Windows 7 Home Network issue

slave1

Background.
UPC cable modem wired to a Netgear 8-Port 10/100/1000 Mbps Switch, switch feeds onto a number of items including my Main PC and HTPC, internet up and running on both PCs, no hassle there.
I have just built a new HTPC and having problems sharing the new HTPC across the W7 Home Network. My old HTPC was Vista and connected RJ-45 to RJ-45 to the Main PC which was and remains Windows 7 and shared files both ways without issue. New HTPC is Windows 7.
Whatever setting I had on my Main PC allows my new HTPC to see it's shared folders without issue, getting transfer speed of 80-100mb so very happy with that. Pretty sure I fixed the local IP on the Main PC for P2P purposes.

The issue is that I cannot get the new HTPC to share ITS FILES with the network and I've tried everything, well obviously not everything but all I am aware of and followed various MS online tuts to no avail.

Would welcome any suggestions to get this network up and going properly.
Also as a tag, how do you share an entire DRIVE across a Home Network rather than me having to share each folder; my HTPC has literally hundreds of folders (8.5TB) to don't want to share one at a time.

Driving me fooping crazy...:(

slave1

Okay, short answer was to fix local IP address and follow this guide.
Posted this should anyone else encounter problems in the future.

vibe666

hate to be a killjoy, but that set up you have is a REALLY BAD idea.

i assume when you say "cable modem" you're talking about the single network port scientific atlanta modem, not the 4 port cisco router?

and that you have this connected to a switch and you have computers connected to that sharing files out?

you're basically sharing your stuff with the whole of the internet.

you NEED (and i can't stress the word 'need' enough here) to get yourself a router with an SPI firewall or you're asking for trouble.

as for the other thing, sharing a whole drive works exactly the same as sharing a foler, just right click on it in win7, share with, advanced sharing, share this folder, add permissions etc. but i wouldn't recommend doing it until you have a private LAN behind a router/firewall to do it on.

you should also have hidden administrative shares on all your drives which are the drive letter followed by a $ sign so \\yourpc\c$ gets you to the c drive etc. just as a side note, you can make any share at any level hidden by putting a $ next to it so you can only get to it if you already know it's there, it can't just be browsed to as it will be invisible at \\yourpc\

slave1

i assume when you say "cable modem" you're talking about the single network port scientific atlanta modem, not the 4 port cisco router?

and that you have this connected to a switch and you have computers connected to that sharing files out?

cable modem = cisco 2425 AFAIR
yes, modem connected to switch and all PC's connected to switch

you're basically sharing your stuff with the whole of the internet.

I could be alright, but probably have been for years

you NEED (and i can't stress the word 'need' enough here) to get yourself a router with an SPI firewall or you're asking for trouble.

Head starting to hurt here, I've a solid 15mb internet and a working network so my networking abilities are stretched, would not have the first on a router with SPI firewall, is this via the bridging I read about on the BBand forum, if so it's over my head?

as for the other thing, sharing a whole drive works exactly the same as sharing a foler, just right click on it in win7, share with, advanced sharing, share this folder, add permissions etc. but i wouldn't recommend doing it until you have a private LAN behind a router/firewall to do it on.

yeah, did that but various folders within the drive were not sharing so needed to be shared via permissions/security/sharing

Cuddlesworth

The easiest way would be to set up a account on the HTTP machine and share it out to the others using that. Otherwise you get into either Setting up a windows seven homegroup or messing with NTFS shares.

Edit; reading back over your post I think both you and I missed some of the basics.

vibe666

slave1 wrote: »

cable modem = cisco 2425 AFAIR
yes, modem connected to switch and all PC's connected to switch

panic over, if you have the cisco EPC2425 then it's a modem AND router in one, so you should be grand as long as you didn't turn off the firewall on the config page.

if it was a scientific atlanta 2203 then that is just a modem and you might have been in trouble, but if its the cisco epc2425 then you should be grand, sorry to panic you.

slave1 wrote: »

Head starting to hurt here, I've a solid 15mb internet and a working network so my networking abilities are stretched, would not have the first on a router with SPI firewall, is this via the bridging I read about on the BBand forum, if so it's over my head?

its okay, the cisco has a built in firewall anyway, so you should be fine assuming it's not been turned off, but it's on by default so it should be fine.

slave1 wrote: »

yeah, did that but various folders within the drive were not sharing so needed to be shared via permissions/security/sharing

grand, so you got that bit sorted anyway?

what i normally do is, since it's pretty much mostly me accessing shared stuff locally on my network is create a user account on the machine in question and then add that user account to the local administrators group and then create a share and give local administrators full control of it and remove anything else.

that way, not only do you have full access, but if you need to add access for other users you can do it remotely on the share itself without having to log onto the machine directly.

slave1

I'm okay then, most of my files came from the internet in the first place anyhow!!!