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Can anyone shed some light on Windows file sharing?
LoneIgadzra
Registered User regular
Registered User regular
I'm always trying to get this to work and failure is pretty much constant. I've thrown my hands in the air in defeat more times than I can count trying to get one PC (typically running Windows XP) to connect to another's network share. Is there some surefire procedure to make this piece of shit protocol not just sit there indefinitely (with explorer hung) before finally giving me an error?
Why do shares sometimes show up in My Network Places and sometimes not? How come when my friend turns on a share on his laptop I can't connect at all even though I've checked the firewall and and made sure all computers have the same workgroup and everything?
How come sometimes I can't connect to the samba share on my MacBook from a PC, even though it worked last time and I changed nothing?
How come when I changed the password on one of my computers, my roommate's computer that had the old password saved can no longer connect and yet is too dumb to prompt for the password again and just hangs for five minutes?
How come sometimes when I try to connect to a share despite having the right address and username/password, it fails completely and asks me for "MYCOMPUTER\username" and a password and then still doesn't work. What the fuck is that about? The name on the account isn't "MYCOMPUTER\username".
So basically Windows file sharing randomly fails to work with no explanation all the goddamn time. Am I doing something wrong?
Oh yeah, and in a great fit of irony, the only computer than I can reliably connect to Windows shares from is my MacBook.
Why do shares sometimes show up in My Network Places and sometimes not? How come when my friend turns on a share on his laptop I can't connect at all even though I've checked the firewall and and made sure all computers have the same workgroup and everything?
How come sometimes I can't connect to the samba share on my MacBook from a PC, even though it worked last time and I changed nothing?
How come when I changed the password on one of my computers, my roommate's computer that had the old password saved can no longer connect and yet is too dumb to prompt for the password again and just hangs for five minutes?
How come sometimes when I try to connect to a share despite having the right address and username/password, it fails completely and asks me for "MYCOMPUTER\username" and a password and then still doesn't work. What the fuck is that about? The name on the account isn't "MYCOMPUTER\username".
So basically Windows file sharing randomly fails to work with no explanation all the goddamn time. Am I doing something wrong?
Oh yeah, and in a great fit of irony, the only computer than I can reliably connect to Windows shares from is my MacBook.
LoneIgadzra on
+1
Posts
And yes, it's hilarious that "Windows" shares work more reliably from MacOS and Linux than they do from Windows.
I use xp exclusively at the moment, no vista so I can't help anyone there. But I set very specific permissions and have no issues.
The basics are, of course, same workgroup, make sure your firewall is going to allow the windows file sharing to pass and all requests in.
Then, if you really want to dig into it, go to any explorer window, Tools->Folder Options->View and uncheck Use Simple File Sharing.
Then you can really dive in and set all your security and permissions correctly. Then just reboot and voila. But make absolutely sure you rename, disable, and password default guest and admin accounts.
Last time I spent 20 minutes fuming and then set up an ssh/rsync server so I could just scp stuff between computers.
Yes, IP's are dynamic so we don't have to change configurations on Windows machines all the time (as XP lacks a profile manager for moving between networks - way to go go Microsoft for not copying a feature that was in Mac OS 9!) and anyway this problem happens on most any router I've used.
Actually, I think it's because Apple patented it.
try adding this protocals on both computers
NWlinknetbio's
netbios compatible transport protocal
nwlink ipx/spx
then run network set up again
pulled that directly from: http://forums.speedguide.net/showthread.php?s=&threadid=103569
Personally, I use my router to assign all my devices a static IP based on MAC address. This allows me to briefly glance at a list of IPs on my network and know if something doesn't belong. I've not had problems yet with windows machines finding each other and I don't have to install extra networking protocols on install.
Up to you to pick which solution you'd like.
Yes, I've been drinking. No, I've never ever, not even once, had a problem with Windows sharing. I've been using it since 1995.
Are you looking at the Security tab as well as the Sharing tab? Are you high while working on your PCs? Does your software firewall block the sharing?
I'm sorry, I don't mean to be a dick, I know I am being one. But SERIOUSLY. This isn't like shell scripting. This is something my MOTHER does... without instruction.
Yeah. I'll probably edit these posts tomorrow. Woo.
Also, the password thing (showcasing Microsoft's incredible attention to detail), and what is wrong with my MacBook Pro's samba server that my PC's can't connect at random times?
That makes no sense. If two machines are on the same subnet then the router's routing tables has nothing to do with anything. The PCs will never contact the default gateway since they both have routes already configured automagically for the local subnet to send traffic directly out on the interface.
Windows is supposed to figure out IP address of machines using NBT. The machines do a broadcast to the local subnet and other machines respond. They figure out who the master browser is going to be. That one keeps a list of the machines. This is what screws up most of the time in Windows file sharing. Computers don't "see" the other machines on the network in network neighborhood.
If you try connecting using the UNC path to the share it works fine almost all the time. If the name doesn't work, use the IP address. When you try connecting via UNC using the computer name it does a broadcast to the local subnet and if the other machine isn't screwed up it should reply with it's name.
This all breaks of course if you have a more complicated network with multiple subnets. Then you need a WINS server for name resolution.
Name resolution through this crap also breaks comically if the host name of your computer is 16 characters. Netbios names have a 16 character limit but the 16th character is reserved. This breaks 16 character names. Even if the names have periods in them so as to clue Windows into the fact that it should use DNS to resolve them it can still screw up the name resolution stuff that the file sharing garbage uses.
I've learned that unless my Windows machine is in a domain to always just type the UNC path to the share I want to connect to. Using the network icon to try and locate the machines breaks so frequently as to be almost useless. Its especially useless if the machines happen to be in different workgroups.