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File And Printer Sharing Won't Stay Enabled

Z

Zhur

Member
Joined
Nov 28, 2015
Posts
5
Salutations Sysnative Forum,

I have windows 7 Ultimate, fully updated and still a recent install. File and printer sharing in homegroup advanced sharing options will nt stay enabled. It was working till 3 or 4 days ago, and then just stopped. Both computers have the identical OS and similar configurations.

IPv6 is on, File and Printer sharing shows in the adapter configuration, and all associated services are running and set to automatic. Both computers are on the same workgroup and are on the same network. Avast premier manages the firewall and has been pulled and reinstalled just to make sure.. I've reset TCP/IP and the winsocks. Reset the windows firewall to default just in case... There's still no result. I've been looking through Group Policy, but find that the settings offered through my research on the problem are not configured.. I have an Asus RT-AC3200 router on the latest, stable Merlin firmware and a 100M internet connection. Shared folders show under homegroup but are inaccessible. Network no longer shows the folder tree like it used to, but shows the main tower when viewing on the laptop. Both computers are set to obtain DNS Automatically.

The same thing happens continuously. I have media sharing turned on, and then go to advanced sharing options and enable File And Printer Sharing, click save settings, and go back to the main page. I then check the settings again to find that the setting is disabled.

I am at a loss as to what to next try.. Suggestions please??

TIA and Namaste...

Zhur.
 
I am no expert on File and Printer sharing because I never use it so I am afraid I cannot help you there. But I think you should consider not using it either.

Instead, that ASUS RT-A3200 is a fully capable router that supports network printing. There are many advantages to network printing so I highly recommend connecting your printer directly the router. In this way, all your networked computers can print without the need for the printer to be tethered to a host computer that must remain up and running, and without the need to open up printer sharing on that computer. The printer can be centrally located (off a users desk) anywhere network access is available.

If you need file sharing, I suggest a NAS (network attached storage) device. With a NAS, you (as the admin) control who has access to the device and from there, you and whoever you allow can access (share, edit, save, etc.) files stored on that device. If you get one with lots of drive space, the NAS can even be used to backup your computers and important files - a very good thing! And this NAS device can also be located anywhere network access is available. Including hidden in a closet out of sight of a burglar.

The point about using a networked printer and NAS is sharing does not need to be enabled on any computer so it makes security much tighter. And the host computer does not need to be up and running for others to access the files either.

If you want to continue using File and Printer sharing, a bit more information is needed. Does sharing become disabled on both computers or just the one? When you say the files are visible but not accessible, do you get an error message when trying to access?
 
It is not possible at this time for me to use a NAS.. This seems to have happened after the last round of updates.. I use the laptop to access my media database on the main system, and only for that...File and printer sharing is indeed disabled on both systems. It's like a registry setting or group policy setting has disabled them, but I can't find it. The printer is already configured, but because the service is off I can't print from the laptop either.. While this is not a priority, it would also be nice to have available. My main concern is to once again be ab;e to access my media remotely.
 
Hi,

File an Print Sharing and HomeGroup are two different things! most likely they share things... I use File an Print Sharing mostly for file sharing without any HomeGroup all the time, my understanding is that the HomeGroup makes things simpler in terms or users/passwords, for "normal" File Sharing you have to set users/passwords correctly (blank passwords don't work!).

Microsoft already announced that HomeGroup will be removed from the future Windows 10 versions.

To make things simpler start by checking the Network and Sharing Center that both machines are using a profile "Work Network" instead of Public because this one is more restrictive.

Take note of the IP addresses in both machines you should use them to try to access the machines instead of the name or using the network browse function.
 
As things stand now... both machines are set to private.. since it is my home network, avast is also set to private... the old way of networking computers is simply... for the birds..

The Network ID button in system properties is actually grayed out.. I also cannot access workgroup settings... I've been digging across the net and at a loss of how to fix this.. It wasn't tht long ago when everything was working normally. Over 30 years PC experience and a degree, and I'm lost at last - HAH! Go figure..
 
What happens when you use the run box and type \\ip_of_the_other_machine\sharename ?
 
Ok Folks...

I arrived at a decision after much digging about the net all this time and find that I had to do an in-place install on the laptop to fix the problem.. I was actually able to leave the tower locked down, but chose to attempt to fix ti as well.. Something was evidently wrong with the OS since 3 In-place installs failed, even from a previous system image, so I simply had to just reinstall from scratch.. It just was the best choice of action, and cleared up a few other matters I had on my PC's mind in the process...

Namaste.....
 
Wow. That seems like a rather drastic approach but I am glad it worked. Thanks for the follow up post!
 

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