I have a small network going, and having a little trouble accessing a file share. I have a server 2008 R2 box, running AD DS/DNS/File Services, a few machines running Win 7 Pro or Win 7 Ultimate, and all is working fine there. However, I have two laptops with Windows 7 Home Premium, and I know they can't join the domain, which is fine. I just want to access files that are stored on the server. I have the files shared with everyone, but on the two Home Premium laptops, when I try to map to \\<Server>\D$, it simply says the location cannot be found. Any ideas? Need anymore information?

Adding everyone may not work. What you need ot do is creating the same domain username and password on the laptop. This search result may help. workgroup networking faqs Workgroup Networking FAQs. How can I share files between workgroup computer and domain/workgroup computer. How to change computer name and workgroup name ... www.chicagotech.net/workgroupnet.htm Bob Lin, MS-MVP Networking, Internet, Routing, VPN Troubleshooting on http://www.ChicagoTech.net How to Setup Windows, Network, VPN & Remote Access on http://www.howtonetworking.com

There are a few things in there that I have tried. Such as, on one of the laptops setting the workgroup to the domain name. Still, when I try to navigate to \\<Server>\D$, it says the path cannot be found. Doesn't ask for a user/pass, just tells me the path is invalid. Same thing happens if I try using the net use command. Any idea's why I can't even find the network share? I have the guest account enabled on the DC, on the shared folder, it's shared with everyone (security is set for everyone as well). I know those are safest practices, but I must get access to this share, and once I can figure out the issue, I can fix everything else. What else can I do?

OK, let's try it one more time. Say, your domain username is bob and password is john. Create the same username bob in the laptop and assign password john. Now, try to access the domian sharing. If it doesn't work, can you ping the domain server?Bob Lin, MS-MVP Networking, Internet, Routing, VPN Troubleshooting on http://www.ChicagoTech.net How to Setup Windows, Network, VPN & Remote Access on http://www.howtonetworking.com

Here is what I done. On my laptop (Windows 7 Home Premium) I created a user account called 'Derek', with a password of 'Password'. In AD, I created a user with the name 'Derek', with the password 'Password'. My domain is named 'Horn.Root.Local', and the laptop is in the workgroup 'Horn.Root.Local' Upon trying to access \\<Server_Name>\D$, OR \\192.168.1.100\D$, I get the following error: Windows cannot access \\<Server_Name or IP>\D$ Error code: 0x80070035 The network path was not found When I do the following: ping <Server_Name> or ping 192.168.1.100 I get: Request timed out. Request timed out. Request timed out. Request timed out. I know the name and the IP is correct, and the odd thing is, I can access this laptop from a desktop that is joined to the domain. It pops up to authenticate, and lets me in just fine...like it should. Any ideas on this? Side note: Is there ANY way to change the timeout in windows, on how long windows will try to find a network location before saying it doesn't exist? It takes over 5 minutes to kick back and say the network path isnt found. Anyway to change this?

If it wasn't for your PING results I'd say that access was being restricted by a Group Policy and Group Policies can't be applied to Home Premium. However... Request timed out means that it can find the server but the server isn't responding to the ping request. So... Check your server's firewall settings. Edit: What's the IP and subnet mask of one of the non-domain machines? I ask because if your server is 192.168.1.100 with a netmask of 255.255.0.0 and the workstation is, say, 192.168.0.20 with a netmask of 255.255.255.0 them the server would see the workstation on the same subnet, but workstation thinks the server is on a different subnet.

These go for the network, not just the domain. Gateway - 192.168.1.254 Subnet - 255.255.255.0 Server/DC - 192.168.1.100 My workstation, for example, is static at 192.168.1.99 My router (Netgear WNGR3700 running DD-WRT) assigns DHCP to everything else. The laptop in question is currently pulling an IP of 192.168.1.114/24 I don't think it could be a firewall setting, as I have all firewalls off at the moment and it's still not working. No other firewall is used on the server but windows firewall.

If you have firewall off, can you ping the server from domain laptop by IP?Bob Lin, MS-MVP Networking, Internet, Routing, VPN Troubleshooting on http://www.ChicagoTech.net How to Setup Windows, Network, VPN & Remote Access on http://www.howtonetworking.com

I don't believe it's possible to join a Home Premium OS to a domain. Connecting to a domain share is precluded unless you can set up a trust relationship with the domain but that would presume the Home Premium computer is a member of another domain...which ain't happening. So the only thing left to do is make the network share on the domain available in the demilitarized zone, which is probably not advisable due to security concerns. It's not something to "fix". The issue you're experiencing is the result of limitations of the Home Premium edition of Windows. Install Pro/Ultimate/Enterprise edition and all those problems will disappear.

While it is not possible for Home Premium to join a domain, it can connect to shares on a domain server by using the credentials used to logon to the local computer. Indeed, the computer I'm on right now, running Win 7 Home Premium, using a workgroup name which is the same as the domain which I'm on, and the local machine user login credentials are the same as domain user credentials, can see all the available shares on the domain server, and allows me to access all those to which the domain user (of my name) has rights. I also have four other computers on this network which behave similarly. The reason I found this thread today is that I have just purchased yet another computer, same as the one I'm currently using, with the same OS, and I've configured similarly (workgroup name matches the domain name, and user names and password on the local computer match those of accounts on the domain). When I try to browse to the domain server on that computer, I'm given a Windows Security dialog box which requests that I enter the network password and username with which to connect to the server. I'm not seeing this on the other computers, and even if I type in "domain\username" for the username (in the dialog box) and the correct password, I'm rejected ("Logon failure: unknown user name or bad password"). Checking the account on the domain server, the account is active and not locked out (the account works on another computer just fine), and I've reset the password on the domain (in case I somehow wasn't using the correct one). Still no joy. I've tried a second domain account, and it is also rejected (though there is no doubt the credentials were entered correctly). I'm obviously hitting the server, because if I wasn't, I'd end up with a different failure message.... UPDATE PRIOR TO POSTING: In my effort to write this post, I was double-checking some things on the uncooperative computer, and did a ping test from that computer to the server. While it could ping it, the address it was using was all wrong... completely wrong subnet! After a little further investigation, I figure out that the computer was using the "VirtualBox Host-Only Network" adapter, which was installed as part of installing the VirtualBox application on the computer. I disabled the VirtualBox Host-Only Network adapter, tried the ping again, and this time the correct IP was being used... and I could then connect properly (with the credentials I had used to logon to the local computer) to the domain server through an account setup on that domain. Now, I just have to figure out how to have my VirtualBox-cake and use the network, too...