Cannot connect to network

Okay, let me make things a bit clearer; apparently I'm not being fully understood. I have four desktops and a laptop. Two desktops run Ubuntu Linux, two desktops run Windows 7 Ultimate, one x64 and one x86, and the laptop runs Windows XP. The computer I'm having issues with is the x64 Windows machine. It has all of my shared drives in/on it. The Ubuntu machines are networked perfectly, and I can share and access all files between them. I can also connect to the laptop through the Ubuntu systems. Both my 7 machines will not allow me to connect to either of them, whether through XP, Ubuntu or 7. They constantly ask for Username/Password. I have, in the interest of humoring myself, set up Usernames and Passwords on both 7 machines. I then try to connect to either 7 machine, and get the Username/Password prompt. Upon entering the Username/Password, it tells me it is incorrect, and to try again. This happens whether I'm trying to connect to the 7 machines with each other, with the XP laptop, or with Ubuntu. The 7 x86 machine is one I've added to my network in the past few weeks, and it has never networked properly. The x64 machine I had networked perfectly, and was able to share files, folders, drives and printer with the Ubuntu machines and the XP laptop. unfortunately, I was forced to reinstall on that machine, and now it does not work.
I appreciate the suggestion to try Linux forums, and I have, in fact, already made posts on three different Linux forums asking for help. in each case, the ultimate suggestion is that there is "something wrong" with the 7 setups, and that I should come to a 7 forum for help on that end. That explains why I am here. I'm not trying to fight your suggestions; I think I may have just been not completely understood in my setup and question.
Oh, also, I have set all my shared drives with permissions for Everyone, and Full Control. If I can ever get to actually SEE the drives on these machines, I know I will be able to access them at that point. My problem is that I can't get to the point where I can SEE the shared drives. Whether or not I use a Username/Password, it does not work.
I hope I have cleared up my situation. I think what I am looking for is for someone to perhaps walk me through (step-by-step, if possible) a basic network setup, to be accessed by ANY machine. We can, for platform compatibility, assume that I am simply trying to network two 7 machines, or a 7 machine and an XP machine. I don't care how it's viewed; it's all the same to me. My issue is happening on all three platforms.
Thanks again for your help and suggestions!

mollydoggy1971 said:

Okay, let me make things a bit clearer; apparently I'm not being fully understood. I have four desktops and a laptop. Two desktops run Ubuntu Linux, two desktops run Windows 7 Ultimate, one x64 and one x86, and the laptop runs Windows XP. The computer I'm having issues with is the x64 Windows machine. It has all of my shared drives in/on it. The Ubuntu machines are networked perfectly, and I can share and access all files between them. I can also connect to the laptop through the Ubuntu systems. Both my 7 machines will not allow me to connect to either of them, whether through XP, Ubuntu or 7. They constantly ask for Username/Password. I have, in the interest of humoring myself, set up Usernames and Passwords on both 7 machines. I then try to connect to either 7 machine, and get the Username/Password prompt. Upon entering the Username/Password, it tells me it is incorrect, and to try again. This happens whether I'm trying to connect to the 7 machines with each other, with the XP laptop, or with Ubuntu. The 7 x86 machine is one I've added to my network in the past few weeks, and it has never networked properly. The x64 machine I had networked perfectly, and was able to share files, folders, drives and printer with the Ubuntu machines and the XP laptop. unfortunately, I was forced to reinstall on that machine, and now it does not work.
I appreciate the suggestion to try Linux forums, and I have, in fact, already made posts on three different Linux forums asking for help. in each case, the ultimate suggestion is that there is "something wrong" with the 7 setups, and that I should come to a 7 forum for help on that end. That explains why I am here. I'm not trying to fight your suggestions; I think I may have just been not completely understood in my setup and question.
Oh, also, I have set all my shared drives with permissions for Everyone, and Full Control. If I can ever get to actually SEE the drives on these machines, I know I will be able to access them at that point. My problem is that I can't get to the point where I can SEE the shared drives. Whether or not I use a Username/Password, it does not work.
I hope I have cleared up my situation. I think what I am looking for is for someone to perhaps walk me through (step-by-step, if possible) a basic network setup, to be accessed by ANY machine. We can, for platform compatibility, assume that I am simply trying to network two 7 machines, or a 7 machine and an XP machine. I don't care how it's viewed; it's all the same to me. My issue is happening on all three platforms.
Thanks again for your help and suggestions!

Just a drive by. I wonder if you are using homegroup for networking. On some mixed systems it can cause connectivity issues. Easy enough to test. Create a new network connection using workgroup. If the problem goes away you can dis able IPv6 and kill Homegroup.



Let us know if you need help

Ken

mollydoggy1971 said:

I have four desktops and a laptop. Two desktops run Ubuntu Linux, two desktops run Windows 7 Ultimate, one x64 and one x86, and the laptop runs Windows XP. The computer I'm having issues with is the x64 Windows machine. It has all of my shared drives in/on it. The Ubuntu machines are networked perfectly, and I can share and access all files between them. I can also connect to the laptop through the Ubuntu systems. Both my 7 machines will not allow me to connect to either of them, whether through XP, Ubuntu or 7.

That I didn't realise, in all honesty I thought this was just a straight network between two computers running Linux and Windows. The fact that you're seeing this from all non-Win7 computers (including XP) definitely helps narrow down the source.

mollydoggy1971 said:

They constantly ask for Username/Password. I have, in the interest of humoring myself, set up Usernames and Passwords on both 7 machines. I then try to connect to either 7 machine, and get the Username/Password prompt. Upon entering the Username/Password, it tells me it is incorrect, and to try again. This happens whether I'm trying to connect to the 7 machines with each other, with the XP laptop, or with Ubuntu.

I'm not sure if I missed your post on this, but did you by any chance try my suggestion of turning off the 'Password Protected Sharing' on both Windows 7 computers? (See this guide here) I had the exact same issue with my Win7 setup when I first installed it, and that was the source of the headaches for my machine.. If you haven't tried it yet, I'd say it's worth a shot.

zigzag3143 said:

Just a drive by. I wonder if you are using homegroup for networking. On some mixed systems it can cause connectivity issues. Easy enough to test. Create a new network connection using workgroup. If the problem goes away you can dis able IPv6 and kill Homegroup.

If I'm not mistaken, mollydog1971 already has IPv6 disabled, I seem to remember something about that in the early posts...

Ok. I do, in fact, already have the Turn off password protected sharing button clicked. I turned it back on, just for the heck of it, to try the steps in the previous post. I now have accounts set up on all 5 machines, all accounts are the same username and passwords. I still get the same username and password box when trying to connect to the 7 machine(s). If I enable Homegroup, the two 7 machines can see each other just fine, but nothing else can. So I turned Homegroup off yet again. I have the network name set as WORKGROUP (I'm not certain how to even change that, but it doesn't really matter what it's named to me), and my permissions are set properly. I have them set to Full Control under the Everyone choice. This is really frustrating me. I never had these problems before the past few weeks. I simply set up the network, turned off Homegroup, and it worked just fine. Does anyone have a tutorial of some kind on setting up a BASIC network? I'm almost 100% certain that I'm missing some simple stupid basic step that is causing all my woes. If I could go through things step by step, I'm pretty sure I can figure out what I'm doing wrong. You guys are great with your tips and help, but I think you're overthinking my problem. Of course, this guess is coming from the guy with the problem, so meh. LOL Anyway, thanks again for the help...hopefully we can get this thing fixed soon!

Ok, searching the MS Technet forums, I found somebody with a similar issue, but he couldn't test the solution because he was only running Win7 Home Premium... If you're running Professional or Ultimate, perhaps these steps might help you:

Control Panel - Administrative Tools - Local Security Policy

Local Policies - Security Options

Network security: LAN Manager authentication level
Send LM & NTLM responses

Minimum session security for NTLM SSP
Disable Require 128-bit encryption

I haven't seen anybody mention the encryption idea yet, so that's one idea... Otherwise, maybe if you do a quick search over at the Windows 7 Networking forum on MS Technet, you might see something that I'm missing?

I tried changing those security policies - didn't work. Yes, all computers are connected to the WORKGROUP workgroup. Connected is, of course, used loosely here. I can SEE the network, but can't actually CONNECT to it. I'm off to try myzr7's link now...check back in a bit!