Next Dumb Computer Question

[cray]

Okay, where I left off: I had my media/back-up server built. It's a Windows 7 64-bit Atom desktop sitting quietly (but for a noisy cooling fan) in my bedroom. The other computer on the network is an Inspiron 1720 reloaded with Windows 7 32-bit.

The Atom has three external drives connected via 2 USB cords (two are in a twin-port Thermaltake hard drive dock). The drives are formatted, accessible, and working fine. From the Atom, I can easily write to and from its external drives.

As far as I can tell, I got the Inspiron and Atom on the same Windows 7 "home group" network. I got into Advanced Sharing and said to share pretty much everything inside the home group.  They can see each other's drives.

The problem is, I only seem to have one-way access. (Pardon the non-technical term.)

From a given machine (Atom or Inspiron) I can READ the files on the other machine's drives. For example, I can use the Inspiron (in the living room) to watch a movie on the Atom's external drives. I could also have the Inspiron copy that movie off the Atom and save it locally. (Or vice versa: I could have the Atom play and copy files off the Inspiron.)

What I cannot do is write TO the other machine. For example, if I made a new Word file on the Inspiron, I could not save to the Atom's drives from the Inspiron. I could go to the Atom and have the Atom copy the Word file from the Inspiron, but I could not have the Inspiron paste the file into the Atom. And vice versa: I can't send from the Atom to the Inspiron. This makes it pretty difficult to use the Atom for its main purpose, which is automatically backing up my Inspiron.

The errors I get are (when trying to paste files), "You don't have permission." When trying to run the "backup to network location," I get "You need full control."

What account or sharing settings do I need to adjust to fix this?

[Mechawyvern]

Check settings here: Control Panel\All Control Panel Items\Network and Sharing Center\Advanced sharing settings

Turn on Network discovery, file and print sharing, public folder sharing and turn off password protected sharing.  You might also try changing it from the Homegroup to user account access. 
Failing that, have you tried mapping the drive?

[Goose]

IIRC, you're gonn'a need to get into Computer Managment on both systems (listed in Control Panel \ System and Security \ Administrative Tools), and tell each box that your log in on the other box counts as a Power User, or what have you.

I suspect part of this is how low you have the UAC set: I've seen it dissalow me from doing things if I had no password set for my log in atoll, even this the UAC was "off".

You might also need to get into Local Security Policy (also found under Administrative Tools), and sniff around that Rubics' Cube of filters for whom can do what . . .

In fact: Sometime after you get this issue ironed out, you should go back into Local Security Policy and kill of all of the "Everybody" reffrences. You shouldn't have to add any "User" or "Athenticated User" when you do this, but keep the option in mind, just in case.

You might also wan'a do this to the drive permesions . . .

[Sid]

  I'll second Goose and say it sounds like a permissions issue.  I haven't dabbled with Windows7 sharing too much, but without a central authority such as Active Directory and Windows Server, each computer has it's own local users.

  I.e, the Inspiron's "Administrator" account isn't seen as the same "Administrator" on the Atom.  Because you're sharing the files, it may be letting 'Everyone' in the home group read from the shares, while denying write access as a security precaution (Most sharing in Windows7 these days seems to be streaming media afterall).

  I'd go into the drives' permissions and check to make sure that your other box's users have the write permission.

 

[cray]

Check settings here: Control Panel\All Control Panel Items\Network and Sharing Center\Advanced sharing settings

Turn on Network discovery

Already did that.

, file and print sharing

Did that, too. Printing hasn't been a problem.

public folder sharing

Did that. I pretty much kicked the doors wide open in the sharing center except...

and turn off password protected sharing.

...Just did that. No luck.

You might also try changing it from the Homegroup to user account access. 

Will try that in a bit.

Failing that, have you tried mapping the drive?

Oh, yep. That was about the first thing I did once the network was up and running. All mapped and assigned to reappear at boot-up.

  I'd go into the drives' permissions and check to make sure that your other box's users have the write permission.

Hah! That was it. I didn't drill down to the permissions, I stopped at the first layer of sharing on each drive's properties. "Oh, 20 users can reach each drive, awesome, no need to click on the big PERMISSIONS button, nope nope nope, hyuk hyuk."  ::)



Thanks for the detailed help, folks. I could've followed and implemented all of those suggestions as needed.

[chanman]

Hey Cray, re the noisy fan, you can try to slow it down through software like SpeedFan

Of course, questions on silencing are probably  better asked on the Silent PC Review forums

[cray]

Hey Cray, re the noisy fan, you can try to slow it down through software like SpeedFan

This is one of those "I keep meaning to do it, but life has gotten busy" things. The white noise no longer bothers me when I sleep; the current issue is the sharp, blinking red hard drive LED that is visible through my closed eyelids. :)

[Sid]

Thanks for the detailed help, folks. I could've followed and implemented all of those suggestions as needed.

Glad to hear it worked out for you.

As Goose was saying, you might want to disable the rights of "Everyone" now, as anyone that gets onto your network could, in theory, read from your shares.

As for the red light... a bit of tape may work.  Not the most elegant of solutions of course....

[cray]

Well, Speedfan does give me credible temperature readings, running at 33-38C for the GPU and CPU cores.

However, it thinks the fan is running at 20rpm and doesn't want to throttle it. :)

Oh, well, baby steps. The computer will get there eventually. :)