Allow network access to my Windows 7 machine from a Windows Vista machine, without using Homegroup [Anwsered]

Allow network access to my Windows 7 machine from a Windows Vista machine, without using Homegroup

I have a simple 2 computer home network that was running 2 Windows Vista machines, and now I upgraded to a Windows 7 on one of them.  I have my network printer connected to the new Windows 7 machine and would like to be able to share it as well as share
folders.  I have disabled simple file sharing, I have used the advanced settings to share specific folders/printers, I have gone in advance sharing options and turned on network discovery, turned on file and printer sharing, turned on sharing so anyone can
read and write to public folders, turned off password protected sharing, and selected use user accounts to connect to other computers instead of Homegroup.  I did this for both private and public connections eventhough mine is private but I set both either
way. 

From my Windows 7 machine I can access the Vista shared files, but not vice versa.  I tried disabling my firewall and antivirus and still no dice, I have changed every permission setting I can find to allow everyone access to the folders/printers I want to
share, and still nothing.  Yes my workgroup name is the same, yes I can ping the IP (Thought not the \\name).  I went through the advance firewall settings and set Allow to all incoming connections on Private/Public/Domain and still didn't work.  I have setup
the username and password to match on both computers eventhough the password setting is off but still nothing.

I really wouldn't care if it was just trying to share files, but it is the network printer that is most important.  The error I get on the Vista machine is

Network Error
Windows cannot access \\Mikes
And the details is Error code: 0x80070035
Network path was not found.

Can anyone add any assistance to what I am missing?

Anwsers to the Problem Allow network access to my Windows 7 machine from a Windows Vista machine, without using Homegroup

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Hi Kegacide,

Have you tried accessing the Vista PC via it's IP address (Example: \\192.168.1.100 )?

This is very commonly a firewall issue and sometimes requires completely uninstalling the AntiVirus/Firewall.
I'd recommend trying that and then attempting the connection and pings by computer name again.

Take a look at the following Microsoft How-to, just to make sure you didn't miss any little steps: http://windows.microsoft.com/en-us/windows7/help/sharing-files-and-printers-with-different-versions-of-windows

And also try to add the printer by creating a local printer port:

Open Printers by clicking the Start button , clicking Control
Panel, clickingHardware and Sound, and then clicking Printers.
Click Add a printer.
In the Add Printer wizard, click Add a local printer.
Click Create a new port.
Make sure Local Port is selected in the list, and then click Next.
In the Port Name dialog box, type \\computer name\printer name, and then click OK.
Complete the rest of the wizard, and then click Finish.


Note: If it doesn't work using the computer name, try replacing it with that computer's IP address

Hope that helps! Let me know if I can be of further assistance!

Cody C
Microsoft Answers Support Engineer
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Boot in Safe Mode:

• Open Run command as previously described
• Type MSConfig
• Click on Boot tab
• Tick Safe boot in Boot option
• Select Network
• Click Apply and OK
• Reboot your system

Your system will boot in Safe mode with Networking. You may now try and open Windows Store and should not see any errors.

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