Removing Computers From Home Network

Networking, connecting to the internet, wi-fi and home entertainment
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hlewton
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Re: Removing Computers From Home Network

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StuartR wrote:I am pretty sure that is correct. It's hard to give a definitive answer because there are so many different possibilities of how it has currently been set up.
Thanks and I hope it works but I really have no idea how it is currently setup. When I get the machines the fellow who builds them for me reminds me how to set them up so I'll contact him to see if there is anything out of the ordinary we did.

I am a little concerned because it appears that turning of Win 7's File and Printer sharing is not at all like doing it in XP. At least so far I have not seen where to do it for individual folders and sub-folders like XP did. The only place I found to turn it off is - Control Panel, and then click Network and Sharing Center. I sure hope that does it.

Again, thanks.
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hlewton

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StuartR
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Re: Removing Computers From Home Network

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Edited by StuartR after testing this out a bit

On the Windows 7 computers

Open Windows Explorer and navigate to any shared files or folders
Right click on the folder and under Advanced Sharing you can disable any sharing that is happening

Go to the Network and Sharing Center
Click "Change advanced sharing settings"
Select "Turn off file and printer sharing"

return to the Network and Sharing Center
Click "Homegroup"
Click "Create a homegroup"

(I just tried this and it reenabled file and printer sharing, so that step may not be needed)
StuartR


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hlewton
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Re: Removing Computers From Home Network

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StuartR wrote:Edited by StuartR after testing this out a bit

On the Windows 7 computers

Open Windows Explorer and navigate to any shared files or folders
Right click on the folder and under Advanced Sharing you can disable any sharing that is happening

Go to the Network and Sharing Center
Click "Change advanced sharing settings"
Select "Turn off file and printer sharing"

return to the Network and Sharing Center
Click "Homegroup"
Click "Create a homegroup"

(I just tried this and it reenabled file and printer sharing, so that step may not be needed)
I had done this too and I can't say I am happy to know it did the same for you by re-enabling the file and printer sharing because that seem to give me little hope about eliminating the XP machines from reaching the Win 7 ones. I checked and with file and printer sharing enabled the XP machines can still access the Win 7 machines even though I have created a Homegroup, somehow the XP machines still see the Win 7 computers in the old Workgroup that they used to belong to. So I am really no further ahead of where I was before making all these changes. Even trying to use the Share With drop down menu in Windows Explorer to share the folders with the Homegroup it turns the file and printer sharing back on as well. If the file and printer sharing is off then even the Win 7 machines cannot see each other.
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hlewton

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hlewton
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Re: Removing Computers From Home Network

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I found the article below and I thought I had it figured out. By setting “Passowrd Protected Sharing” to On it does stop the XP machines from accessing the Win 7 machines and the Win 7 machines can then access each other.

However, the passage in bold seems to be true until you reboot the Win 7 machines. At that point XP machines still cannot access the Win 7 machines, the other Win 7 machines show up in the Homegroup when opening Windows Explorer but they cannot not be accessed. If I turn off the “Passowrd Protected Sharing,” access the other Win 7 machine, then turn it back on the Win 7 machines will continue to access each other until the next reboot. Any ideas how to fix this?


Password protected sharing is a more secure method of sharing files and folders on a network, and it is enabled by default. If password protected sharing is turned on, people on your network will not be able to access shared folders on other computers on the network, including the Public folders (except on a homegroup), unless they log in to a user account with a password on the computer that has the shared folders stored on it. They will be prompted to type a user name and password when accessing the shared folders.

This tutorial will show you how to turn Password protected sharing on or off in Windows 7.

You must be logged in as an administrator to be able to do the steps in this tutorial.
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hlewton

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StuartR
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Re: Removing Computers From Home Network

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I suspect your problem may be because you don't use passwords on any of your computers. I have never tried this as I wouldn't be happy with that level of protection.
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hlewton
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Re: Removing Computers From Home Network

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StuartR wrote:I suspect your problem may be because you don't use passwords on any of your computers. I have never tried this as I wouldn't be happy with that level of protection.
I was wondering about this but am leery of trying that. First I am not sure how to assign them now but could find that out I suppose. But I am not sure if that would mean I would have to have the same password on each machine because of attaching in each direction. Both machines perform identical now so I tried searching the WEB for help. I did not find any but did find that machines that use guest passwords often times cannot turn off the password sharing protection so if that is the case I am concerned I may not ever again be able to access the other Win 7 machines. Not sure if that makes sense but since I have never used passwords on my machines I have no idea how that would work.
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StuartR
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Re: Removing Computers From Home Network

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I am nervous of offering advice, as I have never used computers without passwords.

In general if you have identical passwords and usernames on your Windows 7 computers then they can connect to each other with no problems. Also if you have a homegroup and you enter the same homegroup password on all the computers then they can access the documents you selected for sharing in the homegroup.
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hlewton
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Re: Removing Computers From Home Network

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StuartR wrote:I am nervous of offering advice, as I have never used computers without passwords.

In general if you have identical passwords and usernames on your Windows 7 computers then they can connect to each other with no problems. Also if you have a homegroup and you enter the same homegroup password on all the computers then they can access the documents you selected for sharing in the homegroup.
Thanks but you need not be nervous.

I am trying to familiarize myself with how the passwords would work and though my computers will not have the same name as far as the administrator account is concerned, which is the only account that is ever used on my machines, I could have the same password to access them if I set up a password at all. From what I can determine, and I could be all wrong, if I do have passwords to log on to my administrator accounts on each machine, and I don't believe they need be the same, I then believe those machines would be recognized in the Homegroup that each is a member of and work fine being able to have shared folders on each.

I am having one of my newer XP machines updated right now to Windows 7 and when I pick it up I am going to discuss exactly how to assign passwords to these administrator accounts on each machine even though I am still not sure I will put them on. I have been thinking a lot about this and since 95 percent of the time there will be no XP machines turned on I will have no concern. When they are turned on it will be for my grandkids to play games on or for me to run programs that will not run on Win 7 computers. Even then I will be protected because the Win 7 machine or machines that will be turned on at the same time I will make sure the Password Protected Sharing is on by having that be the default state of my Win 7 computers. Then the times I need to share files I will turn it off but only if there are no XP machines on at the same time. I believe that will work. It may not be ideal but I think it is a viable solution.

I may have another solution tomorrow if MS support follows through on their promise to contact me which they were supposed to do today but failed. I have a paid support program with them and after working on my problem for almost 2 hours yesterday, with no solution, they scheduled a second level support call back for me but, as I mentioned they failed to call me. After firing off an email informing them I never got the call they did call me and reschedule for tomorrow. So if they have a solution other than what I just suggested I'll let you know. However, their support desk never even mentioned the Password Protected Sharing option so I am not at all sure how good they really are. I found that Password Protected Sharing option after hanging up after the 2 hours with them. I'll mention to them about what I found and see if there is a way around using passwords but I doubt there will be just because the name Password Protected Sharing seems to suggest that passwords are needed.

Thanks again for your help because you, my computer builder, and google are the only reasons I at least have one solution today.
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hlewton

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hlewton
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Re: Removing Computers From Home Network

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I did get the call today from MS second level support and we discussed everything I mentioned above and if there was any way around it other than assigning passwords to the computers. For what I had done to that point the only way is to assign passwords to keep XP machines from accessing the Win 7 machines. He did, however, have a couple other things to try and I may but I just didn't want to do it yet. One suggestions was to go to the Security tab of properties of the shared folders on the Win 7 machines and add groups or user names for the other machines there. Not sure if that would eliminate the XP machines but he seemed to think it would. He is going to call back Saturday and I'll question him a little more about that ounce I have a better understanding of it.

One interesting thing he suggested was to stop the XP machines from reaching the Win 7 machines was to set the file sharing connections to 128 bit encryption; which I had done as one of the first things I had tried. He seemed a little puzzled why the XP machines could still reach the windows 7 machines. I certainly have no idea.

His other suggestion was to get a third party security program to set these permissions up better than Windows can do it as briefly described above. He didn't know the names of any at the time so I said I'd post a question to see if anyone here knows of a good third party security program that works well in conjunction with Windows 7. So that is what I'm asking.

Thanks.
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hlewton

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StuartR
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Re: Removing Computers From Home Network

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hlewton wrote:...I said I'd post a question to see if anyone here knows of a good third party security program that works well in conjunction with Windows 7. So that is what I'm asking.
No idea. Sorry.
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hlewton
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Re: Removing Computers From Home Network

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OK thanks. That support tech is supposed to call me back Saturday and let me know what he has found, if anything.
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hlewton