Mixed Win7 / WinXP network issues (again)

For all the apparent attention to backward compatibility that MS says they put into Win7 I find that a Mixed Win7 / WinXp network is really problematic.

I am able to network Win7 MyDocuments without too much problem, though not as easily as a Win7 / Win7 or a WinXP / WinXP network. I am finding it impossible to connect to a second disk on my Win7 computer from an XP machine on my network. I can "see" the 2nd drive but am prevented from connecting ("blah, blah is not accessible, contact network administrator..."). One thing I have noticed from perusing this forum is that some people are having problems connecting from XP to 7, while others can not connect from 7 to XP. No consistency that I can see, which is cause for pause in my books.

The sharing permissions are set on the drive.

I hope the problem is mine and not systemic, because if anything is a Win7 deal-breaker would be it. Multi-computer organizations are not going to migrate their computer to Win7 en-mass, rather one computer at a time.

Any illumination on this problem will be greatly appreciated.

Well i'm sure the principle of file sharing interns of permissions a secuity settings hasn't changed. Once the machine are network connected (in the original sense, no adding to HomeGroup or WORKGROUP) all there is left is the shares creation, and permission and security of them to deal with.

I've written up a tut on cable networking between 7 and xp...works flawlessly for me.

It's somewhere under I, here found it.

Internet Sharing using Cross-Over cable

checklist:

1) Do you have a working internet access connection? Is yes, Good. If no, Bad for internet sharing.
2) Do you want to connection Pc to Pc with cable? If yes, Good. If no, also Good cos you will still need to go through the steps for internet sharing.
3) Do you want your second internetless Pc to have internet through the means of bridging? If yes, Good. If no and if no also for point 2. Then don't use the tutorial.

kriemer said:

Not sure I understand how your tut helps me (it should be a sticky!!!) ???

I have my network wired through the router. There are more than 2 computers involved, some of the computers are virtual (should have mentioned that). With an XP network, all I have had to do was set share permissions on each computer for the drives or folders I wanted to share.

I maintain my original statement; MS missed the boat in terms of mixed (XP/7) OS networking. Clearly, configuring a mixed Win7 / WinXp network is problematic; just look at all the requests for help on this topic. Win7 networks alone though are just great aside from the inability to set drive roots as shared. While this break several cardinal laws regarding system security it is after all my network we are talking about.

Thanks again for the helpful reply.

Regards

Just think of W7 Homegroup as a "folder/location" automatically shared between those machines also running w7. It's like an On/Off switch if you can understand i'm trying to say. Homegroup + ipv6 enabled = On. Homegroup + ipv6 disabled = Off.