Creating a shared folder between 2 windows machines

[GLaDOS]

You should probably change some settings in the network and sharing center's "advanced sharing settings" if you haven't done so already.

To do this:
1. look at the main page of the network and sharing center. Take note of the type of network your network card is using I.E. home/work or public.
2. click "change advanced sharing settings" from the left bar.
3. Expand the submenu of the network type you noted in step 1.
4. set network discovery -on. File and printer sharing - on.
5. If you want automatic full access to the public folders (located in c:\users\public) for anyone, turn that on.
6. I personally use 128 bit encryption but unless you have some specific security concerns this shouldn't matter. (but I would make sure they are both set to the same)
7. I've always used password protection, if you try without and run into complications, someone else will have to help.
8. Homegroup connections are lame in my opinion, but I've never truly intended to use them as I don't see any advantage. You can leave this on default it shouldn't matter anyway if you don't then go set it up.

Ultimately depending on your choice of sharing method you don't have to do all the things above, but perhaps for what you've already done "file and printer sharing" is turned off?
good luck.

So I played around with the steps above. When I turn on Password Protection I cannot see any shared files or folders between the two machines. When I turn off Password Protection I can see shared folders, but when I try to access them I get the Windows cannot access \\ComputerName's Files error.

I created a shared folder in My Documents and gave full permission settings, but that doesn't seem to do it. There has to be permission settings somewhere that I'm missing, but I'm just not sure where they are?

 

[ugoboom]

So I played around with the steps above. When I turn on Password Protection I cannot see any shared files or folders between the two machines. When I turn off Password Protection I can see shared folders, but when I try to access them I get the Windows cannot access \\ComputerName's Files error.

I created a shared folder in My Documents and gave full permission settings, but that doesn't seem to do it. There has to be permission settings somewhere that I'm missing, but I'm just not sure where they are?

Did you right click the folder and go to properties, share tab, advanced sharing, share folder and then select the user account?
when you navigate to the folder from the client machine make sure you use \\computername\sharedfolder

If you have passwords on, you will get a box asking for username and password.
If so make sure in the user field you type computername\username
and use the correct password.

 

[GLaDOS]

Did you right click the folder and go to properties, share tab, advanced sharing, share folder and then select the user account?
when you navigate to the folder from the client machine make sure you use \\computername\sharedfolder

If you have passwords on, you will get a box asking for username and password.
If so make sure in the user field you type computername\username
and use the correct password.

I think the issue may be here somewhere. When I right click on the folder, I see the option "Share With..." (I can't seem to find this option when I go into properties). It gives me the option to share it with a Home Group or to add specific people. I'd like to share it with specific people (my other machine). When I choose that option I am presented with several choices from the drop down: Myself, Guest, Everyone, and Create a new user. None of these options seemed appropriate though?

Both of my machines have the same account name (my name). Could that be causing an issue??

Also when I try \\computername\sharedfolder my computer says it cannot access the folder. But when I just do \\computername my computer pulls up all of the shared folders I have and I can see the one I was originally searching for, I just cannot access any of them.

 

[ugoboom]

I think the issue may be here somewhere. When I right click on the folder, I see the option "Share With..." (I can't seem to find this option when I go into properties). It gives me the option to share it with a Home Group or to add specific people. I'd like to share it with specific people (my other machine). When I choose that option I am presented with several choices from the drop down: Myself, Guest, Everyone, and Create a new user. None of these options seemed appropriate though?

Both of my machines have the same account name (my name). Could that be causing an issue??

Also when I try \\computername\sharedfolder my computer says it cannot access the folder. But when I just do \\computername my computer pulls up all of the shared folders I have and I can see the one I was originally searching for, I just cannot access any of them.

You choose the user account that exists on the machine you are sharing from, and then when you connect to that computer, you login with the computername\username on the shared machine

 

[GLaDOS]

So I've revisted this issue. I was able to set up a shared folder using homegroup so for the purpose of easily transferring files between my two machines, I am set up. But for the learning value, I'm still curious as to why just creating a shared folder and searching for it using the //computername feature did not work. I don't mean to drag this thread out, I'm just very curious about why this didn't work and sometimes have other perspectives can really be a big help, so I'd really appreciate any suggestions anyone may have to offer!

I went back and tried a few more different things with this. I turned off the Windows Firewall (for private networks) on both machines, set the access level to Everyone on the shared folder and went into Network and Sharing Center > Advanced sharing settings and under Homegroup connections, set the option to "Use user accounts and passwords to connect to other computers." And I still receive the same error messages (You don't have access to this folder blah blah blah). I'm really not sure what could be causing this error anymore. As far as I can tell, I've set every setting I could find to allow a shared folder. Could it possibly be a router setting?