Fix for Windows 7 & Vista - cannot access \\mainpc

[Aquarian3]

Hi there,

I've been reading and following your help ALL DAY and finally found a fix on another site, so I thought I would post what worked for me in the hope it might help someone else equally frustrated!

Basically I have a Windows 7 laptop and I have Vista installed on my main desktop PC.

I have every setting known to mankind set to share, I have printer/file sharing sorted, I have both workgroups named the same, I have turned off Zonealarm firewall, I have permissions set to 'everyone', I have the network settings correct (home user etc), I checked the 'control panel, adminstrator tools, local security policy' thingy changed, I checked Windows own firewall settings were correct.... honestly, I had gone over everything more than ten times!

Looking at my Win7 laptop I could see the folders I had set to 'share' on the MainPC but trying to connect to them would give me an error that said I had to speak to myself - being the administrator - as I didn't have the rights to view them .

However, I could access my external HDD that is attached to my vista MainPC and I could access my 'public' folder on my vista MainPC - bonkers!

Then I read somewhere that if the 'security' permissions are not set in the 'properties' of the folder you want to 'see' then even if you have 'sharing' permissions set they won't take effect......

So here is a copy and paste of what I did and I can now access my user's folder on my Win7 laptop (from my Vista MainPC), so I hope it's of use to you:

Ensure the appropriate Security settings on the Vista drive (or folder) you want to share: grant Everyone full rights (so that they exactly match the Share rights). To do this right-click the (say, D) drive in the Explorer window, open Properties, click open the Security tab, then the Advanced button at the bottom. This will open the Permissions tab, where you can click Edit…, then Add..., to type and add "Everyone" to the user-groups already displayed there. Then select Everyone on this list, click Edit…, and check the Full Control box under Allow (which will automatically check all the specific permissions below. (Thanks to Cyanna for sharing this tip from the Microsoft MVP on the TechNet forum). Ensure that the appropriate (combination of) objects (drive, folders, subfolders, files, etc.) is chosen from the Apply (to) dropdown list at the top.

From: Windows Vista <--> XP home networking succesfully resolved!

All the best

Lisa
-X-

 

[chev65]

The reason you needed to add Everyone to the security permissions is because you were trying to share the entire drive rather than just sharing the User folder which is a safer practice from a security stand point.

Because people sometimes need to share the entire drive I make posts like the one below pretty often but it's still not a safe practice from a security standpoint.
http://www.sevenforums.com/network-sharing/92521-hdd-sharing.html#post798310

 

[Aquarian3]

Hi Chev,

Thanks for your reply to my post, can I ask you a question please - if I'm at home, with the 'sharing' permissions set to only '2' computers, why is this not a good idea from a security point?

I appreciate that on my Vista machine I've had to disable Zonealarm, but I have Windows firewall active on both. I know Windows firewall never used to be that good, I don't know how good it is on Vista or 7?. Does my Netgear wireless router give any kind of security?

One thing I ought to mention - when I set the security permissions to 'everyone' the computer ran through files and folders, it wouldn't allow me to change some of the important files and some folders, although I can't remember which I have a feeling they were system files. I just clicked 'ok' and it carried on running through until it came to another. The same thing happened on my main Vista PC. Whatever files or folders wouldn't give full permissions it hasn't stopped me accessing the folders I need.

If you really think it's a bad idea I can stop sharing the main C drive and just go to the user folder to share, but out of my family of me, hubby and son I'm the only one who has any interest in networking and would want to access both pc's in this way.

Thanks in advance,

Lisa

 

[chev65]

The Windows firewall works really well and is more secure than previsous versions. Your Netgear router also provides another layer of security with it's firewall. You really don't need more than that to be safe. Zone Alarm tends to cause problems with sharing unless it's firewall is set up correctly.

As for sharing the entire drive, if someone actually hacked into your system or if some malware or spyware were to infect your system, it would have full control of the entire drive because you gave access to "Everyone" on the drive. It's just a bit safer from a security standpoint to share the User folder or User sub folders instead.

As for those system files that you can't access, those are protected files because bad things can happen if you change or move them. If you really need to move or adjust those system files you can do that by taking ownership of them which involves alot of settings adjustments or you can use a special .exe shortcut file to perform the task faster. Unless you have a really good reason I would leave those system files alone, but if the need occurs you have the option using the link below.

http://www.sevenforums.com/tutorials/1911-take-ownership-shortcut.html?ltr=T

 

[Aquarian3]

Hi Chev,

Thank you for the info on Windows firewall, I'm pleased to hear it's more secure nowadays so I will ditch Zonealarm, also having more security with the router makes me feel ""

I don't really need to access the files Windows wouldn't allow me to 'share', I just added that into my post so you would know that not all of my system files have been given access over the network, but thank you very much for the link you gave me, it is appreciated!

When my main PC is free I might go back and undo total sharing for the C drive, it does make sense. I suppose I was just SO happy that after spending the whole day trying to get my permissions sorted and not only 'see' my folders but actually get inside them, that I didn't think about the consequences of sharing the main drive.

Apart from feeling ecstatic my computers are now networked my Win7 laptop is working much more efficiently. I've had it since April and I've had no end of 'not responding' issues. My laptop has been incredibly slow and I've felt like throwing it out of my window! Nothing I did seemed to sort out the problem but since networking my pc's I've had no responding issues at all . I can't explain it - my laptop is speedy, loads programs quickly, saves without hanging and 'not responding', it's fantastic and I'm over the moon!

Finally, I do regular checks both on my laptop and mainPC using various pieces of software (just incase something creeps onto them like spyware etc). Would you mind looking down my list and giving your opinion please?

I've got; Advanced System Care (free version), Malwarebytes Anti-Malware, Spybot search & destroy & Avast antivirus. On my main Vista machine, I've got those above but also Spyware Blaster, Spyware Terminator & CCleaner.

Occasionally I'll also go to Housecall and do an online scan.

Would you say all this software was necessary and if not, what would you keep and what would you bin? They all do something slightly different, like Advanced System Care and CCleaner are similar but not exactly the same. The Spyware prog's are similar but I've used all of these for many years and my computers have all remained clean and happy!

Thanks once again, I appreciate the time you've taken to reply to me and I'm very thankful for your words of wisdom

Lisa

 

[chev65]

Hi Chev,

Thank you for the info on Windows firewall, I'm pleased to hear it's more secure nowadays so I will ditch Zonealarm, also having more security with the router makes me feel ""

I don't really need to access the files Windows wouldn't allow me to 'share', I just added that into my post so you would know that not all of my system files have been given access over the network, but thank you very much for the link you gave me, it is appreciated!

When my main PC is free I might go back and undo total sharing for the C drive, it does make sense. I suppose I was just SO happy that after spending the whole day trying to get my permissions sorted and not only 'see' my folders but actually get inside them, that I didn't think about the consequences of sharing the main drive.

Apart from feeling ecstatic my computers are now networked my Win7 laptop is working much more efficiently. I've had it since April and I've had no end of 'not responding' issues. My laptop has been incredibly slow and I've felt like throwing it out of my window! Nothing I did seemed to sort out the problem but since networking my pc's I've had no responding issues at all . I can't explain it - my laptop is speedy, loads programs quickly, saves without hanging and 'not responding', it's fantastic and I'm over the moon!

Finally, I do regular checks both on my laptop and mainPC using various pieces of software (just incase something creeps onto them like spyware etc). Would you mind looking down my list and giving your opinion please?

I've got; Advanced System Care (free version), Malwarebytes Anti-Malware, Spybot search & destroy & Avast antivirus. On my main Vista machine, I've got those above but also Spyware Blaster, Spyware Terminator & CCleaner.

Occasionally I'll also go to Housecall and do an online scan.

Would you say all this software was necessary and if not, what would you keep and what would you bin? They all do something slightly different, like Advanced System Care and CCleaner are similar but not exactly the same. The Spyware prog's are similar but I've used all of these for many years and my computers have all remained clean and happy!

Thanks once again, I appreciate the time you've taken to reply to me and I'm very thankful for your words of wisdom

Lisa

I pretty much use the same ones but don't use any type of real time security. I just check the system with Malware bytes and Spybot and use CCleaner to clean things up from time to time. Real time security programs seem to only cause problems for most so I have been avoiding them for that reason. Using different scanning type programs is good because they all work off different data bases so you have a better chance at finding problems.

As for sharing, I use Homegroups because all my machines are Windows 7. I share all the usual Homegroup folders and for standard network sharing I just share the entire User folder rather than the entire drive. It's nice and neat this way and everything just works.

 

[xcluded]

Hi , i could access the files on \\my-laptop from the run command.
however at the "network" , i could not see "my-laptop". i could only see "main-pc"

anyone knows why is this the case ?

thanks

 

[wguru]

I found file sharing to be a convoluted can of worms.

I see the so called file sharing wizard as needing a wizard of it's own, ref. the process is still way too exacerbating as well as unintuitive and moreover incompletely interfaced with the myriad of other Windows utilities.

As for undoing file sharing (assuming the user ever got it done to begin with) is as much or even more so screwy, ie;...

After 'simply' going to drive and file folders, then trying to stop sharing there, didn't result in their properties later listing a 'not shared', even re-booting didn't stop file sharing and trying to 'simply' delete their references, was disallowed ('remove or delete' was ghosted and again, no help notes or hover tips).

Deleting the Workgroup didn't stop sharing, even blocking all shared connections doesn't stop sharing, even opening network connections ("change adapter settings") disaffords so much as deleting the set up shared networks (delete is ghosted), even turning off file sharing 'wizard' doesn't stop file sharing,

Only after all that crap, did I find in the "leave the homegroup" window (as seen in all control panel items and it's homegroup window), did I finally see a prompt stating files are no longer shared within the homegroup.

Even then, users are still left with the 'clean up' by manually dealing with basic network in the network and sharing center's window because the network still existed and (ahem) no visible means to delete it.

Only after drilling the entire assortment of links in that window, even expanding the "public" file sharing and then unticking it's file sharing tickables, did I finally find no references to workgroups and network connections as seen in the main window of network and sharing center.

Still more crap to deal with, ref. the Windows firewall and removing all file sharing references (as they still were set to being allowed through the firewall, ie; the need for a file sharing wizard's wizard). Note rules cannot be changed until the user clicks the advanced link and only then can sharing rules be removed (I deleted them) after I unticked all of them.

Grrrrr.