Ultimate. All see each other. All have appropriate folders shared.
Try accessing A from B and I get "Enter Network Password (to connect to B)". I never set one up to start with, so why is it asking me for it. How do I access/change something I never set?

Try accessing B from A - I see the PC, and the folders I want but trying to access them results in "You do not have permissionto access folder\names\ Contact your network administrator - who he? Obviously me but I don't know what the answer is!

Trying similar things with the other two PCs in the mix results in various permutations of the same problem.

I have tried all the various links suggested through Networking and Help, but most of the actions seem to be boxes to click to make the PCs try to sort themselves out. When it fails I can't find a manual way of trying to sort it out.

Any suitable tutorials that may help? Couldn't see any.

Hi and welcome

Networking has that mystique. I would suspect you are using homegroup given the password prompts. At its best homegroup is simply bad. It uses IPv6, which is buggy and causes random drops, slow downloads and connectivity issues.

Workgroup, also available in win 7 uses the older IPv4. It works better in mixed environments, is more relaibe, and easier to connect to.

You can change from homegroup to workgroup easily in networking and sharing.
After the change y ou should be able to connect more easily and without password if you choose.

I hope this helps and let us know if you need help with this


Ken J++

Logic, Zid

I will fully accept you have had no problems with IPv6, and homegroup. I think many of the people who are having difficulties would disagree.

I see no difference on my system.

Ken

Sorry to have started the difference of opinion! Once I extract the answers to my problems from the debate I'll have a go.:)

Too late to try tonight - my internet connection was zapped all day by the problems at Workington and Cockermouth. I thank God that was the worst of my problems.