A few weird networking issues

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Hey there folks,

I’ve got a couple of weird things going on. Number 1: I have three computers, 1 desktop, WinXP SP3 wired LAN, one HP Vista laptop, wireless, and a newer Sony Vaio Win 7 machine, also wireless. All pertinent updates applied to all three. Now, I can see all three computers from each, I can transfer to and from shared folders from the XP to the Vista computer and vice versa. I can transfer to and from the Win 7 and Vista computers. But if I am at the VAIO and want to transfer from the Win 7 to the XP machine I get some kind of “You need permission to do this” error. However if I am at the XP computer and try to transfer from the Win 7 to the XP machine, usually it works no problem; sometimes I have to enter my Win 7 computer name and password (it’s the only one I use a password to log on). I hope this was explained clearly, but of course I can clarify if need be.

Now on to issue number 2: Whenever I have both laptops on as of late, there is network traffic between the two. For the life of me I can’t figure out why, although using Wireshark I see that it seems to be some kind of transfer of music files from one computer to the other. I don’t know why nor do I know what software is doing this. I do know it makes network traffic from the ‘Net a bit more sluggish than usual. I have looked at my running processes and can see nothing that might indicate a piece of software that is doing this. Now I do know that Sony has something on their ‘puters that will allow a media sharing across all computers, and when I first got the Vaio I did start it up, configure it and start running it (I’m pretty sure it’s called simply “Media Gallery”). However my music collection is quite large, and I really didn’t need it to share my music and/or videos, my Tivo software does that already for me, so considering it was taking so long to identify all my music across all three of my machines I turned it off and stopped it from running at startup. This weird transfer has only been happening for a few days now, and that was a couple of months ago when I first got the Vaio that I tried that software.

I also use Network Magic on all three computers.

Any suggestions or ideas would be greatly appreciated, and I await whatever may come from our collective wisdom.

Thanks.

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Hopefully to answer your first problem.I can give you a link that will show & explain the situation;How to Geek
#2)My suggestion would be to you.Is to,UNinstall Wireshark & Network Magic.Just from the stand point that the,Windows operating systems.You have installed will do better on their own.The link I gave you above has more information on it as well.Just type in the search box @ the link to find more.
BTW,after you UNinstall wireshark & network magic.I would reboot every system you remove the programs from.Then I would do a defrag on the hard drive as well.Hope this helps you.

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Hey Ron,

Thanks for the response. As far as the tutorial on the howto geek site, my settings are all correct. Like I said all three computers can be seen from each other, I can transfer to and from all, except when sitting at the Win 7 machine and trying to transfer to the XP machine. Again, in Windows Explorer I can see the XP’s folders, I can start to transfer, but when I do, I get the permission error. I can transfer from the Win 7 machine to the XP machine when sitting at the XP machine. Most of the time I do this it goes smoothly, although on a couple of occasions I have had to enter the computer name and password, but not always.

As far as Wireshark goes, this is a standalone packet sniffing program that I only run when I want to see what the network traffic is. I am not hacker qualified, and only have rudimentary knowledge of it. It does not run in the background all the time. Network Magic, on the other hand I paid for and up until now has not only not been a problem, but has been a program I get great use out of, so uninstalling it is not an option.

The two questions then become: Why can’t I transfer from Win 7 to XP3 while sitting at the Win 7 machine, when I can see AND transfer files FROM the XP machine to the Win 7 machine, AND transfer files to the XP machine while sitting there? And, is there a way to find out what piece of software is making my music files transfer from my Win 7 machine to my Vista machine?

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The two questions then become: Why can’t I transfer from Win 7 to XP3 while sitting at the Win 7 machine, when I can see AND transfer files FROM the XP machine to the Win 7 machine, AND transfer files to the XP machine while sitting there? And, is there a way to find out what piece of software is making my music files transfer from my Win 7 machine to my Vista machine?

Generally on XP systems you need an account and password the same as the connecting system.

Most likely it is Windows Media Player that is causing the music files to be synced. Check the options on each system.

Joe

--Joe

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Example say you to share your download folder from windows7.Click on,View @ the top.Go down to customize this folder click on it.Click on the sharing tab @ the top.Under Network File & Folder Sharing click on Share.Then in the blank space,Type everyone click on add.Then click on Everyone below for Read & Write.
About the music files transfer,try disabling the Network Magic @ start up.To see if that helps?Also change your channels in the router for your wireless settings.

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Ron,

Folders that are shared on Win 7 are already marked for “Everyone” for both read and write. The problem is only one way, trying to transfer from Win 7 to XP while sitting @ Win 7.

Joe,

I do believe you may be on to something with Windows Media Player. However I cannot for the life of me find any settings that affect this. I do see “updating media library” when I open WMP, and I turned off “Allow streaming”, rebooted and same thing: constant network traffic. I searched the help file as well and found nothing that might denote constant traffic to any other machine. I have never set up anything on Media Player that might allow this in the first place, and it’s starting to get on my nerves that it’s even happening. I’m usually somewhat adept at finding out what’s going on and why on my computers but this one (two, actually!) has me stumped. I appreciate the assistance you folks have provided thus far, and eagerly await the next tidbits of wisdom you may impart.

Also, I have never used passwords on any of my systems, except this newest Win 7 machine.

Peace.

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Regarding the File Sharing problem, I can’t find where you mention it specifically but the fact that the XP system occassionally asks for password when browsing from remote may indicate that you’re using XP Pro. If so, “Simple File Sharing” may be disabled. In an explorer window (My Computer will do), click on “Tools”, then “Folder Options”, then “View”. In the “Advanced Settings” section, usually at the bottom, ensure there’s a checkmark by “Use Simple File Sharing”. Reboot and see if it makes a difference.

Good Luck
JohnBrown
Halifax, NS

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I think I found why the constant downloading/uploading between my two laptops! It does seem to have been WMP. The VAIO has something called Media Plus, and it was showing up in the library/device list in WMP. Once I removed it from the list, network traffic was back to normal. Yay. I still found NO setting where I can enable/disable the “feature”, but simply removing it seems to have worked (for now!)

Now if I can figure out the other network issue I’ll be ecstatic.

Thanks, Joe P. for pointing me in the right direction!

Peace.

Computers make it easy to do a lot of things, but most of the
things they make it easier to do, don’t need to be done.
— Andy Rooney

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Now if I can figure out the other network issue I’ll be ecstatic.

Did you try the steps at Share Files and Printers between Windows 7 and XP – How-To Geek[/url] as mentioned above?

Joe

--Joe

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Well, Whatever I thought it was, it wasn’t. The two laptops are still “talking” to one another. I went int to the Media Gallery setup and turned off any and everything I could find that might indicate some sort of “syncing” behavior, and yet I still see traffic between the two laptops. Argh. It is still strictly music files and I have done everything I can think of between WMP, and VAIO’s Media Plus software setup turning everything that has to do with updating, syncing, or otherwise communicating between the two machines off.

I know there must be _someone_ out there who can at least point me in the right direction to try and find what the heck is going on.

Maybe Fred or Brian might peruse these fora occasionally and make a post or two. I just want to find a way to see what program is running, that isn’t showing in running processes, or perhaps another way to use Wireshark to not only sniff the packets, but point out what prog is moving those packets around.

Anyway, still waiting, still reading.

“The richest man can not buy for himself what the poorest man gets free by radio.”—— David Sarnoff

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There is a program called ‘What’s My Computer Doing’ available free of charge. It monitors traffic on the bus and will show you which programs are accessing the hard drive. http://www.itsth.com/en/produkte/Whats-my-computer-doing.php?fromwmcd. Hope this helps.

I recently networked my two computers and noticed constant unknown activity between them. I assumed this was normal behaviour. Anyone with advice, please? Anthony.

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Hi Scott,

Re the networking issue . . .

Does your error message say anything about ‘not enough server resources’?

If so, do you have Acronis installed on the XP machine?

If so, try uninstalling it . . .

tom

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Scott Z

This is just a thought, but have you compared the security settings for all three computers?

Look at the Internet Options in the Control Panel. Go to the the Security Tab and select the Internet Zone, then the Custom Level button. Scroll to the bottom and look at the various logon descriptions on each machine. I suggest selecting automatic logon only in the Intranet Zone.

See is that helps. Check out the other zones under the security tab as well.

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Maybe the following Q&A will be of some assistance:

My network is made up of Windows 7/Windows XP/Linux PCs. I can’t access the Network Attached Storage (NAS) drives via Windows 7 Professional –

http://www.pcbuyerbeware.co.uk/Fix_Windows_7_Win7_Problems.htm#naswin7

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Wow! A few days of nothing, then suddenly a flurry of responses! Thanks guys! I have figured out the constant net traffic issue. There is some kind of “content monitoring” software Sony installs, including a service component called “content importer”. Stop that service in msconfig, reboot and voilà, only the occasional normal back and forth between computers, Tivo’s and other ‘net traffic. No more abnormal CPU activity either.

JoeP: The Win 7 settings are as the HowToGeek article suggests. I haven’t as yet had a chance to sit with all my ‘puters and check the XP settings, but will do as the article says, hopefully this weekend.

John Brown: Yes, it is XP Pro. As stated, this weekend I will hopefully get to the XP machine and will also check the simple file sharing setting.

Again, thanks to all, and I’ll let you know if everything works out soon!

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Hello again,

As far as the instructions in the howtogeek article pretty much all the settings are as stated in the instructions. Also, after playing around a bit I have noticed that this issue seems to be folder specific. For instance, I can move files to and from My Documents folders on both the Win 7 and XP machines, but still get the “You need permission” error if I try to move music or picture files only to the XP machine from the Win 7 computer. I did change a setting on the Properties settings when I right-click on the shared folder (Music, e.g.) on the XP machine, “Allow network users to change my files”. This had no effect. I re-read the article a few times to see if I was missing something, and even read through all the comments after the article to see if other folks were having problems similar to mine, and found out that there seem to be quite a few similar issues going on.

While I was putzing around I also shared an external drive that is connected via Firewire to the XP computer, and had no problem accessing that entire drive; it now seems to be individual folders that are giving me the “Permission” error. There is a “Try Again” and “Cancel” buttons available on the error box, but of course “Try again” just does the same thing over again.

Again, this is not a life or death issue, especially considering I can work around it either by going to the XP machine and copying what I want from the Win 7 machine, or even copying from the Win 7 machine to the Vista machine, and THEN to the XP machine. It’s mostly the principle of the thing and that I know it should work.

Something else I hadn’t mentioned until now is also the fact that I can’t print directly to my Epson C88 inkjet from the Win 7 computer either. This all seems to stem from the inability to obtain a Win 7 driver for that printer. The Win 7 computer can see the printer, and I can also print using the 32 bit Epson driver from the Vista laptop (also a 64-bit machine), but that particular driver just refuses to install on the Win 7 computer.

Oh, and John Brown, I checked the “Simple File Sharing” setting as you suggested and it was already checked, so that’s not it either.

Again, these are not life or death issues, at least at this time, and I do appreciate all the assistance I have received thus far, and I can for the most part, work around each of the issues with some added inconvenience, but as all things Microsoft, and most things technological, one would hope that after having spent sometimes thousands of dollars over time, one could make things work as advertised.

Be patient! It took us forty million years for us to develop a thumb.
It’ll probably take us forty million years to get it out of our ass.

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Troubleshooting file shares on a home network » Windows Secrets Lounge is an excellent post for diagnosing sharing issues.

Joe

--Joe

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Hey there folks,

I noticed one thing that was a common thread on the shared folders that _won’t_ let me transfer from Win 7 to XP, and that is all three folders (Music, Pictures, and Videos, on my f: drive, and NOT the default MY folders) are the ones I use for my Tivo Desktop program that allows me to listen to music or view pictures and videos on my Tivo connected TV’s. I did try removing them from Tivo Desktop, rebooted the XP machine, and then the Win 7 machine, but no luck.

There must be some setting on these three folders that is causing this “You need permission” issue.

Any more thoughts? We are narrowing it down, but it still is a vexing problem.

Thanks again for all your help. Perhaps I’ll be able to reciprocate at some time in the future.

Lord, help me be the person my dog thinks I am.

Anonymous

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Scott

One thing I have not seen mentioned is where on the XP box you are trying to move files. Is it all to the same folder on the XP box or different folders?

wavydavy

Just because you don't know where you are going doesn't mean any road will get you there.

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wavydavy,

Hey there! (Big Woodstock fan, named after Wavy Gravy?)

As a matter of fact if you’ll check out the message right above yours, you’ll see that I mentioned that the three folders that seem to exclusively be the problem are titled Music, Pictures and Videos on my f: drive (data only), and are not only shared, but also designated as my Tivo software folders that allow me to listen to music and view pictures and videos on my Tivo connected TV’s.

I have a few other shared folders that do NOT share this same problem.

Any ideas??

Peace.

Dogs Aren’t Our Whole Life

BUT

They Make Our Life Whole.

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It gets weirder and weirder,

I believe I have it mostly figured out. Something I had neglected to mention in this thread is that when looking at my XP folders from either the Vista or Win 7 machines in Windows Explorer shows several of the same folder. One is named as I have it named on the XP machine (e.g. “Music”), but the rest are named, e.g. “Music~1, Music~2” etc. There are 4 or 5 and in the case of my “Videos” folder, 6 different folders! They seem to be mirrors of the original. When I right-clicked on these folders while working on the XP computer, and chose the Sharing command, I noticed that under the Folder name entry the name is one of the ~#’s, NOT the one without the ~. It always struck me as strange that this was the case, but I never thought twice about it until this morning when I noticed the name differences in the Sharing window. I then went to the Win 7 computer, and tried transferring a file to the Music~1 folder, instead of the plain vanilla Music folder and voilà, the file transferred no problem! In the stranger yet category, however, was the fact that the fix didn’t translate to the other folders that are so named with a ~, e.g. Pictures~3, which at first, didn’t allow the transfer. I then went to the XP computer, checked to see if “Allow others to change my files on this network” box was checked, and in one or two cases it was not, so I checked the box and made sure it was checked on all my shared folders, rebooted and then tried transferring again, and now in the case of the Music folder, if I transfer to the Music~1 folder, it works (!), but not to the other mis-named folders, or the plain Music folder. It seems to work on the Pictures~3 folder and the Videos~3 folder as well.

So, the two problems that started this thread are basically fixed, but I still don’t know exactly why those folders are named wrong when looking at them from the network.

Thanks to all who tried to help, and if anyone has seen something similar with these shared folders being named thus, please let me know.

Peace.

Believe those who are seeking the truth. Doubt those who find it.
— Andre Gide

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Interesting, however, I am not following what your are seeing.

ON the XP machine’s local drive do you have only one Music and one Video folder? If you go into network on the xp machine and click on IT in the network window to show its own shares, do you see the duplicates? It is possible to share the same folder multiple times with a different share name. Is it possible this has happened here?

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mercyh:

It seems when looking at the network folders from the XP machine where they reside (and I have only one of each folder) by viewing My Network Places in Windows Explorer I have only one Music folder, but it somehow acquired the name Music~1. On my f: drive where the actual folder is it is named simply Music. There are multiple copies of my Videos and Documents folders (also on f:), but I don’t see for instance, _any_ copy of Pictures. However, as I stated somewhere back in this thread, I use Network Magic which places another network location group of folders in Explorer called, interestingly, Network Magic Folders. There I see multiple copies of all my shared folders, with ~’s, and even some folders that aren’t shared exactly, because they don’t even exist. Somehow Network Magic “thinks” I have duplicate folders that reside on my Tivo boxes as well.

I’m starting to think that perhaps Network Magic has something to do with all of this after all. It’s not bothersome enough at this point, however, to want to uninstall NM, just getting stranger.

Peace.

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