share HDD between 2 win7 machines - with log in!

[Bozebo]

Hi, I have a windows 7 laptop and a windows 7 desktop.

I want my laptop to be able to access my desktop C drive and vice-versa. I can get this to work if I allow public reading on the whole network, but I really don't want my flatmates to be able to see the contents of my C drives.

The sharing gui seems to provide a menu to set permissions for just one user but the bastarding thing wont let me add a permission for a user who isn't on the local machine! Even though the network view and the network dropdown in explorer shows all the windows machines and linux machines with samba on them, so why can't it find them in the sharing menu? I also note, it says in the help thingy (I may have accidentally opened Windows help by clicking "examples" while trying to add a user for permissions ) that you can use the format Domain\User, which I tried; But it is unable to find any domains other than the local machine:


(click for full size)

As you can see, my 2 computers (Cupid and Anshar) are discovered in explorer - I have set up a subnet for myself for now - and the help window (screenie below) states that many formats of "object" are correct, for example: Administrator@Cupid, Cupid, Anshar\Administrator etc. (I have tried all combinations of caps too).

And here are my sharing settings (which look correct to me):

Both machines have been recently formatted (in december) and are up to date. My settings are the same on each (apart from the host name of course), I have tried having the same password incase that would work - it didn't.

It is obvious that microsoft intend on having login enabled sharing, but it doesn't seem to work.
So, what the hell are microsoft up to? Cant they make file sharing that actually works? I know for a fact that it can be done because there are sharing properties set up like that at pretty much every business lan there is.

Why would I want everybody to read everything?

I also tried the net use command but it has the same results as the gui

Is there a proper way to get this working? Googling the issue results in threads where people are happy that they manage to get the folder publicly available on the lan after many attempts to get normal sharing working, which I have already done for now.

Thanks in advance.

 

[Pho]

Use the same username/password on both the desktop and the laptop (or add the username/password from the desktop to the laptop and vice-versa) and then add that account to your shares. That should work.

 

[Bozebo]

I have tried having the same password incase that would work - it didn't.

Both usernames are Administrator in addition to that.

 

[Pho]

Have you tried adding the local administrator user/group to the share (I'm not sure if it would make a difference).

 

[Bozebo]

Have you tried adding the local administrator user/group to the share (I'm not sure if it would make a difference).

Hmm... ok that along with trying the same username/pw again works one-way. I can add my desktop drive to my lappy through the network but i cant add the lappy through the desktop at the same time. If I delete the network location from my lappy I can add my lappy's drive on the desktop and then I get the same problem trying to add the desktop one on the laptop :S

Apparently the max users are in use, but I have it set to 20, not 1...

the command line states:

net use \\Anshar\c /user:Administrator (my password)
System error 1219 has occurred.

Multiple connections to a server or shared resource by the same user, using more
than one user name, are not allowed. Disconnect all previous connections to the
server or shared resource and try again.

So they expect me to have different usernames on my desktop and lappy? what in hell... That is impossible because I am using the unlocked Administrator account which can't be renamed. (only way to get perfect full privileges like an admin account on XP).

I will try making another account on both machines, is there a way to hide it from the login screen? I am only wanting it for network access I don't want a selection on startup to log in with it ^_^

edit: I tried making a second account on each machine.
I am still logged into Administrator while using the 2nd account to attempt network drive access. I am still getting the error above even though the alternate account is clearly not logged in on either machine (and is hence not currently accessing the drive?)... even when logged out to the account selection menu it won't work.

I kind of understood how being logged into Administrator on a machine and trying to access it as Administrator wasn't working (multi logon?). But when logged in as Administrator on each machine individually and trying to log into one of the others as Bozebo results in the same error, what could be going wrong? - there is no multi logon on any of the drives :S

I also tried checking for zombie mounts with just net use, there are none on my lappy or my desktop :S So that isn't the problem.

edit:
the problem seems to be that its IMPOSSIBLE to add permissions for anything other than the local machine... The field is even greyed out! (look at "From this location" in Select Users or Groups in my first screenshot and then the Locations window, it only lets you select the local one)

Why is it so bugged? Are Microsoft actually retards? How can they not have QA tested this? I am using home premium, do you think they limit password protected network drive usage to home professional or above? That is the only conclusion I can draw from this. Why does it say in the sharing centre that "people logged on to this computer can still access these folders"? Isn't what I am trying to do exactly that. I am fairly sure that is talking about people logged on via the network and not sitting at the actual machine - because obviously that doesn't count as shared in that context.

 

[Bozebo]

Right.

I undid all my changes and made sure my desktop and laptop have the exact same sharing settings. I deleted the 2nd account that I made. I have only an Administrator account on each machine with the same password and I have added permissions for local administrators access on each one, as Pho suggested (and I have tried a couple of times before too). Bizzarely, my desktop can access my laptop but my laptop cannot access my desktop :S But they have 100% exactly the same settings in every possible network or sharing related gui I can find, the only difference is the ip and mac obviously. How is it even possible for only one device to be able to access the other :S I have tried booting them up in different orders and the same thing happens.

It's that way through the network dropdown in explorer and if I use the net use command to put an external drive listing in :S Laptop can't get to the desktop in either case.

Also, everything on the lan can see my desktop media libraries but cant access them but nothing can see my laptop's media libraries (which is how it should be on my desktop).

So confused... something must be wrong or have bugged out on my desktop but I havn't set it up differently from my laptop, both are fairly fresh installs and I have used my laptop more than my desktop since the format (at home over christmas).

 

[Raumarik]

So your PC can access the laptop but not the other way around, if they're setup identically it could simply be a case of WINS or DNS not working properly if you are accessing the share via the computer name such as \\laptop\folder or \\pc\folder rather than the ip ie \\192.168.1.3\folder

Have you tried simply putting the share address with the IP into the run command to see what happens? all you need to do is shove in:

\\IP\sharename

such as
\\192.168.2.5\mydocs

It's a common problem at home for people as in the workplace they tend to have WINS and DNS servers to get around this problem.

 

[Pho]

Hmm, do you have a firewall enabled on either machine? Temporarily try disabling it to see if it helps.

Also check that both machines belong to the same Workgroup and try accessing the machine via their IP address, that is bring up a run dialog/the startmenu and type \\ip_of_machine.

I'd also have a look through the event viewer (type that into the start menu and it should come up) on both ends, see if an event as added when you try to access the machine unsuccessfully.

edit: beat. Left the tab open without pressing submit .

 

[Bozebo]

Havn't had any firewalls up most of the day trying to fix this.

My desktop has a couple of logs in the event viewer saying:

source: NetBT "The name "WORKGROUP :1d" could not be registered on the interface with IP address 192.168.1.177. The computer with the IP address 192.168.1.231 did not allow the name to be claimed by this computer."

192.168.1.231 is the static ip (were all using static ips on the lan locked in the router by MAC address) of my flatmate's machine who I believe was the first one of us using win7, I know the homegroup password is correct (we just left it as password ).

I can still access other homegroup machines from my desktop fine through explorer - but none of them can access my desktop through explorer :O

Seems a bit odd that one home machine becomes a server for the homegroup, what happens if that machine is off? How is the homegroup etc all organised in that case (does something else become the WINS server?)?

And I can still publicly share folders on my desktop, isnt that handled by the homegroup?

Not sure how I may go about fixing this, what might I have to try on his machine to let mine join - is there a way to control the WINS server? Some googling lead me to believe it was a subnet (or a mac address issue/conflict of some description, but none of our mac addresses have changed) issue but I was only on a different one for a few mins for troubleshooting and I have been back on the same one for a while now.