Windows cannot access \\Computername

Ah!!! I'm about to pull my hair out here. : I know there's someone here who can help me. I've searched the www.answers.microsoft.com site and couldn't find a solution to my problem. Here's the issue:

I want to share my D: and E: drives on my Desktop with my old lady's Netbook. Simple, right? I right click on the drive, click Properties, click Sharing, click Advanced Sharing. Then I put a check in the box "Share this folder". The share name is set as "D". I click on the permissions button and highlight the "Everyone Group" And put a tick in the "Full Control" box. I then click Apply, Apply, and one more Apply till all boxes are closed.

I go to my netbook and open my Network. I see my Desktop and the D: and E: shares. When I double click on them to access them, I get the message "Windows Cannot Access \\Desktop\d. You do not have permission to access \\Desktop\d. Contact your network administrator to request access". The same problem occurs when I try to access my C: drive on the netbook from my desktop.

My Desktop's name is "Desktop" and my netbook name is "Netbook" (Awesome I know, right? ) Enable NetBIOS over TCP/IP is enabled over IPv4. My network settings are set like the picture says. And my problem is also shown. My Desktop is running Windows 7 x64 Ultimate and the Netbook is running Windows 7 Ultimate 32-bit.

Is there something I'm missing?? It used to be in XP just share a folder, set the permissions, and that was it. I miss that simplicity...

There's a local security policy that may help you:
Type secpol.msc in the run prompt and navigate to Local Policies -> Security Options. Look for the 'Network access: Let Everyone permissions apply to anonymous users' setting and change it to enabled.

Ensure both the share and NTFS permissions are set as desired and that 'Client for Microsoft Networks' is enabled on your LAN settings (it is by default).

If you do not wish to change your security policies, you could also add the user ANONYMOUS LOGON to the share and NTFS permissions.

I tried doing that on my desktop with no luck This is really making me feel dumb.

try mapping it as a drive on your netbook, and use your desktop\dave credentials as the username\pass

I'll give that a try. Thanks!

Well it just says that "the network folder is currently mapped using a different user name and password. To connect using a different user name and password, first disconnect any existing mappings to this network share"

What the heck?

what versions of windows are on which machine?

Is the netbook on the same workgroup? Not sure if it matters but I recall it could be a problem if it isn't.

Again, you need to make sure you have permissions set for both the share AND the NTFS permissions of the location the share is set up for. Since you're trying to share the root of your D: drive, you have to go to the Security tab of the drive properties and add the Everyone group (typically a bad idea to give Everyone full control).

If you do what I said and it still doesn't work, the go back to your Local Security Policy and change the 'Network access: Sharing and security model for local accounts' to Classic; I'm pretty sure yours is probably set as Guest only and you may have your Guest account disabled.

THF, the netbook is Win 7 Ultimate x86 and the Desktop is Win 7 Ultimate 64 bit. And each computer is on the default workgroup "WORKGROUP".

Wow... I feel like an idiot. I added the permissions for the "Everyone" Group on the drive's security tab. Works like a charm now...

My question is when I want to do this again, what group do I need to add to the NTFS Permissions? I'd rather not add the "Everyone" group again for security reasons.

SuperDave1685 said:

Wow... I feel like an idiot. I added the permissions for the "Everyone" Group on the drive's security tab. Works like a charm now...

My question is when I want to do this again, what group do I need to add to the NTFS Permissions? I'd rather not add the "Everyone" group again for security reasons.

Click to expand...

Depends what your objectives are. I'd assume that you just want to access and manipulate files from your other computer--if this is all you want to do, you could remove the everyone group, ensure that Sharing and security model is set to Classic, then you should be prompted for credentials when you try to whack into the share. You would enter in the credentials for a local account on the machine you're trying to access (type the name as Desktop\dave if you're accessing your desktop from your laptop), then check the remember credentials option.

The other thing you could do--which is something I do with my server--is what the previous poster mentioned: map to the share as a network drive. use to persistently map the drive as Y:

By Classic, you're talking about requiring a username/password to access the share, right? Basically turning on password-protected sharing. I think I tried that, but when I entered my account info (username - Administrator, pw - xxxxxxxxx'), it said the credentials weren't valid Is there some sort of security policy preventing me from using the Administrator account to access a share remotely?

On a side note, I did successfully map the drives on my Netbook

That is because the credentials for connecting to a Windows 7 machine is "computername\user", not just "user".

Ahh.... so in order to connect to my Desktop from my Netbook I would have to type in the username prompt "\\Desktop\Administrator" or just "Desktop\Administrator" ?

The latter. "Desktop\Administrator"

Thanks! You guys are a life saver!

I used to have issues mapping my drives. Somehow it's a lot easier putting everyone on the same HomeGroup.

It helped a bunch when I RDC and mapping. So far, it is about the only useful part of of the feature. I think it automatically adds permissions. It also makes it a lot simpler figuring out permissions via the advanced sharing settings in HomeGroup control.