Permissions issue with Win 7

I have a WLAN running at home. All computers are in the same workgroup and all updates have been applied.

The Main PC is running Win 7 home premium and is connected to the wireless router via ethernet. A wireless laptop is running XP/pro. Another wireless PC is running Vista Home Premium/32 bit.

The XP machine can see both the Win 7 and the Vista computer drives and files.

The Vista machine can also see both the Win 7 and the XP drives and files.

However, the Win 7 machine cannot access the Vista files without getting a permissions error msg. The Win 7 machine can see the drives on both the XP and the Vista machine. It can see the files on the XP machine. But it cannot get to the files on the Vista machine. It generates the permissions error msg every time.

I tried disabling the Win 7 firewall, but still got the permissions error.

What setting have I overlooked that could cause this?

Win7-> XP (sees drives and files)
***Win7-> Vista (sees drives but cannot access files - permissions problem)
XP-> Win7 (sees drives and files
XP-> Vista (sees drives and files)
Vista-> XP (sees drives and files)
Vista-> Win7 (sees drives and files)

speedlever said:

I have a WLAN running at home. All computers are in the same workgroup and all updates have been applied.

The Main PC is running Win 7 home premium and is connected to the wireless router via ethernet. A wireless laptop is running XP/pro. Another wireless PC is running Vista Home Premium/32 bit.

The XP machine can see both the Win 7 and the Vista computer drives and files.

The Vista machine can also see both the Win 7 and the XP drives and files.

However, the Win 7 machine cannot access the Vista files without getting a permissions error msg. The Win 7 machine can see the drives on both the XP and the Vista machine. It can see the files on the XP machine. But it cannot get to the files on the Vista machine. It generates the permissions error msg every time.

I tried disabling the Win 7 firewall, but still got the permissions error.

What setting have I overlooked that could cause this?

Win7-> XP (sees drives and files)
***Win7-> Vista (sees drives but cannot access files - permissions problem)
XP-> Win7 (sees drives and files
XP-> Vista (sees drives and files)
Vista-> XP (sees drives and files)
Vista-> Win7 (sees drives and files)

Ok... to do this, because of the mixed operating systems the Win7 machine will have to be on a Work network not a Home Network.

To switch to work network, go into your Network and Sharing center and
Click on Home Network in the center of the dialog
Select Work network from the dialog that pops up and click OK.

In your network connections and sharing control panel go to the advanced sharing settings and ...
Enable file and printer sharing
Enable network discovery
Disable password protected sharing
Enable User account and password sharing

Next go to your folder options and
Under View uncheck the "use sharing wizard" option.

Now for each shared folder on the Win7 machine...
Right click select sharing then advanced sharing and advanced sharing again
Check the "share this folder" box

The default permission is that "everyone" has read only access.
To change this click on permissions and enter the users or groups that you want and check the appropriate boxes for each.

DO NOT go into the local security panel. That is not necessary for this task.

CommonTater said:

Ok... to do this, because of the mixed operating systems the Win7 machine will have to be on a Work network not a Home Network.

To switch to work network, go into your Network and Sharing center and
Click on Home Network in the center of the dialog
Select Work network from the dialog that pops up and click OK.

In your network connections and sharing control panel go to the advanced sharing settings and ...
Enable file and printer sharing
Enable network discovery
Disable password protected sharing
Enable User account and password sharing

Next go to your folder options and
Under View uncheck the "use sharing wizard" option.

Now for each shared folder on the Win7 machine...
Right click select sharing then advanced sharing and advanced sharing again
Check the "share this folder" box

The default permission is that "everyone" has read only access.
To change this click on permissions and enter the users or groups that you want and check the appropriate boxes for each.

DO NOT go into the local security panel. That is not necessary for this task.

CommonTater,

Thanks for your assistance. Would you mind a few questions along the way?

1) why is work network chosen over home network? Is there a comparison somewhere that tells me the diff?

2) Just to be clear, the Vista (wireless) computer drives are visible to the W7 PC. However, the Vista files cannot be accessed by the W7 machine. The Vista files *are* accessible by the XP wireless laptop.

You last few paragraphs deal with sharing W7 files. That is not the problem. Accessing the files on the wireless Vista computer from the W7 machine is the problem.

3) There is a public folder sharing option under Home/Work profile as well as a separate Public profile option. Are those settings important in this scenario?

Following this tutorial might help with that problem.

How To Share Files and Printers Between Windows 7 and Vista - How-To Geek

speedlever said:

Thanks for your assistance. Would you mind a few questions along the way?

You DO NOT get to ask questions...

Just kidding

1) why is work network chosen over home network? Is there a comparison somewhere that tells me the diff?

Yeah there probably is but I've never seen one.

The Home Network concept is based on the idea of all computers in the home being wide open. Sharing is done by a single password that has to be entered on each computer (XP has no provision for this). Home Networks also allow media sharing and streaming with WMP and it has network access to mess with index your media folders (My Music, My Video, etc.) Home networks try to use ipv6 when possible.

In a work network the emphasis is on security. You need passwords and permissions to do anything. There's no network indexer running and windows does network discovery only by scanning computer names and share names. You can set up your shares on a folder by folder basis; the only snag being that when you share a folder all folders under (in) that folder are also shared. To make an open network in this format you simply use the same account name, password and workgroup name on all computers... this makes all shares visible to all machines. Work networks (xp: Workgroups) use ipv4 which is how the internet works.

Which is better? In your case it doesn't matter because XP --and probably Vista too-- doesn't understand Home Network's enumeration scheme and thus won't be seen by win 7 from a home network... although, if you experiment a little, you will discover the XP machine has some pretty interesting access to the win 7 machine.

(Sidebar: On the XP machine, open windows explorer and type \\BIXBOX\c$ into the address bar [of course you will have to substitute the Win7 machine's actual name for "bixbox"] and you should be looking at the root of an unshared drive. And they say win7 is more secure????)

2) Just to be clear, the Vista (wireless) computer drives are visible to the W7 PC. However, the Vista files cannot be accessed by the W7 machine. The Vista files *are* accessible by the XP wireless laptop.

Never used Vista so I can't give you an authoritive answer... perhaps someone else could enlighten us both

You last few paragraphs deal with sharing W7 files. That is not the problem. Accessing the files on the wireless Vista computer from the W7 machine is the problem.

You may have to make similar adjustments in the Vista file sharing as well...

3) There is a public folder sharing option under Home/Work profile as well as a separate Public profile option. Are those settings important in this scenario?

Well... I would turn that off in the interests of security and a little privacy. But I see no harm in trying it both ways... it is afterall, your computer.


Overall, I would suggest your first step is to get it working AT ALL... you can always diddle the settings and experiment later.

And FWIW... I have 2 XP machines and a win7 for my personal use. There are 8 machines in the family ... 3 are on XP, 2 are on win7, 2 are on Ubuntu and the other is a Mac.... We all share files very easily... BUT that didn't come without a fair bit of messing about and my number one son-in-law is duely credited with inventing several new swear words in the process.

Lets hope this solves your problem....

chev65 said:

Following this tutorial might help with that problem.

How To Share Files and Printers Between Windows 7 and Vista - How-To Geek

Thanks for that link.

I am still having the same issues, even after going through all the suggestions and the above link guide. Well, there is one difference. I can get to the public folder on the Vista machine now (it was disabled before).

Currently, I have 4 machines on the WLAN.
1 XP/pro
2 XP/home
1 Vista/32 bit

The W7 machine can see all drives on all computers, but cannot access the shared files on the Vista machine.

The XP laptop can see all drives on all computers and can access all shared files.

Interestingly, the 2 XP/home machines are functioning just like the W7 machine. They can see all drives and can access all shared files except for the Vista PC.

The Vista PC can see all drives and can access all shared files.

I'm going to enable password access on the Vista PC and see if that solves the problem. Stand by...
**********************************************************
..... OK. Enabling password protected sharing on the Vista machine enables my W7 PC to access the files.

Can anyone explain to me why this worked?

Also, the XP/home machines still cannot access the files on the Vista PC. (this is not important in my application, but I would like to understand what's going on).

Thanks for the help thus far.

speedlever said:

chev65 said:

Following this tutorial might help with that problem.

How To Share Files and Printers Between Windows 7 and Vista - How-To Geek

Thanks for that link.

I am still having the same issues, even after going through all the suggestions and the above link guide. Well, there is one difference. I can get to the public folder on the Vista machine now (it was disabled before).

Currently, I have 4 machines on the WLAN.
1 XP/pro
2 XP/home
1 Vista/32 bit

The W7 machine can see all drives on all computers, but cannot access the shared files on the Vista machine.

The XP laptop can see all drives on all computers and can access all shared files.

Interestingly, the 2 XP/home machines are functioning just like the W7 machine. They can see all drives and can access all shared files except for the Vista PC.

The Vista PC can see all drives and can access all shared files.

I'm going to enable password access on the Vista PC and see if that solves the problem. Stand by...
**********************************************************
..... OK. Enabling password protected sharing on the Vista machine enables my W7 PC to access the files.

Can anyone explain to me why this worked?

Also, the XP/home machines still cannot access the files on the Vista PC. (this is not important in my application, but I would like to understand what's going on).

Thanks for the help thus far.

On the XP home machines go into your service list... Do you see "Computer Browser" and "Network Location Awareness"... if not you may need an update to install them. If they are there, they're usually off in XP home... right click set them to Automatic and start them... then try again.

In the win7 machine and now the Vista machine, you will have to turn off password protected sharing and enable sharing by username and password for the XP systems... Also check all machines, make sure all account names, passwords and workgroups are the same.

Basically you are setting up for the oldest common denominator. Your newer OSs are backward compatible but the older ones won't have crystal balls to predict the future....

Almost there!

CommonTater,

I tried your sidebar trick in my XP/pro machine, but each time I would get the password log on screen, and even with the correct log on info, I could not get into the Win 7 machine using \\mymachinename\c$. Oh well.

I appreciate your explanation of the home/work network differences. I've never been a Mac fan, but sometimes I wonder... :)

I can't say that I understand why my XP/pro laptop works just fine when the W7 PC was in either the home or the work network configuration. Just glad it works.

speedlever said:

chev65 said:

Following this tutorial might help with that problem.

How To Share Files and Printers Between Windows 7 and Vista - How-To Geek

Thanks for that link.

I am still having the same issues, even after going through all the suggestions and the above link guide. Well, there is one difference. I can get to the public folder on the Vista machine now (it was disabled before).

Currently, I have 4 machines on the WLAN.
1 XP/pro
2 XP/home
1 Vista/32 bit

The W7 machine can see all drives on all computers, but cannot access the shared files on the Vista machine.

The XP laptop can see all drives on all computers and can access all shared files.

Interestingly, the 2 XP/home machines are functioning just like the W7 machine. They can see all drives and can access all shared files except for the Vista PC.

The Vista PC can see all drives and can access all shared files.

I'm going to enable password access on the Vista PC and see if that solves the problem. Stand by...
**********************************************************
..... OK. Enabling password protected sharing on the Vista machine enables my W7 PC to access the files.

Can anyone explain to me why this worked?

Also, the XP/home machines still cannot access the files on the Vista PC. (this is not important in my application, but I would like to understand what's going on).

Thanks for the help thus far.

Well at least you got the Vista machine to work. Sometimes using password protected sharing works better, other times not.

For the XP home machine to Vista access problem, you should try to disable simple file sharing on the XP machines which can help fix this type of problem. After that you should run the network set up wizard on the XP machines which should fix the access to Vista problem.

QUOTE=speedlever;659789]CommonTater,

I tried your sidebar trick in my XP/pro machine, but each time I would get the password log on screen, and even with the correct log on info, I could not get into the Win 7 machine using \\mymachinename\c$. Oh well.
[/QUOTE]

GOOD... now we know the usernames and passwords are different between the two machines! This is helpful.... Enter your password and user name for the Win7 machine, click the "remember me" box and you should now be able to access files.

I appreciate your explanation of the home/work network differences. I've never been a Mac fan, but sometimes I wonder... :)

I can't say that I understand why my XP/pro laptop works just fine when the W7 PC was in either the home or the work network configuration. Just glad it works.

Ummm... from your above, I'm guessin it's the grandest of flukes...

Question... Did you follow my settings exactly on the Win7 machine?
Double check to be shure... I took them right out of my own system, so I know they work.

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