I have a simple home network, has MYW7 (Starter), MYVISTA, MYXP and MYSAMBA(Linux) systems. No domain controller. I did the LmCompatibilityLevel registry hack to make Samba work. Same user/pswd accounts on all systems. MYW7 firewall is a 'Home' network. MYVISTA, MYXP, MYSAMBA all can see each others shared disks, C, D, E(dvd), I've shared everything. MYW7 can see drive C, D, E(DVD) on MYVISTA, C and D on MYXP, and all files on MYSAMBA. That works fine. When I try to access anything from MYXP or MYVISTA to MYW7, I get a user/pswd request but there's nothing that I can type to satisfy it. When I type a valid user/pswd, it comes back with 'unable to log in' and suggests a user name of 'MYVISTA\mylogin' instead of what I typed which was 'mylogin'. I've turned on: File and printer sharing turn on sharing so anyone with network access can read and write files in the Public folders Enable file sharing for devices that use 40- or 56-bit encryptino password protected sharing allow Windows to manage homegroup connections I'd like to be able to see MYW7 files from MYXP and MYVISTA, and I'd like to be able to look at drive D from MYW7 to MYVISTA. Also, when browsing the network using Windows Explorer, I often cannot see *some* systems, but I can get to them by doing a search for \\MYXP. This has been an ongoing problem. Is there some way I can cause the network browser to refresh the display and find the missing nodes so it can display them in the tree of available nodes? Thanks!

Windows 7 starter is not suitable for a file share My MVP is for the Windows Desktop Experience, i.e. Windows XP, Vista and Windows 7 IT Remote Assistance is available for a fee. I am best with C++ and I am learning C# using Visual Studio 2010 Developer | Windows IT | Chess | Economics | Hardcore Games | Vegan Advocate | PC Reviews

Really? I know it said W7 can't *create* a home group, but it says it can *join* a home group, isn't that what I'm doing? How do people move files over the network between W7-starter and anything else if what you say is true? Besides, I can initiate from W7, but I can't initiate *to* W7 *from* another system.

Windows starter can see network shares, I have that on my netbook and my server runs Windows Server 2008 My MVP is for the Windows Desktop Experience, i.e. Windows XP, Vista and Windows 7 IT Remote Assistance is available for a fee. I am best with C++ and I am learning C# using Visual Studio 2010 Developer | Windows IT | Chess | Economics | Hardcore Games | Vegan Advocate | PC Reviews

Yes, from W7, I can see other shares, but other systems can't look *into* the W7 system. That's my question, can an XP system look *into* the W7 shares.

I only have shares on my Windows Server not on any of the workstations Try enabling the Guest account on a machine that you want to share with and see how that works My MVP is for the Windows Desktop Experience, i.e. Windows XP, Vista and Windows 7 IT Remote Assistance is available for a fee. I am best with C++ and I am learning C# using Visual Studio 2010 Developer | Windows IT | Chess | Economics | Hardcore Games | Vegan Advocate | PC Reviews

I haven't enabled any guest accounts, all accounts have admin privs, so that should take care of it.

a public share like I use for setup files is shared by the Admin account but I still need to use the Guest account to make it visible My MVP is for the Windows Desktop Experience, i.e. Windows XP, Vista and Windows 7 IT Remote Assistance is available for a fee. I am best with C++ and I am learning C# using Visual Studio 2010 Developer | Windows IT | Chess | Economics | Hardcore Games | Vegan Advocate | PC Reviews

Are you saying that even if I have the same user/pswd on all systems, and all have admin privs, I still have to enable the Guest account on the W7 system for other systems to be able to access the disk on the W7 system? I haven't had to do that for the Vista, is W7 different in that regard?

Please try the following steps in your Windows 7: 1. Launch regedit from Start Search box. 2. Find the following branch. HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Control\Lsa 3. Create a DWORD key under Lsa and set: Name: LmCompatibilityLevel Value: 1 4. Restart.Please remember to click Mark as Answer on the post that helps you, and to click Unmark as Answer if a marked post does not actually answer your question. This can be beneficial to other community members reading the thread.

Thanks for the reply! But I've already done the LmCompatibilityLevel set to get Samba to work as I mentioned (tho not in detail) in my original post.

Are you using SAMBA on Linux? My MVP is for the Windows Desktop Experience, i.e. Windows XP, Vista and Windows 7 IT Remote Assistance is available for a fee. I am best with C++ and I am learning C# using Visual Studio 2010 Developer | Windows IT | Chess | Economics | Hardcore Games | Vegan Advocate | PC Reviews

Yes, and the access of Linux/Samba is fine - after I did the LmCompatibillityLevel reg change.