WorkGroup or Homegroup

[copiman]

I am starting to study what is a WorkGroup versus a HomeGroup and have a few questions.

What are the differences and advantages?

What is better for a small group of PCs (such as 10 or less)?

With all the OSs that are being used (XP, 7, 8, 10) which will work?

While going to school I sometimes help friends with their network and PCs and find myself looking at different setups. I know there is not a straight answer, so if you know a place that I could go (website, articles, books, etc..) please let me know. I'm not afraid of studying.

I want to get proficient in this area.

 

[pbcopter]

When you set up a Homegroup, it automatically sets up sharing for those items selected, Music, Pictures, etc. Only Windows 7, 8.1, and 10 can join a Homegroup.

At Home with HomeGroup in Windows 7 - Engineering Windows 7 - Site Home - MSDN Blogs

 

[ron7000]

I believe the homegroup method was introduced starting with windows 7 and can be used easily with later versions. It's supposed to work with XP but don't be surprised if you have trouble.
Homegroup method is more for people who are not computer savvy to get computers networked to one another to share files/folders. it required the least amount of effort all you need to know is the one homegroup password to connect.
suggest you google: windows homegroup security
I want to say it is based on top of the traditional workgroup method, making decisions for the user/administrator.

I have not seen homegroup used anywhere in the business world and it's use is usually discouraged.
The basic workgroup method that we remember from windows XP is still used, and for win7 and later under network sharing you turn on
- use user accounts & passwords to connect to other computers, and don't use the recommended "allow windows to manage homegroup connections"
- turn on password protected sharing

it is preferred to turn homegroup off within group policy.
The workgroup and password protected sharing method is still easily compatible with everything XP and later, takes a little more user effort but can be more finely controlled and i think more secure in the long run. You know what's happening, unlike homegroup where things are managed automatically by windows.

for a small group of 10 pc's or less, if it was for a trusted bunch of people and there was no internet connection... it is a local area network with no physical connection to the internet... then i would not hesitate to use homegroup, it does work. but anything more than that... your call... the more you know and more you do rather than let windows manage it the better off and more secure you usually are. The problem with homegroup is not so much about functionality, it's about security and risk.

here's one of many to give you an idea:
https://social.technet.microsoft.co...ity-flaw-in-windows-7?forum=w7itpronetworking

 

[copiman]

Thanks everyone for your input. That article you posted about security was good. I never knew that is what happens when using Homegroup. I think I will start using WorkGroup at home. I have a Vista, 7, and 8.1. I will attempt to set all up on the WorkGroup. I think this is better for business as well. I assume this way would prevent someone from accessing everything on another PC and you can choose what they have access to. Will need to do a little more study though.

Thanks again for your help.

 

[copiman]

I need to see if my thought process is correct and was wondering if you could check this for me:

In a home-group all docs, picks, etc.. are shared to all on the home-group. In other words, if you select docs to be shared in the setup wizard, everything in the documents folder/libraries will be shared, to all.

In a work group you have to specify what docs/folders will be shared by changing "share with properties" on each folder/docs. You can select Read, Write, etc.. Also the person you want to share with must have an account on the PC that is holding the doc to be shared.

Home group seems like an easy way but reduces control. Work group seems a little more maintenance but will ensure only the docs and/or folders you want others to have access to will be available to them. They will not be able to see other info that may be private or company sensitive.

Thanks again for your help.

 

[ThrashZone]

Hi,
I believe win-10 has had issues joining existing home groups
I believe I have not tried it but if you create a home group using win-10 and join it with the other machines you'd have better luck
Try that if you have issues with the 10 machine joining a existing home group.

 

[copiman]

Hi,
I believe win-10 has had issues joining existing home groups
I believe I have not tried it but if you create a home group using win-10 and join it with the other machines you'd have better luck
Try that if you have issues with the 10 machine joining a existing home group.

You are correct, Windows 10 is having some issues in this area. Its all over the net and Microsoft forums and they are not happy campers. Right now I am just trying to make sure I understand the concepts of home-group and work-group. I will use my PCs (vista, 7, 8.1) on my network to get some hands on experience. No 10 yet, but its coming and then I will add it and we can see what happens.

 

[Barman58]

The only major issue with homegroups is that there may be issues connecting to a homegroup that is created on a system that uses a wireless connection rather than a wired connection, always create the homegroup on a wired system to be sure of reliable sharing also it relies on IPv6 to allow the 128Bit encryption so IPV6 needs to be enabled.

Neither workgroups or homegroups as as reliable as a true Server - Client system as used in business but the overhead for hardware, software and management is much more affordable If you have a system based on Windows7 or later systems either home system is acceptable

 

[copiman]

The only major issue with homegroups is that there may be issues connecting to a homegroup that is created on a system that uses a wireless connection rather than a wired connection, always create the homegroup on a wired system to be sure of reliable sharing also it relies on IPv6 to allow the 128Bit encryption so IPV6 needs to be enabled.

Neither workgroups or homegroups as as reliable as a true Server - Client system as used in business but the overhead for hardware, software and management is much more affordable If you have a system based on Windows7 or later systems either home system is acceptable

Thanks. Did not see that about IPv6 in my quest. Will add that to my notes.

The link ron7000 in post#3 made me reconsider home-group here at home as well as the few small offices I help support (friends). These small offices as well as here at home have only a few PCs which really does not justify a server but you are correct a client-server situation is a great way to share among other things. A lot of these small offices seem to be hanging on to PCs with older OS so they end up with multiple OS ranging from XP to 10. Personally if I had a small business, I would have at least a NAS with multiple drives. Then share from there. Of course they want the cheaper way.

Thanks for your input. It really helps.

 

[Barman58]

In your situation with the small business clients - I would go with a workgroup, as it supports back to XP, (the structure actually comes from the NT/Windows 2000 line which it probably also supports as long as the hardware is complaint).

The only issue with a workgroup is there is more work for you as the sysadmin, you need to create, (and maintain), identical users, preferably with identical passwords, on all systems, (or at least all systems that any one individual user has access to), to allow any degree of real control.

For your home system it may be a chance to test the waters for the homegroup, (again with password security), for future use, the major advantage to this is that you only need to join each user to the Homegroup and use a single password, Disadvantages are the over zealous initial sharing regime that is set up

 

[ThrashZone]

Not sure about the wireless home group stuff
I have primarily a wired home group established and win-10 refused to connect said it was not possible

I was okay with it and didn't go through exiting all machines and creating a new in win-10 mostly because I don't use 10 all that much
I have win-7 on the same machine as 10 and use it more so no big deal if when on 10 it's not connected to the home group.

I just chalked it up to 10 wants to be the alpha and recreating the home group in win-10 would fix the issue.

 

[Barman58]

I guess I was lucky I never had any issues with my homegroup migrating from 7 to 8 to 8.1 to 10 with a mix of OS in all upgrade operations at one time or another

 

[ThrashZone]

At one time and throughout testing i had no issues either joining a existing home group
I may have used a wrong setting in setup on network choices

I believe a clean install might correct it :/

 

[copiman]

In your situation with the small business clients - I would go with a workgroup, as it supports back to XP, (the structure actually comes from the NT/Windows 2000 line which it probably also supports as long as the hardware is complaint).

The only issue with a workgroup is there is more work for you as the sysadmin, you need to create, (and maintain), identical users, preferably with identical passwords, on all systems, (or at least all systems that any one individual user has access to), to allow any degree of real control.

For your home system it may be a chance to test the waters for the homegroup, (again with password security), for future use, the major advantage to this is that you only need to join each user to the Homegroup and use a single password, Disadvantages are the over zealous initial sharing regime that is set up

I agree that workgroup would be best for business. I am going to do this at home to become familiar with it. Once I feel good with it I will work with the homegroup as well. For me hands on is a much better learning tool that reading. Unfortunately, reading is something I have to bear.

Thanks for your help.

 

[copiman]

I have come to the conclusion that using workgroups is too much of a hassle. One minute it starts to work and the next minute everything goes to pot. Not to mention if I'm having this much trouble I can only imagine what an end user would endure. Having said that, how would three computers share only what each computer wants to share with the other computers. For instance computer 1 wants to share something with computer 2 and not computer 3 but also not give them access to see everything on my drive. Basically I need to be able to share info on the network but have control over who sees what. I know a server would work but that cost way to much and just doesn't seem practice. What do most small businesses do in situations like this?

 

[Barman58]

Am in car at moment, when I get back later I should be able to guide you intend right direction

 

[Barman58]

The use of workgroup in the business environment is reliant on several factors

• The creation of identical users on each system ( this may be also controlled by using groups as used in a true Client Server system )
• The management of the created users (either by the user or a sysadmin)
• The creation of suitable shares in all systems that need to share data ( it's possible that these shares may be large and small in number - Whole drives shared)
• The use of NTFS security settings at a file system level to actually control access

As an example we will look at three User - System



User A has data that must be shared to User B but not User C, in a sub folder, (Sales), of their main DATA folder and another folder (costs) that is reversed

User A creates a share of the Data folder and adds Both User B and User C to have read (or read / write), access
User A sets the NTFS permissions to the Sales Folder so that User A has Access rights but User B does Not, and the NTFS permissions for the Costs folder are set so that Only user B has access.


In the workgroup system the Share allows the connection between the systems and the NTFS rights control the access rights,



The simple sharing option allows only the sharing of the complete share to all users you need the advanced sharing to control multiple share rights as discussed above


I will add that once you've done a few of these type of workgroups it becomes easier but it's never totally straightforward, when it gets to 10 systems with more that a couple of users you should really look at a true Client-Server system but I know this scares CFO's (Accountants), a lot