Local Network external HDD

[JZStudios]

I'm trying to set up an external HDD at my dads shop so he can dump files on it and access them from other PCs around the shop. It also has media stuff. I'm having a hell of a time trying to get anything to be able to access it though, and I've done it at home and it was not very hard to do.

I've plugged it in, clicked on it, went to advanced sharing, and set it for full permissions to "Everyone"

I've also set the "server" PC and another on a homegroup, and gave it HomeGroup access.

I went into "Network sharing" and gave everything full access, enabled public folder sharing, disabled password.

I read online to set up a Guest account and give it permissions, I've done that.

 

I'm starting to be at my wits end and don't know what to do at this point. Any help would be appreciated.

 

[Windows7ge]

Did you go into the disks Security tab and allowed user access?

Did you enable Network Discovery under Network?

 

Writing a guide on this is on my to-do list.

[JZStudios]

21 minutes ago, Windows7ge said:

Did you go into the disks Security tab and allowed user access?

Did you enable Network Discovery under Network?

 

Writing a guide on this is on my to-do list.

Yes, full permissions to  "Authenticated users" "System" "Administrators (PC name)" and "Users (PC name)"

Network discovery is on in Control Panel advanced sharing setting

[JZStudios]

To make things extra confusing, I just took the hard drive and put it on another PC, did the same permission settings, and it worked perfectly. Putting it back on the original PC it magically worked, until I disabled home group and it stopped again. Turning home group back on, it continues to not function correctly.

[Windows7ge]

3 hours ago, JZStudios said:

To make things extra confusing, I just took the hard drive and put it on another PC, did the same permission settings, and it worked perfectly. Putting it back on the original PC it magically worked, until I disabled home group and it stopped again. Turning home group back on, it continues to not function correctly.

I know a homegroup shouldn't be necessary for this config. What is the error it gives you? Permission error?

[JZStudios]

11 hours ago, Windows7ge said:

I know a homegroup shouldn't be necessary for this config. What is the error it gives you? Permission error?

Yeah, it just keeps saying the rest of the network PCs don't have permission. I know it doesn't need a homegroup, I'm doing the same thing at home to access a Plex server without one. So I have no idea why it worked for 5 minutes until I disabled the homegroup.

[Windows7ge]

Off the top of my head it's:

Share the drive.

Set the drives security to allow everyone.

Set the share permissions to Full Control.

 

And that should be it. Not a lot to it. If the computer (server) requires a login password you should be able to login to the "server" and access the drive by using the primary accounts username & password.

[JZStudios]

7 hours ago, Windows7ge said:

Off the top of my head it's:

Share the drive.

Set the drives security to allow everyone.

Set the share permissions to Full Control.

 

And that should be it. Not a lot to it. If the computer (server) requires a login password you should be able to login to the "server" and access the drive by using the primary accounts username & password.

Yeah, I ended up just hooking it up to the other PC and doing it there. It seems to work. The only issue now is the network is ridiculously slow, and there's a mass of ethernet cables in the ceiling and the front office used to be a server room, but it's not hooked up to anything now.

[mtz_federico]

20 hours ago, JZStudios said:

Yeah, I ended up just hooking it up to the other PC and doing it there. It seems to work. The only issue now is the network is ridiculously slow, and there's a mass of ethernet cables in the ceiling and the front office used to be a server room, but it's not hooked up to anything now.

is the network slow for all devices now or just for some? and when is it slow?

make sure the "server" pc is connected via ethernet

[JZStudios]

41 minutes ago, mtz_federico said:

is the network slow for all devices now or just for some? and when is it slow?

make sure the "server" pc is connected via ethernet

It's all wireless with the router being roughly located in the middle of the front "office" half of the shop. I think a big thing is that 1. Most of the other computers are slow in general, and 2. They all seem to be on 2.4. They might be N (probably) but they all are using some random spare wi-fi cards we had around. None of them had a 5ghz option, though he did tell me to restart the router which I didn't do.

 

There's a bunch of ethernet cables stretching all over the place with plenty of ethernet outlets, but none of them are hooked up, and when the previous company moved out, they unplugged them all from a server closet, wrapped them in a coil, and tossed them in the roof completely un-labelled, and we don't have a way to test them out to find which goes where.

[mtz_federico]

On 11/22/2019 at 3:10 PM, JZStudios said:

It's all wireless with the router being roughly located in the middle of the front "office" half of the shop. I think a big thing is that 1. Most of the other computers are slow in general, and 2. They all seem to be on 2.4. They might be N (probably) but they all are using some random spare wi-fi cards we had around. None of them had a 5ghz option, though he did tell me to restart the router which I didn't do.

 

There's a bunch of ethernet cables stretching all over the place with plenty of ethernet outlets, but none of them are hooked up, and when the previous company moved out, they unplugged them all from a server closet, wrapped them in a coil, and tossed them in the roof completely un-labelled, and we don't have a way to test them out to find which goes where.

The main thing could be that the computers are slow but wifi is defienitely slowing it down specially if it is wifi N on 2.4. Try at least connecting the "server" compuer to ethernet.

 

The best way to find the ethernet cable that is connected to a certain port is to connect a computer to the port that you want to use and connect the cables one by one to a switch or router that only has to be connected to power, if the port light turns on then you found a cable that is connected to something and you can check if the computer detects a connection (not necessarily to the internet but a cable connection)

[JZStudios]

1 hour ago, mtz_federico said:

The main thing could be that the computers are slow but wifi is defienitely slowing it down specially if it is wifi N on 2.4. Try at least connecting the "server" compuer to ethernet.

 

The best way to find the ethernet cable that is connected to a certain port is to connect a computer to the port that you want to use and connect the cables one by one to a switch or router that only has to be connected to power, if the port light turns on then you found a cable that is connected to something and you can check if the computer detects a connection (not necessarily to the internet but a cable connection)

None of it is connected to ethernet. The router is hanging from the ceiling in the middle of the hallway.

 

That method isn't great when there's probably at least 50 wires up there that span across at least 6 rooms. They need to be labelled as the outlets in the rooms are numbered, but I'm pretty sure the other end isn't.

A quick google search and I found this: https://www.computercablestore.com/gigabit-rj45-loopback-tester?gclid=EAIaIQobChMIy5_rzvCF5gIV-RitBh3jUgG7EAQYASABEgLt7PD_BwE#&gid=1&pid=9

but that's either still a 2 man job at either end or a lot of walking back and forth. And we'd still need to get a big switch or router or whatever.

[mtz_federico]

3 hours ago, JZStudios said:

None of it is connected to ethernet. The router is hanging from the ceiling in the middle of the hallway.

 

That method isn't great when there's probably at least 50 wires up there that span across at least 6 rooms. They need to be labelled as the outlets in the rooms are numbered, but I'm pretty sure the other end isn't.

A quick google search and I found this: https://www.computercablestore.com/gigabit-rj45-loopback-tester?gclid=EAIaIQobChMIy5_rzvCF5gIV-RitBh3jUgG7EAQYASABEgLt7PD_BwE#&gid=1&pid=9

but that's either still a 2 man job at either end or a lot of walking back and forth. And we'd still need to get a big switch or router or whatever.

I just realized you could also use one of those cable finders that you connect on one side and use a pen like tool that beeps when it's close to the cable that is connected to the device on the other end.

 

Something like this https://www.amazon.com/Extech-TG20-Wire-Tracer-Generator/dp/B00APD16D2?ref_=fsclp_pl_dp_5

[JZStudios]

2 hours ago, mtz_federico said:

I just realized you could also use one of those cable finders that you connect on one side and use a pen like tool that beeps when it's close to the cable that is connected to the device on the other end.

 

Something like this https://www.amazon.com/Extech-TG20-Wire-Tracer-Generator/dp/B00APD16D2?ref_=fsclp_pl_dp_5

Interesting. Never seen one of those.