Networking Error Between Windows 8 and all other computers

MysterioMask

Posts: 128   +0
Everything on the network was set up fine with sharing between all the computers and it seemed like as time went on the windows 8 computer encountered more and more problems. One of the xp computers suddenly required a password to access the windows 8 computer. Windows 8 suddenly couldn't access any of the other computers but you could still push files to it from the other ones. But now I cant push any files to the windows 8 computer or access any of the windows 7 or xp computers files from the windows 8 comp. I get an error message saying Network Error: Windows cannot access \\insertnamehere\insertdrivehere : You do not have permission to access \\insertnamehere\insertdrivehere. Contact your network administrator to request access.

I get this error message through both windows 8 and 7, and xp gives a cannot access error. But I can see the drives I wish to access and the computers themselves I just cannot get into the drives even though all my permissions seem to be set properly.

If anyone can help it would be appreciated.
 

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First it is a big time security hole to allow shared access directly to a drive
Sharing should be to a directory such as
  • \\systemName\publicFolder or
  • \\systemName\personalDocuments
Sharing has two major components:
  • network access to the \\systemName
  • NTFS access to the specific sharedFolderName
Hopefully your XP is SP3 which has the LLTP service necessary for Win/{7&8}. If you have XP SP1 or 2, then find the LLTP update for it.

Before we go crazy, you mentioned
any of the other computers
so verify that all the other systems can share with each other (ie ignore Win/8) in both directions A can share with B and conversely. This will ensure the systems are configured correctly AND that the firewall is not a problem.
 
First it is a big time security hole to allow shared access directly to a drive

Sharing should be to a directory such as
  • \\systemName\publicFolder or
  • \\systemName\personalDocuments
Sharing has two major components:
  • network access to the \\systemName
  • NTFS access to the specific sharedFolderName
Hopefully your XP is SP3 which has the LLTP service necessary for Win/{7&8}. If you have XP SP1 or 2, then find the LLTP update for it.

Before we go crazy, you mentioned

so verify that all the other systems can share with each other (ie ignore Win/8) in both directions A can share with B and conversely. This will ensure the systems are configured correctly AND that the firewall is not a problem.

Sorry I haven't responded back in a few weeks. This issue became secondary to a few other things but has now become my focus so I am now determinded to work on it.

I created a diagram to show what is happening currently it may be a bit confusing so I will try to explain it here as well. Firstly though I access hard drives directly because we often transfer rather large files between different computers and we prefer not to have them put on the public folder of the C drives because then we would have to transfer it again to a secondary hard drive and some C drives arent large enough to hold such files. So nevermind the security hole for now.

I wasnt the originator to set up this system so im trying to get it fixed and working properly.

Currently we have 4 computers I am currently looking at, Im not going to get into the laptops at the moment to try and deal with that issue. But on all 4 computers there is 2 windows xp pro one with 2 hard drives and one with 3 hds, 1 windows 7 pro with 4 hds, and 1 windows 8 pro with 3 hds that I want shared.

Here is the run down of the computers anything I do not list specifically means that it cannot access it.

Windows 8 Can access Windows xp comp 2 with 3 hard drives, no issues, it can also get into to view windows 7s drives, but it can only access the C: public folder

Windows 7 can access Windows xp comp 2 with 3 hard drives no issues, it can view Windows 8s drives folder but can only access the C: public folder

Windows XP 1 Can acess Windows xp comp 2 with 3 hard drives no issues, it can access windows 8 all hard drives no issues, and it can see windows 7s drive folder but can only access the C: public folder

Windows XP 2 cant seem to view anyones folder direction and only lists drives in the network. The only access it can achieve is the C: public folders of windows 8 and windows 7.
 

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Good information. Has this ever worked in the past, or is this a new technique for you?
 
btw:
Network Error: Windows cannot access \\insertnamehere\insertdrivehere : You do not have permission to access \\insertnamehere\insertdrivehere. Contact your network administrator to request access.
that's really an NFTS issue, not networking.

Sharing has two levels of access
  1. the network access between system
  2. the NTFS filesystem permissions of the shared resource.
When we Map Network Drives and point at \\systemName\ShareName
we can get a prompt for the user-id/password - - that's the (1) permission prompt.

If the perms on the ShareName do not match those of the user given in (1), [specifically, it must have at least READ] then access is denied as you are seeing.

You should see that if the ShareName is a drive letter, the the whole drive permissions need to be adjusted and <read+write> for everyone everywhere is insane.

Are you accessing all systems using Administrator/Password?

Another point: the Windows Server has facilities for pushing files to clients via scripting where better controls and processes are available.
 
btw:
that's really an NFTS issue, not networking.

Sharing has two levels of access
  1. the network access between system
  2. the NTFS filesystem permissions of the shared resource.
When we Map Network Drives and point at \\systemName\ShareName
we can get a prompt for the user-id/password - - that's the (1) permission prompt.

If the perms on the ShareName do not match those of the user given in (1), [specifically, it must have at least READ] then access is denied as you are seeing.

You should see that if the ShareName is a drive letter, the the whole drive permissions need to be adjusted and <read+write> for everyone everywhere is insane.

Are you accessing all systems using Administrator/Password?

Another point: the Windows Server has facilities for pushing files to clients via scripting where better controls and processes are available.


Im not really a big network person. So some of this is a little confusing. I will try and address the questions.

Firstly this did work in the past at one point. All the computers could access all the drives and share files between each of them without problems. Even when I got the windows 8 computer for the first month or so, it worked. Then we got an update for windows 8 and other computers which shut the internet off until I updated it properly. Since then things seemed to have deteriorated and its become a giant pain trying to get files everywhere we need to.

2: All drives are formatted to NTFS.
3:You say when we map network drives we get a prompt. I assume you mean when I look at another computers drives and try to access it I get a prompt. In which case the current answer is no, with the exception of Windows XP 1 when it accesses windows 8 then it asks for the computer name and password.

4: Looking at specifically the extra D: drive on the windows 8 comp, all permissions are checked for sharing. And the group / user names is listed as everyone.
I am unsure what you mean by You should see that if the ShareName is a drive letter, the the whole drive permissions need to be adjusted and <read+write> for everyone everywhere is insane. Does that mean I have to specifically tell the drive what computers can access it?

5: All computers have one main account and are passworded to log into them. They have been this way for a while and it has worked in the past this way.
 
Using your graphic top-left as the source system and 2nd from top-right as the target - -
Notice access to target C: is ok. This says both the Network Access and the NTFS access to C: are ok. Now it you also need access to either the target HDs-2, 3 or 4 and that fails, then it's the NTFS perms on those drives. The Network access is ok because you got to C: on that same system.

Work out this before you mess with other systems.

Changing Targets to 2nd from bottom on the right - - no one has access to anything. Why?

Did you use Map Drive to access these systems, or a script with NET USE?
At some time or other, you had to give a user-id/password for the target system and normally ADMIN is not used to get this access.

If you're not using passwords to get the network access, then I would have guessed you're using ANONYMOUS sharing, but that would not give you access to system files on the target systems.

Just what kind of files are being copied to the targets and to which directories?
 
Using your graphic top-left as the source system and 2nd from top-right as the target - -
Notice access to target C: is ok. This says both the Network Access and the NTFS access to C: are ok. Now it you also need access to either the target HDs-2, 3 or 4 and that fails, then it's the NTFS perms on those drives. The Network access is ok because you got to C: on that same system.

Work out this before you mess with other systems.

Changing Targets to 2nd from bottom on the right - - no one has access to anything. Why?

Did you use Map Drive to access these systems, or a script with NET USE?
At some time or other, you had to give a user-id/password for the target system and normally ADMIN is not used to get this access.

If you're not using passwords to get the network access, then I would have guessed you're using ANONYMOUS sharing, but that would not give you access to system files on the target systems.

Just what kind of files are being copied to the targets and to which directories?


Why windows xp 1 cannot be accessed by anyone I do not know. But it can access more drives than the rest of them.

The computer systems are mostly used for film and video editing. The type of files we share are typically video files in excess of 20 gb, sometimes we will mass transfer up to 1 tb worth of files if we need to. We also share project files and picture files. Those are the main types as well as various others like text files.

What I do to access the drives is this I go to my computer, on win 7 or 8 then go to network and left click whichever computer I need to access. For windows xp ill go to network places and pretty much do the same thing. sometimes I may have to access the correct workgroup they are in.

I don't know what your asking about with giving an id to the target system, I mean all computers need to be logged in but to access the drives over the network no one had to sign in till recently windows xp 1 had to sign in to access the win 8 comp.
 
I don't know what your asking about with giving an id to the target system, I mean all computers need to be logged in but to access the drives over the network no one had to sign in till recently windows xp 1 had to sign in to access the win 8 comp.
that's known as ANONYMOUS access :)

Clear back to Win/98, Map Drives has supported both anonymous and local user access.

The user attempting to access \\system\share had to provide the User-ID & the Password of the target system user - - unless anonymous users were allowed.

It seems to me that you have been using anonymous access (without knowing it). On one of the systems used as a target - -
First: enabling the guest account:
  • Computer Management > Local Users and Groups > Users
  • Right click Guest > Properties
  • Untick "Account is disabled"
Here's the Windows 7/Pro setup.

Each drive on \\specificSystem needs its name entered in the list.
As you wish to move data to the targets, they each need r/w access.

Windows/8 Pro should be exactly the same.
 
Okay. I am first trying to get access back between Win 8 and win 7 since those do the most amount of transferring. Both computers when I go into computer management and right click on guest. The account is disabled is already unchecked. Also the same is true for the main log in accounts.

Where do I add the names I am a bit confused by that part.

Also sharing on each drive is set for everyone and has full control and all the checks down the allow side. Included is a picture of what im seeing.

This shows the win 8 comp, the win 7 shows the exact same permissions for the drives on it, minus a different name for the drive itself instead of D:

I am quite confused as to why it was working at one time and now its suddenly not working. Sharing.jpg
 
Perhaps some else can take the lead here - - I'm buried in personal issues and this is going to need some time I just don't have.

I would strongly suggest that the Win/7 <--> Win/7 issues be solve before adding the complexity of Win/8. Also note: each and every target system can have a separate issue to be solved and trying to find a silver bullet to fix it all at one time is just not going to work.

Sorry to leave you stranded . . .
 
Sorry for this being complicated hope your issues get cleared up quickly.

I don't know what you mean by win7-win7 issues since theres only one win 7 comp.

If anyone else can help out it would be much appreciated since I need this fixed at least within a month and we will have a large workload coming in which will be using lots of transfers.
 
Okay, Ive gotten all computers to access windows 8, and windows 7, all computers can also access windows xp 2 which all computers were able to do already. No computers can access windows xp 1 though, and xp 2 cant see anything from xp 1.

What I did was right click on the drives clicked properties, went to the security tab, clicked edit, then clicked add typed in the word everyone, and clicked on check names then ok, then I set the permissions to full and applied it. I did this for all the drives on win8 and 7 and that fixed the problem for those comps, now I just need to find out why XP 1 wont let anyone access it and why XP2 cant see XP1
 
Whose the primary going the access the files. Each system needs primary access. The same password installed on all network PCs. Is this a domain or workgroup any homegroup usage? You should be able to login in as the primary users and access all the shares. XP box you have to always long in via remote control would be best then to try to access the shares.

Really should invest in NAS so you don't have all these issues. NAS can hold up to 6 TB each if you don't want to spend a lot on NAS.
 
As I recall XP, the LLTP is enabled in the TCP Protocol and the mDNSResponder service needs to be auto-started.

Using View Network, do all the XP systems show up under the workgroup name you are using? If so, do they also show up on the Win/8 systems?
 
If your not on domain then setup workgroup and give it a name. All shares should have the same primary access then each client can have limited access.
 
As I recall XP, the LLTP is enabled in the TCP Protocol and the mDNSResponder service needs to be auto-started.

Using View Network, do all the XP systems show up under the workgroup name you are using? If so, do they also show up on the Win/8 systems?

Yes I can see all the drives and computers with every computer, its just I cant access the win xp1 drives with any other comp, its the only one that seems to be stuck now.
 
Whenever I shut off the firewall to all the network settings on XP 1, I can then access and see all of its drives from all the computers. So I guess that is the solution as long as it works that's what matters to me.
 
You should try to keep the firewall active - - on XP, are you using the default or a 3rd party FW?
 
I do not have any third party firewall. If perhaps there is a way to change the exceptions it might work with the networking of the other computers but im not sure what exceptions are needed. I tried to just diasable the network bridge firewall but that still blocked my access. It seemed like to get the other computers to access the xp 1 drives I had to fully shut down the firewall.
 
For XP default FW:

You need to know the address of your router; eg 192.168.1.1

use the Control Panel -> Firewall
Exception Tab
add a new exception (and from here I'm running on 3yrs of old memory....)
You need the following:
ALLOW
Protocols: TCP, UDP, or TCP+UDP (if you can't add both at the same time, you will need one rule for each)
Direction: IN+Out​
Local Address/range: IP-a
Local Port/Port range 138,139+445​
Remote Address/range IP-a
Remote Port/Port range 138,139+445​

IP-a starts at your router address+1 and goes thru 255
eg 192.168.1.2-192.168.1.255
 
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