How to share folders across network?

Chimp Paradox said:
Without powerline how will I connect at all?
Click to expand...

You already have Computer B connected to the router so you need to move Computer A close enough to the router so that you can connect directly to the router, thus bypassing the Powerline adapters. This will allow you to answer the conundrum of 'I think I need to get them showing the same network first'.

What make and model are the Powerline adapters? Some of these have options to operate in different modes.
 
Last edited:
Any just to be clear on the symptoms I am now having:

1. I CAN get the network to work, both through powerline and directly wired. I can stream an hour long programme, listen to music. I can see and look at the shared folders.

2. What needs to happen, though, in order to do this is to wait like 5 minutes after booting in order to be able to do so. Even then, it sometimes doesn't work. I can always see the computer that the shared files are on, but when I click on it it says network path not found.

3. The network continues to be called something different on each machine, but I think thats a red herring (though I do think I should sort that out to make sure it isnt causing issues)

4. Following PanMasters instructions, one significant thing my be something to do with the "Computer Browser" service on the machine which reads from the storage machine. I have set it to automatic, but it changes itself to automatic trigger on it own, and will not start at bootup. Do you think this is what is somehow causing the delay? It is worth noting that even when its not started I can still get the network to work, just heavily delayed. Ive turned off all firewalls, including windows (i never installed anything 3rd party), which I understand is a common problem here, so that cant be causing the issue
 
Last edited:
There are two things of note here:

Firstly, and this relates to your point 2 above, when you boot a Windows PC on a workgroup it can force a browser election. Go make yourself a cup of tea and wait for that to finish.

Secondly, when you connect to Z:, you must click the 'Connect using different credentials' option and put your username for MOTHERSHIP in as mothership\username unless you have the guest account on Mothership enabled (NOT a good idea) and permissions set appropriately.

Something to check is the settings under Advanced Sharing Settings for the Private network. You should have Network Discovery Enabled, and File & Printer Sharing turned on. Check that these settings are set identically on all machines.

Something to consider is turning on Public Folder sharing.

Lastly, a question: when you say that the network is called something different on each machine, do you mean the workgroup name or the connection? The former should be identical, e.g. WORKGROUP; the latter can be different, and are often some variation of Ethernet, e.g. Ethernet 2 or Atheros Ethernet.
 
If you go into 'Network and Sharing Center' then, 'Change adapter settings' I think it shows you your connections there.

If so, what I would do for neatness in the 'Network and Sharing Center' would be the following;

On Computer A, rename the connection called 'Network' to 'ASUS' by right clicking on that network connection's shortcut icon and select rename from the menu that appears.

On Computer B, I would left click on the 'Unidentified network' connection then choose the 'Organise' drop down menu on the toolbar and then select delete.


It's just a computer being a dumb computer really, it does the same thing with wireless connections, just because you connect to a wireless connection with the same SSID it doesn't know that you are actually connecting to the same router that you have done previously as SSID is just a variable that many people could choose as the same thing.

If you can rename them then it just makes it a bit simpler if you end up with more connections at any point, that the screen name you've given a connection is how MS probably refers to it in some dialog box.
 
Last edited:
Chimp Paradox said:
But why does it show a different name? Is it because the one showing Asus is connected to the Asus router directly, while the other one is powerline?
Click to expand...

Most likely, or rather what they were connected to when they were first connected to the network.
 
Last edited:
thenewoc said:
If you go into 'Network and Sharing Center' then, 'Change adapter settings' I think it shows you your connections there.

If so, what I would do for neatness in the 'Network and Sharing Center' would be the following;

On Computer A, rename the connection called 'Network' to 'ASUS' by right clicking on that network connection's shortcut icon and select rename from the menu that appears.

On Computer B, I would left click on the 'Unidentified network' connection then choose the 'Organise' drop down menu on the toolbar and then select delete.


It's just a computer being a dumb computer really, it does the same thing with wireless connections, just because you connect to a wireless connection with the same SSID it doesn't know that you are actually connecting to the same router that you have done previously as SSID is just a variable that many people could choose as the same thing.

If you can rename them then it just makes it a bit simpler if you end up with more connections at any point, that the screen name you've given a connection is how MS probably refers to it in some dialog box.
Click to expand...

Thanks mate.

so is undentified network not my WAN?

network connection's shortcut icon - where is that?

cheers
 
Chimp Paradox said:
Thanks mate.

so is undentified network not my WAN?

network connection's shortcut icon - where is that?

cheers
Click to expand...

I don't think so because other wise both computers would have it.

I think its just holding on to it as that was how it was configured previously on that PC.

The network connection's shortcut icon I'm referring to is in 'change adapter settings' when you're in the 'Network and Sharing Center'.

On my W8 machine it shows the network connections as shortcut icons which I can change the name of or delete.

3JQWtsE.png
 
Thanks so much mate, this is awesome. I've changed both to "powerline", so it shows this:

http://s14.postimg.org/fadrhfd1t/powerline.jpg

On the machine that connects to WAN, it has this in the registry too. Shall I delete it?

http://s8.postimg.org/iyprn2kth/direct.jpg

Finally, interesting, on the same machine (which used to be called Asus and is now called powerline, there was in fact a network called "network" as the upstairs computer), so I assume this wasnt working somehow and should be deleted too?

Could that be the "unidentified network"?

http://s11.postimg.org/j6hzx6npv/network.jpg
 
Hi, I would delete both those profiles that you've referred to in the two screen shots above. They're only profiles, so if it needs them again it would recreate them when needed.

Reboot both machines afterwards and then check the 'Network and Sharing Centre' again on both and hopefully all will look as expected.

Btw, both machines connect to the WAN don't they? I mean the router is connected to the WAN and both PC's connect to the router so both PC's connect to the WAN via the router.
 
Last edited:
thenewoc said:
Hi, I would delete both those profiles that you've referred to in the two screen shots above. They're only profiles, so if it needs them again it would recreate them when needed.

Reboot both machines afterwards and then check the 'Network and Sharing Centre' again on both and hopefully all will look as expected.

Btw, both machines connect to the WAN don't they? I mean the router is connected to the WAN and both PC's connect to the router so both PC's connect to the WAN via the router.
Click to expand...

Thanks will do this and report back. On your last question, yes they both connect - one of them directly, to router and then on to modem, the other more indirectly, through powerline, then on to router, then on to modem.
 
So it appears to work? I actually think the issue here was that "computer browser" service kept turning off. And only when I used a custom program called service trigger to remove both its triggers would it actually stay on auto and load on boat. Thoughts?
 
I don't think it will do any harm having it on auto in your home environment because often I guess both PC's would be on and needing to show up on the network. I guess it will just add a slight overhead to the boot up time.

Odd, that manual triggered wasn't keeping it on though. Could one of the PC's have been going into a power save state, not sure if that would stop it from showing on the network though or maybe a firewall is blocking something. I have Kaspersky and I know that has a section somewhere that shows the network and whether it is public or private and it messes with things if it isn't set correctly.

I had a little test with my w8 tablet which has w8.1 full os and my desktop which has w8 on and there was only a slight delay after the other computer showing on the network before I could get into a shared folder. If the tablet went in to connected standby though it would become inaccessible on the network.

Have you looked in the Event Viewer? Admin start menu > Event Viewer > Windows Logs > System. Then look in the 'Source' column for 'bowser' and 'Browser'. It's all date/time stamped so if you scroll through from around the time today after you edited the profiles in the registry and rebooted the PC's, the details on any warning or error entries might shed some light on what's occurring with that browser service. Also look through anything else from when the PC's were booted for any other warnings or errors in case those shed any light too.
 
Last edited:
Prior to sorting out the triggering of the browser, on the computer which had the issues there are a number of "forced elections" in the even log - "because a master browser was stopped". Any idea what that means?
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top Bottom