Solved File sharing

The way I share files is either through my NAS, OneDrive, or if I need direct access to a PC, Remote Desktop.

Anyway, I've got file and print sharing turned on so I see all my PCs on the network. Also have mapped NAS drives.

Wisewiz said:

That sounds dangerous to me. Did you get that solution from a trusted source?

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Microsoft is the source to supplement the information.
Regards

Pirilampo2 said:

Microsoft is the source to supplement the information.

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Gotcha. My suspicions were unfounded.
MS:

1. Press and hold (right-click) LanmanWorkstation, select New > DWORD (32-bit) Value, and then name it AllowInsecureGuestAuth. Double-click it, set the Value data to 1, and then press Enter.

No further argument from me.

Dan

Tomo53 said:

After installed Windows 11 I can't see other computers in my home network as before. I can only see my NAS and also connect to it. Previous file sharing does not work anymore. File sharing center doesn't seem to look like before. I have two Windows 10 computer and one Windows 11 in my network.
After Windows 7 file sharing become more complicating and hard to get working. Now it look like it become even more hard. Tell me if I'm wrong.
Anyone know how to get around this?

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In File Sharing problems, I look in the following order:

1. The WiFi connection must be marked as Private.
2. The router is configured to assign the same static IP address to each machine on the network, based on individual device Mac addresses.
3. I prefer using the IP address instead of the name when setting up shares.
4. Security properties of shared folders.
5. I create a dummy user account with the same name on all the devices. This dummy account credentials is what I would use to connect to shared folders. That way I don't have to use my Microsoft account or primary account details for sharing.

Brink said:

I'd double check everything in option 1 below again to make sure both computers have the same.

Share Files and Folders Over a Network in Windows 10

How to Share Files and Folders Over a Network in Windows 10

www.tenforums.com

When sharing, you'll need to use the account's credentials that own the share on the computer you are trying to access unless you have password protected sharing turned off.

If none of the above helps, test with SMB1 enabled on both computers.

Personally, I never did find File Sharing on Windows very reliable, and ended up using a NAS to share files on between all my devices on the same network.

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Why not use some other protocol like SFTP instead of involving a 3rd device (NAS)?

I can usually force a computer to show up in my network by running the following batch file:
FDResPub.bat
net stop FDResPub
net start FDResPub

As an alternative I have a folder on my desktop containing shortcuts to each computer in my network. Even when the computer does not show up in the Network the shortcut usually works.

TheMystic Says:
n File Sharing problems, I look in the following order:

1. The WiFi connection must be marked as Private.
2. The router is configured to assign the same static IP address to each machine on the network, based on individual device Mac addresses.
3. I prefer using the IP address instead of the name when setting up shares.
4. Security properties of shared folders.
5. I create a dummy user account with the same name on all the devices. This dummy account credentials is what I would use to connect to shared folders. That way I don't have to use my Microsoft account or primary account details for sharing.

What do you mean by it replaced the NAME ? its going to create another persons login and it is going to make anther desktop on that comptuter like in picture A
like this: dons1070 so a router must know how to assign a IP to a computer user when you say NAME then the IP address must replace what name ? the \\first part\second part ?? ". I prefer using the IP address instead of the name when setting up shares."
when you say that all the machines have the same static IP address then how would a program like tightvnc work ? How would ANYTHING work ?? I am missing something about how these computers talk to each other if they can all have the same IP address.

TheMystic Said:
"The router is configured to assign the same static IP address to each machine"
He should have said
"The router is configured to assign a different static IP address to each machine"

A couple years ago I logged into my router and changed all the IP addresses to static. It didn't help at all with file sharing. Last year when I got a new router I let it assign dynamic IP addresses to each computer. Right now I don't know or care what the IP addresses are because I access each of the computers by its network name. For example, for the computer called DarkMatter I have a shortcut called \\DarkMatter.

Some people say to create shortcuts to individual shares. That is unnecessary. It is better to just assign a shortcut to the computer itself. If you double-click on that it will show what shares are available on that computer.

I have seen cases that a computer doesn't show on the network but can be accessed if you type its name or IP address, such as \\computername or \\192.168.xxx.xxx This is because a specific service advertising its shared resources is not running and it is essentially hidden from the others. I don't remember which this service is. Also to make sure you can access a shared folder you must give access rights to all accounts you want to access it. Since it is on my own home network and I don't mind the extra security risks, I give access to Everyone and also disable password for sharing. This always works from Windows XP and newer.

PS: i recently had a problem connecting any computer to a shared printer. The solution was to disable RPC encryption, see my relevant thread. I am not sure if this also applies to shared folders like in your case.

I've been trying to diagnose file and folder sharing problems.
One of my Windows 11 computers has SMB Direct enabled, but the other two don't.

What is the default setting for SMB Direct in Windows 11 24H2?

Maybe this answers the question about SMB Direct in Windows 10 and 11.

Note:

Windows 10 and Windows 11 family are restricted to client-only and can't act as an SMB Direct server.

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