I have two computers in a LAN. One is running Win 7 and the other Win XP Home. The Win XP system can find the other computer but when I try to connect by giving userid and password nothing happens. The opposite i.e accessing files on the Win XP computer from the Win 7 computer works fine. I wan't it both ways.jfri

Hello Jan,When doing password protected sharing in a workgroup environment the user account and passwordshould beidentical. It isn't entirely necassary to do this but it helps. One thing to look at is the NTFS and share permissions on the foldersto be sure you have access.-Scott

Hello Jan,When doing password protected sharing in a workgroup environment the user account and passwordshould beidentical. It isn't entirely necassary to do this but it helps. One thing to look at is the NTFS and share permissions on the foldersto be sure you have access. -Scott So is it necessary to do a password protected sharing? Why can't it be as simple as Win 7 to Win XP. What do you mean by look at the NTFS?jfri

Try Control Panel>Network and Sharing Center. In the left pane there is an option to change advanced sharing settings. Adjust these settings to configure the Win 7 computer to allow access by the XP machine. ie.-Turn off password protected sharing.

Hello Jan,Sorry for the confusion, I assumed when you said you entered your password and nothing happened that password protected sharing was on. Nano is correct, to set up simple sharing with no passwords and permissions configure the advanced sharing options and turn on Netwrok Discovery and public folder sharing.-Scott

Hello Jan,When doing password protected sharing in a workgroup environment the user account and passwordshould beidentical. It isn't entirely necassary to do this but it helps. One thing to look at is the NTFS and share permissions on the foldersto be sure you have access. -Scott Even when not "doing password protected in a workgroup environment" shared objects could be seen in either direction, but not accessed.When I made the user account and passwordidentical, sharing worked with no additional effort (except a for a logoff/logon of course).Thanks for the help Scott. I suspected as much ... XP and Vista have similar behavior.tullik

Hello tullik,Im glad I could be of help.Hello Jan,Any luck fixing your problem?-Scott

Yes after turning off password sharing I can see a folder on the Win 7 system in my Win XP machine. I selected to share with homegroup. Am I right in assuming that all computer on the LAN is bt default part of homegroup? I only see the term homegroup in the Win 7 system.jfri

Non Windows 7 computers will not default to homegroup, you'd have to manually assign computers to all match the same group.