OS and Software > Microsoft Help > [WIN8] Homegroup question

[WIN8] Homegroup question

I think there is an option to make User files private. I do remember seeing that option in the User Accounts section of Control panel.
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reply to Bob
One way that has worked since NT 3.1:

1) Use the same usernames and passwords throughout.

2) Don't use "homegroups" [yes, I genuinely didn't use homegroups in NT 3.1: they did not exist]

3) If the "simple file sharing" option still exists, turn it off. Simple file sharing is too complicated.

reply to dave
OK, what is a homegroup supposed to do? (Maybe that's why I'm confused.)

reply to Bob
I'm not entirely sure, since I never felt the need for one (having grown up with the old-fashioned way). I think it permits access to shared public directories, the access being restricted to computers that know the homegroup password (i.e., which have joined the homegroup) and without requiring keeping all usernames and passwords in sync.

i.e., coarser-grained access control than individual usernames, but better than the 'everyone is a guest' model of simple file sharing.

Yes, the thing you want is 'use user accounts and passwords'. The bit about making them the same everywhere is so you never have to type them - there's a quiet handling of authentication if the username+password on your machine happens to work on the one you're connecting to.

OK, I switched to the 'use passwords' setting, but it still doesn't work the way I want. Here's want I want:

Computer A             Computer B
Win7                   Win8
Admin 1                Admin 1
User 1                 User 1
User 2                 User 2
Printer

What shares did you create?

I'm at a loss to explain why this is so difficult, since in my experience it isn't. Consistent user names and passwords; create shares on that which needs to be shared; ensure permissions are appropriate, the end.

I think it's because the computers belong to the same homegroup. I've come to the conclusion that homegroups are for wide-open access between users, which is not what I want.

So, it's time to get rid of the homegroup and try again.

I killed the Homegroup, and now access is working exactly the way I want.

Only minor problem is that sometimes when the Win8 laptop goes to access the Win7 desktop, Win8 says that it can't access the Win7 system. The computer name shows up in Explorer, but clicking on it produces an error message. After about 30 to 60 seconds, then I can access it.

Are there any obvious settings that would cause this:

If I remember correctly, there was a modification made to the way Windows stores cached credentials (or maybe it was persistent connections) in regards to how things worked in Windows XP and how they worked in Windows 7 (and I would assume, in Windows 8 as well).

Does this happen just after a reboot of one or both systems? Or if you don't access the share for a long time, and then go back to access it again?

Now, I may be thinking of something else, but I kind of recall working with the AD team at my last company, and them having to change the login scripts for the drive mappings because of the way Windows 7 functioned compared to XP. I believe they had to verify that all drives being mapped were "persistent" so that the connection would remain open. If they did not do that, the users would get some kind of error (don't remember if it was the same as you got), but then if they tried it again, all was good.

--Brian
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--Brian Plencner

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reply to Bob
Try using the IP address of the computer, not the computer name - it seems there is a DNS resolution issue on the internal network - people were having this issue 2 or 3 years ago with Win 7.

This seems to have an explanation on what you see - »answers.microsoft.com/en-us/wind···657fe45c

Answer 11 off this link seems to help too, give it a try
»social.technet.microsoft.com/For···fb92082/

quote:

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For what it's worth department. I tried ALL the above suggestions to no avail but in my case the following worked for my situation.

Go to Control Panel
Go to Credential Manager on each Windows 7 machine on the network
Under Windows Credentials, type in the name of each machine, username and password

It sounds too simple but it worked for me. The shared files and folders popped right up after this!

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reply to plencnerb

I think I solved the problem. I uninstalled Classic Explorer (part of Classic Shell) on the Win8 system, and the problem went away. I'll keep my fingers crossed and hope that was the cause.

Nope, the problem wasn't solved. I'm still getting timeouts, but only when using the Win8 system to access files on the Win7 system.

I'm not mapping entire drives, or even mapping any shares explicitly. I have the following on both PCs:

• No homegroup
• "Use user accounts and passwords to connect to other computers"
• "Turn on password protected sharing"

So when I connect to another PC by looking at the 'Network' hierarchy in File Explorer, I'll see:

Network
  I7-860
    Users
      Bob
        Documents
        Pictures
      User2
      User3
      Public
  P850-ST3N02

So at the same time File Explorer is saying it can't access the other computer, I can ping the system using the network name:

C:\windows\system32>ping "i7-860"

Pinging i7-860 [fe80::8c99:ab4f:f65b:fefd%13] with 32 bytes of data:
Reply from fe80::8c99:ab4f:f65b:fefd%13: time=4ms
Reply from fe80::8c99:ab4f:f65b:fefd%13: time=4ms
Reply from fe80::8c99:ab4f:f65b:fefd%13: time=4ms
Reply from fe80::8c99:ab4f:f65b:fefd%13: time=4ms

Ping statistics for fe80::8c99:ab4f:f65b:fefd%13:
    Packets: Sent = 4, Received = 4, Lost = 0 (0% loss),
Approximate round trip times in milli-seconds:
    Minimum = 4ms, Maximum = 4ms, Average = 4ms

C:\windows\system32> 

reply to Bob
The issue here is that the User1 account on each machine is not the same user1. If you were in a domain and used a domain login then user1 on any machine would be the same account and only one user1 account could be made.

User1 was made a local account on each machine. Like this
ComputerA\User1 and ComputerB\User1
so to access file on ComputerB from ComputerA you have to do one of these two things.

Either add ComputerA\User1 the the shared folder permissions on ComputerB

Or

When you try and map the drive or shared folder from ComputerB on ComputerA type in the user account from ComputerB like this ComputerB\User1 because ComputerA\User1 does not have access to the files on ComputerB