Solved Network shares asking for login credentials

bfsapuk

New Member
Messages
5
Hopefully some of the networking experts on here can help me with what's probably a simple, straightforward problem, but it's starting to really annoy me now as I've spent three evenings searching for and trying numerous solutions but still have the problem…

I have a Windows 7 desktop pc and a Windows 8.1 laptop. The problem is that I can't get a reliable connection between them to enable transfer of files, and it's only one-way when it *does* actually work. I'm not using a Homegroup, but just sharing various folders.

Perhaps I should mention here that the laptop used to have Win 7 Home Premium 64-bit on it and connection between it and the Win 7 pc were fine, in both directions - the change to Win 8 wasn't an upgrade but a clean install on a spare hard drive. So I'm thinking it's something to do with Win 8, but I'm not an expert in networking so I could be wrong ;-)…

Anyway, I have *never* been able to get the Win 7 pc to connect to the Win 8 laptop, as every time I try I'm being asked for a username and password - I have no idea what these would be as I have never set them up, and when I installed Win 8 (it upgraded to 8.1 a week or two ago) I opted to not use a Microsoft login. However, my account name (which is the Administrator account) and Windows passwords are the same on both machines.

From the Win 8 laptop I *can* connect to the Win 7 pc, but it’s odd - if I go into Windows Explorer on the Win 8 laptop I can see all of the files in the shared folders on the Win 7 desktop, but if I do this again a minute or two later it won’t work and I'll be asked for a username and password to connect! I'm assuming the username is the name of the account and the password is the Windows password, which don't work.

I've tried setting-up a Homegroup, but this didn't work as again I'm being asked from both machines for a username and password. I've also tried all the usual network sharing things like turning on file and printer sharing, not using passwords etc but nothing's working for me. I've even disabled the firewall on both computers, but it had no effect.

It's become a right pain as I'm having to transfer files via USB stick between two computers which are only 5 feet apart.

Any ideas anyone?

I'm sorry if this has been asked before, but a lot I have read about similar problems only seems to deal with access being denied and not login credentials being asked for.

Thanks in advance.


Steve (a network novice)
 

My Computer

System One

  • OS
    Win 7 HP x64
However, my account name (which is the Administrator account) and Windows passwords are the same on both machines.

It sounds like you be using the same User name on both of these machines from what you said here? Not sure but you can't use the same User name on both machines, they need to both be different. You might also want to check that the time/date settings on those two machines are exactly the same.

This problem can be one of about a million different things but generally speaking setting up sharing between these two machines should be about the easiest thing you can do with them.

There are tutorials for this all over the internet as well. :)
 

My Computer

System One

  • OS
    Windows 8.1 Pro WMC
    Computer type
    PC/Desktop
    System Manufacturer/Model
    Home built
    CPU
    Q9650 @ 4.05 GHz
    Motherboard
    Gforce 780i SLI FTW
    Memory
    8GB Gskill DDR2 1200Mhz
    Graphics Card(s)
    GTX-480
    Sound Card
    Asus D2 Xonar
    Monitor(s) Displays
    HannsG
    Screen Resolution
    1680x1050
    Hard Drives
    Gskill 120GB SSD
    PSU
    Thermal Take 1000watts
    Case
    Thermal Take Xtreme
    Cooling
    9 fans air cooled
    Keyboard
    G15 logitech
    Mouse
    G9 logitech
    Internet Speed
    50mbps
However, my account name (which is the Administrator account) and Windows passwords are the same on both machines.

It sounds like you be using the same User name on both of these machines from what you said here? Not sure but you can't use the same User name on both machines, they need to both be different. You might also want to check that the time/date settings on those two machines are exactly the same.

This problem can be one of about a million different things but generally speaking setting up sharing between these two machines should be about the easiest thing you can do with them.

There are tutorials for this all over the internet as well. :)

Hi

Can't have the same username? Really? How come it connects at times from the Win 8 laptop to the Win 7 desktop? Wouldn't the machine name prefix the username, e.g. \\latitude\steve and be different from \\xps420\steve?

I've already checked the time on both are they are identical, to the second.

Yea, I've been through tutorials until I'm blue in the face, but none of those I've seen actually deals with this specific issue - they all seem to be about getting an access denied message, which I've never got :(

Just to add another thing - I booted up an old XP Pro pc last night and....it connected to the Win 8 laptop without any problem, and the Win 8 laptop connected to it without difficulty. No passwords were asked for, and the username on it was the same as on the other two... :confused:.
 

My Computer

System One

  • OS
    Win 7 HP x64
However, my account name (which is the Administrator account) and Windows passwords are the same on both machines.

It sounds like you be using the same User name on both of these machines from what you said here? Not sure but you can't use the same User name on both machines, they need to both be different. You might also want to check that the time/date settings on those two machines are exactly the same.

This problem can be one of about a million different things but generally speaking setting up sharing between these two machines should be about the easiest thing you can do with them.

There are tutorials for this all over the internet as well. :)

Hi

Can't have the same username? Really? How come it connects at times from the Win 8 laptop to the Win 7 desktop? Wouldn't the machine name prefix the username, e.g. \\latitude\steve and be different from \\xps420\steve?

I've already checked the time on both are they are identical, to the second.

Yea, I've been through tutorials until I'm blue in the face, but none of those I've seen actually deals with this specific issue - they all seem to be about getting an access denied message, which I've never got :(

Just to add another thing - I booted up an old XP Pro pc last night and....it connected to the Win 8 laptop without any problem, and the Win 8 laptop connected to it without difficulty. No passwords were asked for, and the username on it was the same as on the other two... :confused:.

Yes really, they absolutely have to be different.

You will need to create another account with a different User name.

http://www.eightforums.com/tutorials/5536-user-account-add-new-user-windows-8-a.html
 
Last edited:

My Computer

System One

  • OS
    Windows 8.1 Pro WMC
    Computer type
    PC/Desktop
    System Manufacturer/Model
    Home built
    CPU
    Q9650 @ 4.05 GHz
    Motherboard
    Gforce 780i SLI FTW
    Memory
    8GB Gskill DDR2 1200Mhz
    Graphics Card(s)
    GTX-480
    Sound Card
    Asus D2 Xonar
    Monitor(s) Displays
    HannsG
    Screen Resolution
    1680x1050
    Hard Drives
    Gskill 120GB SSD
    PSU
    Thermal Take 1000watts
    Case
    Thermal Take Xtreme
    Cooling
    9 fans air cooled
    Keyboard
    G15 logitech
    Mouse
    G9 logitech
    Internet Speed
    50mbps
Hi

Can't have the same username? Really? How come it connects at times from the Win 8 laptop to the Win 7 desktop? Wouldn't the machine name prefix the username, e.g. \\latitude\steve and be different from \\xps420\steve?

I've already checked the time on both are they are identical, to the second.

Yea, I've been through tutorials until I'm blue in the face, but none of those I've seen actually deals with this specific issue - they all seem to be about getting an access denied message, which I've never got :(

Just to add another thing - I booted up an old XP Pro pc last night and....it connected to the Win 8 laptop without any problem, and the Win 8 laptop connected to it without difficulty. No passwords were asked for, and the username on it was the same as on the other two... :confused:.

Yes really, they absolutely have to be different.

You will need to create another account with a different User name.

http://www.eightforums.com/tutorials/5536-user-account-add-new-user-windows-8-a.html

Wow, that worked! Many thanks! :D I just changed the username on the laptop and voila! It connected via Windows explorer without asking for credentials, but when I tried it again a minute later I got a new message saying I didn't have permission?? However, I closed and then reopened Windows explorer and have used it a few times since and it's been fine, even allowing me to play MP3s on the desktop pc through Winamp on the laptop.

Is having a different username a Windows 8 thing, as it was never a problem with XP or Win 7?

Thanks again :D - I can't believe it was such a simple thing!
 

My Computer

System One

  • OS
    Win 7 HP x64
Figured that would do the trick. Yes it's been a problem with Windows 7 as well in the past but not sure about XP.

You can have the same machine name on the LAN but not the same User name. Usually the machine won't even show up if there are two with the same User name.

Feel free to mark as solved since they won't let me do that here.
 

My Computer

System One

  • OS
    Windows 8.1 Pro WMC
    Computer type
    PC/Desktop
    System Manufacturer/Model
    Home built
    CPU
    Q9650 @ 4.05 GHz
    Motherboard
    Gforce 780i SLI FTW
    Memory
    8GB Gskill DDR2 1200Mhz
    Graphics Card(s)
    GTX-480
    Sound Card
    Asus D2 Xonar
    Monitor(s) Displays
    HannsG
    Screen Resolution
    1680x1050
    Hard Drives
    Gskill 120GB SSD
    PSU
    Thermal Take 1000watts
    Case
    Thermal Take Xtreme
    Cooling
    9 fans air cooled
    Keyboard
    G15 logitech
    Mouse
    G9 logitech
    Internet Speed
    50mbps
Figured that would do the trick. Yes it's been a problem with Windows 7 as well in the past but not sure about XP.

You can have the same machine name on the LAN but not the same User name. Usually the machine won't even show up if there are two with the same User name.

Feel free to mark as solved since they won't let me do that here.

Thanks again for your help - I really appreciate it :) Your answer, during in my evenings of hunting on the Internet for a solution, is one which I hadn't come across.

Many thanks :)
 

My Computer

System One

  • OS
    Win 7 HP x64
hello i have windows 8.1 on two different laptops on the same networking. both laptops have two different Microsoft accounts on them. when i try to connect to other threw windows explorer. i have a message come up. asking for my credentials on both laptops this happens to. i have checked my settings in my networking sharing i have password sharing off. but still unable to connect to each other. if anyone has a fix i would very much appreciate it.
 

My Computer

System One

  • OS
    Windows 8.1
    Computer type
    Laptop
    System Manufacturer/Model
    Toshiba/Satellite L955
    CPU
    Intel(R) Core(TM) i5-3317U CPU @ 1.70GHz 1.70GHz
    Motherboard
    Intel(R) 7 Series Chipset Family SATA
    Memory
    6.00 GB
    Graphics Card(s)
    Intel(R) HD Graphics 4000
    Sound Card
    Realtek High Definition Audio
    Monitor(s) Displays
    Generic PnP Monitor
    Hard Drives
    Hitachi 600 GB
    Keyboard
    HID Keyboard/Standard PS/2 Keyboard
    Mouse
    HID-compliant mouse/ Synaptics PS/2 Port TouchPad
    Internet Speed
    100 Mbps Xfinity
    Browser
    Google Chrome
    Antivirus
    Norton Internet Security 2014
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