Day 2
Innocently I began downloading an internet security program onto the two new laptops
which three of our children purchased with their own money; satellite internet is the only option we have here in the fields of Indiana, so I was downloading the program recommended by our internet provider. We currently use this program on our "school computer, " and I was not anticipating any problems with installing it on the new laptops. I usually love surprises, but the rude surprise at 6:40 am that both laptops were now not functional because of a "permissions" issue was not a welcome one.
Dear hubbie instructed and advised me to call the software people later and not to make it a priority. All I could think about was how depressed I was when my computer crashed and how I felt like I had no one to help me and very limited time to help myself out of that problem...I could not bear the thought of our kids' disappointment and frustration over this situation. I began trying to find information and help on-line, while making breakfast for the troops. I had a successful chat with tech support, in that I was given some instructions for how to uninstall the offending software ("you'll probably need to do it from safe mode"). And that instruction worked so that the laptops were restored to their previous, non-protected status, in full working order with no "permissions error" windows popping up.
Still bewildered as to how to make Windows 7 and the internet security software play nicely together, I had to turn my attention to finding a highly valuable and suddenly missing note that once resided in my Outlook AND helping my eldest daughter find and use the phone number for our doctor; she has been sick for about a week and wanted to have it checked out in the hopes that she will be well before she leaves for college. As a result I was late to our usual meeting that marks the start of our school days, but we did successfully take individual student pictures.
Next I was made aware that I had forgotten to adjust the computer assignments for one dear daughter yesterday, and consequently tried to figure out how to fix them today, while at the same time reinstalling a different version of the internet security on one of the laptops (we decided to tackle one at a time this time around). The fix for the computer assignments upon which I settled is only good for today, and the installation of the software failed in that it had the same effect as before -- no access to anything and "permissions error" windows continually popping open. So, dear daughter started on today's assignments, and once again I uninstalled the software from the one "test" laptop.
Meanwhile our other students were busily working through their assignments and needing my attention at different points along the way. The youngest aced her math test, another daughter aced her math assignment, a son commented that his schoolwork was going faster today than yesterday, and two other daughters have been working along confidently and quietly. Added into all of that were several communications with our oldest son regarding pumping gas and construction along the route he is traveling today on his visit to friends in Indianapolis. My energy level and emotions are on a kind of "kiddie roller coaster ride" so far today.
If our oldest daughter returns from her doctor appointment at a reasonable time, I will head out to Kroger and Walmart for my weekly shopping trip. She just texted me to say she tested positive for a strep infection and is going to pick up her prescription. I am so thankful she went to be checked out!
Hopefully I'll have the energy and interest to fix the assignments on the school computer AND to investigate about the internet security software problem after the shopping trip.
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That means Your PC's do NOT have permission to basically talk to each other or share with each other.
ReplyDeleteProblems sharing files between computers on a network are generally caused by 1) a misconfigured firewall or overlooked firewall (including a stateful firewall in a VPN); or 2) inadvertently running two firewalls such as the built-in Windows Firewall and a third-party firewall; and/or 3) not having identical user accounts and passwords on all Workgroup machines; 4) trying to create shares where the operating system does not permit it.
In Windows 7, go to Control Panel>All Control Panel Items>Network and Sharing Center. Click on "Change advanced sharing settings". You don't want to use Homegroup unless you have all Windows 7 machines. If you do and you want to use Homegroup, see Windows 7's Help & Support. Otherwise, in the Advanced Sharing:
Turn ON network discovery
Turn ON file and printer sharing
Turn ON sharing in the Public folder sharing section
Turn ON password protected sharing
A. Configure firewalls on all machines to allow the Local Area Network (LAN) traffic as trusted. With Windows Firewall, turning on Window's File and Printer Sharing as above will take care of this for you. If you aren't running a third-party firewall or have an antivirus/security program with its own firewall component, then you're fine. With third-party firewalls, I usually configure the LAN allowance with an IP range. Ex. would be 192.168.1.0-192.168.1.254. Obviously you would substitute your correct subnet. Refer to any third party security program's Help or user forums for how to properly configure its firewall. Do not run more than one firewall. DO NOT TURN OFF FIREWALLS; CONFIGURE THEM CORRECTLY.
B. For ease of organization, put all computers in the same Workgroup. This is done from the System applet in Control Panel, Computer Name tab.
C. Create matching user accounts and passwords on all machines. You do not need to be logged into the same account on all machines and the passwords assigned to each user account can be different; the accounts/passwords just need to exist and match on all machines. DO NOT NEGLECT TO CREATE PASSWORDS, EVEN IF ONLY SIMPLE ONES . If you wish a machine to boot directly to the Desktop (into one particular user's account) for convenience, you can do this:
Start>Search box>type: netplwiz [enter]
Click on Continue (or supply an administrator's password) when prompted by UAC
Uncheck the option "Users must enter a user name and password to use this computer". Select a user account to automatically log on by clicking on the desired account to highlight it and then hit OK. Enter the correct password for that user account (if there is one) when prompted. Leave it blank if there is no password (null).
Also Amy,
ReplyDeleteWin7 when configured on peer-to-peer Network has three types of Sharing configurations.
HomeGroup Network = Works only between Win 7 computers. This type of configuration makes it very easy to Entry Level Users to start Network sharing.
Work Network = Basically similar to the previous methods of sharing that let you control what, how, and to whom folders would be shared with.
Public Sharing = Public Network (like Internet cafe) to reduce security risks.
For best results log to each computer's System Screen and set all the computers to be on a Network with the same name while each computer has its own unique name.
http://www.ezlan.net/Win7/net_name.jpg
Let me know if u need help!
Q: What security program are you using?
Problems sharing files between computers on a network are generally caused by 1) a misconfigured firewall or overlooked firewall (including a stateful firewall in a VPN); or 2) inadvertently running two firewalls such as the built-in Windows Firewall and a third-party firewall; and/or 3) not having identical user accounts and passwords on all Workgroup machines; 4) trying to create shares where the operating system does not permit it.
ReplyDeleteIn Windows 7, go to Control Panel>All Control Panel Items>Network and Sharing Center. Click on "Change advanced sharing settings". You don't want to use Homegroup unless you have all Windows 7 machines. If you do and you want to use Homegroup, see Windows 7's Help & Support. Otherwise, in the Advanced Sharing:
Turn ON network discovery
Turn ON file and printer sharing
Turn ON sharing in the Public folder sharing section
Turn ON password protected sharing
A. Configure firewalls on all machines to allow the Local Area Network (LAN) traffic as trusted. With Windows Firewall, turning on Window's File and Printer Sharing as above will take care of this for you. If you aren't running a third-party firewall or have an antivirus/security program with its own firewall component, then you're fine. With third-party firewalls, I usually configure the LAN allowance with an IP range. Ex. would be 192.168.1.0-192.168.1.254. Obviously you would substitute your correct subnet. Refer to any third party security program's Help or user forums for how to properly configure its firewall. Do not run more than one firewall. DO NOT TURN OFF FIREWALLS; CONFIGURE THEM CORRECTLY.
B. For ease of organization, put all computers in the same Workgroup. This is done from the System applet in Control Panel, Computer Name tab.
C. Create matching user accounts and passwords on all machines. You do not need to be logged into the same account on all machines and the passwords assigned to each user account can be different; the accounts/passwords just need to exist and match on all machines. DO NOT NEGLECT TO CREATE PASSWORDS, EVEN IF ONLY SIMPLE ONES . If you wish a machine to boot directly to the Desktop (into one particular user's account) for convenience, you can do this:
Start>Search box>type: netplwiz [enter]
Click on Continue (or supply an administrator's password) when prompted by UAC
Uncheck the option "Users must enter a user name and password to use this computer". Select a user account to automatically log on by clicking on the desired account to highlight it and then hit OK. Enter the correct password for that user account (if there is one) when prompted. Leave it blank if there is no password (null).