As was foretold, we've added advertisements to the forums! If you have questions, or if you encounter any bugs, please visit this thread: https://forums.penny-arcade.com/discussion/240191/forum-advertisement-faq-and-reports-thread/

Networking and file sharing - Why is this shit never easy?!

Seriously, why? It's supposed to be easy! It's supposed to do it itself and work! But it never just works!!!

I have 3 computers.

-Computer Alpha. This is the main PC, running Windows 8. It has the printer and modem physically connected to it.
-Computer Beta. A desktop computer running Windows XP. It's in another room, but also physically connected to the modem via a long ethernet cord.
-Computer Delta. A netbook running XP. It connects wirelessly to the modem.

Alpha can see Beta, and can go into all the shared folders and such.

Whether Alpha can see Delta is completely random. Sometimes it's automatically listed in the network (often when the thing is turned off!), other times it's not there. However manually typing in //Delta gives full access to all shared files.

Beta can see and access Delta's folders and vice versa. Again though, sometimes Beta doesn't normally list Delta's folders until I manually type it in.

Beta and Delta can SEE Alpha's shared folders, but they get an instant. "Access denied. You don't have permission" error. No access at all. They do however have access to the printer and can print perfectly normally.

They are all in the same homegroup. I've panned over every single file sharing option Windows 8 has. On Private, Peer discovery is on. File/print sharing is on. Allowing Windows to manage homegroup connections is on. On Guest, network discovery and file sharing is on. On All Networks, Turn on sharing is on. Encryption is 128 bits (if this has any sort of effect, gut reaction is no). Password protecting is OFF.

So to put it all in a nutshell, Alpha has free access to all the other computers, but not vice versa. How do I get the other computers access to Alpha? All googling is telling me is that Windows should just simply take care of everything, so long as they're all in the same homegroup. But clearly it's not, and I've no freakin' clue why.

"The sausage of Green Earth explodes with flavor like the cannon of culinary delight."

Posts

  • grouch993grouch993 Both a man and a numberRegistered User regular
    Don't have W8, but W7's file sharing and permissions were different than XP. I had to go search for a write up on how to allow sharing all around. I vaguely remember having to set up user accounts, match names and some other fiddling.

    Sorry, no link to the guide(s) to share, but guessing searching for the W7 to XP sharing and trying that might help?

    Steam Profile Origin grouchiy
  • The WolfmanThe Wolfman Registered User regular
    Searching for Windows 7 Windows XP file sharing eventually got me a page detailing how to make it freakin' work. Aside from the basics that should just be enough, it also involved going into hyper advanced sharing options. End result: success.

    Thanks a ton!.

    ...Seriously, why is it never easy?!

    "The sausage of Green Earth explodes with flavor like the cannon of culinary delight."
  • EchoEcho ski-bap ba-dapModerator mod
    ...Seriously, why is it never easy?!

    It depends. Do you have easy access to black goats and an ancient blade made out of obsidian?

    I feel your pain. That shit just never works, and I've been using Windows since 1986. (for given values of "using" what with being six at the time)

    After enough rage I give up and just use Dropbox unless it's big stuff.

    For OS X I just airdrop it. It Just Works.

  • denihilistdenihilist Ancient and Mighty Registered User, Moderator mod
    I have never used Airdrop but I will be using it a lot at home now. Thanks Echo!

Sign In or Register to comment.