Network Sharing Between WIN7 and WIN10

[Vincent Burel]

In fact there is no problem to make network sharing between WIN7 and WIN10
Problems come only if you have more than one ethernet adapter on WIN10. Explanation:

Our Win10 or Win11 PC have 2 network adapters (e.g. Wifi + Ethernet wire),
- One is connected to internet box as public network,
- One is connected to a local switch as private network.
and Windows 10/11 cannot see Disk or File shared by other computers on local network.

In other words: our Win10 or Win11 configuration present 2 different networks (one public, one private):
1- T100 or WIFI Network adapter -> Internet
2- Gigabit Network adapter -> switch -> Other computers (WIN7, Win10, Mac...).


Remark about configuring Public and Private network:
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With 2x ethernet adapters, it can be difficult to define the local network in "Private" or "Work" network while the internet network must stay a "public" network.

Solution: Go in Administrative Tools -> Local Security Policy (secpol.msc)
then in Network List Manager policies, you will be able to set unidentified Networks (Local) in Private location type while identified Network (internet) can stay in no configured mode (or public mode).

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THE PROBLEM:
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YOU CAN SEE FILE SHARING WORKING OVER YOUR INTERNET SWITCH (Public network) if both PC are also connected to your internet switch, BUT NOT OVER YOUR LOCAL NETWORK SWITCH (Private Network).

IN FACT: Windows 10 is trying to communicate to the connected computer by the preferred network (which is the internet one), this is what we learned into the detail of diagnostic after getting a reply saying "the network resource is not responding" (Windows Cannot Access \\Computer with error 0x80070035 = The network path was not found)

If you Disconnect or Disable public network adapter you will get back your access to your private network and share file and disk with other local computers. But if you reconnect your public network, this private link will be lost again (in some minutes). We talk for File sharing only, because basically the local network connection works (ping works or VBAN protocol...) but Windows does not use it to get access to network computers...


Optionally you may disable firewall for private network and check In network and sharing center, the following option for Private Network:

- Turn On network discovery
- Turn On File and Printer Sharing
- HomeGroup connections: Turn On password protected Sharing.

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WHAT IS THE SOLUTION THEN ?
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finally the question is:
How to force Win10 to use the private network (instead of public one) to access to other computer shared files ?

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The following points below are not part of the solution:
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[1] setting some services in Automatic Start Type:

- Function Discovery Provider Host
- Function Discovery Resource Publication
- SSDP Discovery
- UPnP Device Host

[2] Activate WIN10 SMB 1.0 service but SMBD Direct is already enough.

You can activate this service in "Programs and Features" -> Turn Windows Features On or Off
Turn On SMB 1.0/CIFS File Sharing Support possibly for Client Only (for security reason).

more info about SMB Services
https://docs.microsoft.com/en-US/window ... mbv1-v2-v3

[3] Possible problem: Win7 must have same user account than the one on WIN10 or at least the same WORKGROUP Name.

if your Win10 is logged with user "TOTO" and password "giraf33", you may have create the same user account on Win7 (administrator).
but normally windows should ask you to enter Network Credential to login on the computer... so...