Windows 7 Networking - What Do You Want to Know About it?
In the coming weeks we will start writing a long series of articles about networking in Windows 7. We will try to be as complete as possible so that you can use these articles to answer all your questions about this topic. In order to make sure we don't miss out on anything important we would like to get your feedback. Please take a look on the things we plan to talk about and add your opinions and suggestions. Your feedback is highly appreciated.
Windows 7 Networking - Planned Topics
After some initial tests and analysis, we decided that we would like to talk about the following:
- Network and Sharing Center - an overview of all the available options;
- HomeGroups - understand what is a homegroup and how to work with one;
- Sharing files and folders - how to share files, folders, partitions, printers and other devices, how to configure your file sharing settings, offline files, how to enable or disable files sharing, how to share different things over different networks, etc;
- Troubleshoot network problems - understand what is the status of your network connection and how to fix problems with it using Windows Network Diagnostic and other tools;
- Wireless Networks - how to connect to all types of wireless networks;
- Bluetooth connections - how to connect via Bluetooth to different devices;
- Mapping Network Drives - how to map drives to shared folders from your network;
- Networking Tips - share any interesting tips we discover while writing the series;
- Best Practices - what to do in order to be safe while connecting to different types of networks;
- Windows 7 vs Windows Vista - a comparison on how networking has improved versus Windows Vista;
The articles will be published in no particular order. We will start with one of these topics, elaborate on it and publish several articles to cover as much as possible from all there is to know about that topic.
What Would You Like Us To Investigate For You?
We want your to comments on this series. Do share with us: things we did not cover in our plan, cool ideas for an article, common networking problems you are aware of, etc. We will be reading all of your comments and all cool ideas & suggestions will be taken into consideration when writing this series. Type your comments!
Updates
Articles published so far:
How to Connect to Wireless Networks
How to Connect to Hidden Wireless Networks
What is the Network and Sharing Center?
How to Troubleshoot Network & Internet Problems
The HomeGroup Feature & How it Works
How to Customize Network Sharing Settings in Windows 7
Share Libraries or Folders Using the Sharing Wizard
Transfer Files Between Devices & Your Windows 7 PC via Bluetooth
Share Libraries or Folders Using Advanced Sharing
How to Map Drives in Windows 7
Network Locations Explained
How to Set Up an Ad Hoc Wireless Computer-to-Computer Network
How to Share a Printer with Your Network
The Network Map - Access Your Network Computers in a Fun Way
How to Change the Workgroup in Windows 7
Sharing Between Windows Vista and Windows 7 Computers
What is the Public Folder & How to Use it
Sharing Between Windows XP and Windows 7 Computers
Install a Network Printer from Windows XP Using the Driver Setup
Install a Network Printer from Windows XP Using the Add Printer Wizard
How Does a Home Network Look Like?
Windows Firewall - How it Works and How to Enable or Disable It
Common Problems for Home Networks
How to Manage Windows Firewall Communication Rules
Gain Additional Control by Using Windows Firewall with Advanced Security
Manage Rules in Windows Firewall with Advanced Security
How to Change the Workgroup in Ubuntu Linux to Work with Windows
How to Access Windows 7 Shared Folders from Ubuntu
How to Access Ubuntu Shared Folders from Windows 7
Access Windows 7 Shared Folders from OS X via a Home Network
How to Share OS X Folders with Windows 7
How to Access A Windows Shared Printer from Ubuntu
Comments
Hi I've only just found your
Hi
I've only just found your site and came across this page. I intend to read these articles, but I thought I'd post this comment, even though it might be late and the topic already covered in one of your articles.
My pet peeve is when I try to access a folder over my 2 PC netwok and I get an "Access denied" error when I haven't changed anything, but maybe installed an update or programme.
It takes me forever to work out how to change permissions back to what they were before the change. Sometimes it doesn't work and I transfer the date to a new folder and delete the old folder together with it's sharing and permissions and reshare the new folder.
Through bitter experience I have learnt not to make my documents, music and download folders the default saving locations.
This way Win 7 (64bit) and Vista(64bit) can change the default folders all they like but my data folders will be accesible (forever free).
Well at least it's working for now. Time for me to do some reading.
Is the network and sharing
Is the network and sharing compatible as i had many problems in my Windows vista home edition
Can you please be more
Can you please be more specific? I do not understand your question and I cannot give you a useful answer.
I have just installed Windows
I have just installed Windows 7 Ultimate editions, and have found when I try to connect to my NAS (Iomega Network Hard Drive) I get an RPC error.
How about an article on connecting Windows 7 to old hardware, (Windows XP, Windows Vista, Linux based Hardware and NASes)? As I think a lot of people will start to hit these problems.
That's a bit tough to do for
That's a bit tough to do for us as we don't have access to hardware such as NAS. However, it is a good idea and will try to keep it in mind for future articles where we have some old hardware to use.
I Would very much like to see
I Would very much like to see Win 7 allow multiple connections to be used by different apps.
Example:
I connect to AP#1 - AT&T DSL Wired
I connect to AP#2 - Wireless Time Warner Cable
I am now connected to 2 internet access points simultaneously.
I want to address AP#1 to be used by firefox, and AP#2 to be used by all other applications.
That would be fantastic.
hi can you give ne the steps
hi can you give ne the steps on how to connect to internet using wired conection and a broadband connection, thanks and have a nice day
I second the motion of an
I second the motion of an article addressing the possible issues of a Windows 7 computer on a home network with other computers running Vista or XP. So far, I have not had any issues (after only 2 days) but I am sure they will start to appear.
Thanks. really appreciate this site.
OK, I've used the neat little
OK, I've used the neat little trick about exporting wireless network settings to a USB key and then importing them to another laptop. Now I'd like to know how to include 2 or more network settings on one USB key. What I ended up doing was an export and import on each one seperately as the second export overwrites the first. Another way was using a seperate USB key for each one, but either way it's pretty inefficient.
Any ideas on how this can be done?
We are running Windows 7
We are running Windows 7 64bit and can use any USB flash drive to copy files but the save WiFi settings to USB dialog does not recognize any flash drive inserted, go figure...
having a lot of laptops here for staff and being able to setup WiFi once test and import on all the other laptops is a real time saver, that is if it would work...
TADA! Enter the "netsh" command-line tool to the rescue!
Here are various way to use it, simply open a DOS session and try out the following:
show all wireless network profiles in your system:
netsh wlan show profilesexport each profile to xml file:
netsh wlan export profile name=”name” folder=”folder”export all at once (in seperate xml files):
netsh wlan export profilerestore each profile:
netsh wlan add profile filename=”name”ok here is my problem im
ok here is my problem im having trouble with lans, people can connect to my shared files and we can see each other in games but if i try to connect to there ip address i get a problem
cant find path or check spelling of name
and this the error code 0x800704CF im on windows 7 64 bit and the other computers i have tryed to connect to are 64 bit 32 bit(window7) windows xp
Also i only have had this problem for the past 2-3 lans at first i couldnt connect to the guy with domain settings but then it started happening with the other pc's
I have been on tones of sites and spend days trying to fix it i also think the problem may have started after i installed a wireless mondem but im not sure
i can see 1 other pc when connected in lan but i get the error but i can stream media from all of the pc's cause there media devises are visible i have changed the type of network im on from home to private to work multipule times i have tryed difernt ip addresses for my self also done direct connection the other ppl can all acces each other's pc's on the network its just me with the problem PLZ help
(sorry about poor spelling)
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