Add Windows 7 PCs to Vista and XP networks

Add Windows 7 PCs to Vista and XP networks
By Woody Leonhard
<http://windowssecrets.com/2009/11/05/07-Add-Windows-7-PCs-to-Vista-and-XP-networks#>
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Now that Windows 7 has arrived, many people will be mixing and matching systems running Win7, Vista, and XP on their home and small-office networks.

Setting up such heterogeneous networks isn't as hard as you might think … if you follow a few simple rules.

The crux of the mixed-network problem

Anybody who has set up a Windows network — any Windows network — will tell you that the process is easy … until something goes wrong. Usually, adding a Windows 7 machine to an existing network of Win7 PCs is as simple as connecting the system to the network, telling Windows you're on a Home network, clicking a few times, and entering the password for your homegroup. You're sharing files and printers in a trice.

My Oct. 1 column offers loads of down-and-dirty advice about setting up Win7's homegroups:
<http://windowssecrets.com/2009/10/01/07-Sharing-is-easy-with-Windows-7s-homegroups>.

However, adding a Windows 7 machine to an existing Vista or XP network isn't nearly so simple. Upgrading systems on a mixed network can lead to some inscrutable behavior. I predict more than half the emergency calls I'll get from new Windows 7 users will be from folks who can't get their networks going.

I know, because I've been there. As much as I love Windows 7, a few of my PCs are going to stay with XP. For one thing, older laptops just aren't up to making the jump. I'll also keep one XP clunker around in case I need to use some piece of hardware not supported by Windows 7.

I've hit a few snags when attempting to network PCs running old and new versions of Windows. I can't possibly cover all of the Win7 integration problems you may encounter, but I can share with you a few of the networking tricks I've learned. They may save your tail when the big, bad Win7 wolf comes knocking on your door.

By the by, I won't be referring to domains here. They're the province of centrally controlled corporate networks run by network admins and legions of geeks in white lab coats. If you plug your computer into a domain, the domain controls just about everything. Get over it.

Public, Work, or Home? HomeGroup or workgroup?

Part of the problem in mixing various flavors of Windows is terminology. When you attach your Windows 7 or Vista computer to a network, you have to tell Windows what kind of network you're connecting to. The choices are Public, Work, and Home. But you can easily designate your office network as Home or a secure connection in your house as Public. The names don't mean much. (Windows XP didn't even bother with such artificial naming conventions.)

Adding to the confusion, Windows XP, Vista, and Win7 all assign a "workgroup name" to the network they're attached to. When you slap together networks with XP and Vista, it's important to match up the workgroup name on PCs that need to talk to each other. Contrariwise, Windows 7 doesn't even nudge you about the workgroup name and largely ignores it.

Muddling the situation further, Windows 7 supports a quick method of sharing files and printers via a network technique called HomeGroup. They may sound similar, but workgroups and homegroups have absolutely nothing in common. Nada.

When you get lost in the HomeGroup/workgroup bafflegab, keep the following points in mind:

Telling Win7 you're connecting to a Public network turns off network discovery. This means other computers on the network can't stumble onto your computer — nor can you see other PCs on your network. It also disables file and printer sharing by default, so you can't share printers or specific files or folders on your computer unless you change that default setting.

Public folder sharing is turned off as well. As a result, only people who enter your computer's name and a valid username/password can get into its Public folders. Password-protected sharing gets turned on, so all file and printer sharing (whether in the Public folders or elsewhere) also requires a username and password.
If you tell Win7 you're connecting to a Work network, Windows turns on network discovery and file and printer sharing. This also enables public folder sharing and password-protected sharing, which means anyone trying to get into the PC's files or use its printer needs to provide a username and password that are valid on the PC.
When you instruct Win7 to connect to a Home network, you get precisely the same settings as with the Work network type. However, the OS also looks to see whether there's a homegroup already set up on your network. If you then attach your PC to the homegroup, sharing suddenly becomes very easy among Win7 PCs in the homegroup.
Homegroups work only among Windows 7 machines running on networks identified as "Home." See my Oct. 1 column for details. If you're counting on homegroups to help you connect a Windows 7 PC to an XP machine, you're barking up a nonexistent tree. XP and Vista don't have a clue about homegroups.
Finally, every XP, Vista, or Win7 PC has a workgroup name. By default, Win7 and Vista machines are assigned the workgroup name WORKGROUP (original, eh?). Windows XP Home PCs get the default name MSHOME, and all other versions of XP get the name WORKGROUP as well.

(I'll forgive you if you print this list out and tape it to your monitor.)

Step 1: Make your PC known

If Windows XP and Vista PCs on your network can't "see" your new Windows 7 machine, chances are good you told Win7 to cloak itself.

To remedy this situation, right-click the network icon in the Windows 7 notification area and choose Open Network and Sharing Center. If the current network under "View your active networks" is listed as a Public network, click that link and change to a Work network or — even better — a Home network.

To preserve the security of a Public network while adding the ability to share a printer, click Change advanced sharing settings in the left pane of the main Network and Sharing Center window. Under "File and printer sharing," select Turn on file and printer sharing. (See Figure 1.)

Windows 7 Network and Sharing Center

Figure 1. Enable printer sharing on a Public Win7 network via this setting in the Network and Sharing Center.

Depending on your other network settings, a person attempting to get to your printer via another PC on the network may have to provide a username and password. It gets complicated.

Step 2: Get your workgroups together

As long as a network contains only Windows 7 PCs, the network name doesn't matter one whit. However, if you're trying to get XP, Vista, and Win7 PCs to talk to each other, the workgroup name definitely comes into play. In particular, XP won't play nicely with your Win7 computer unless the workgroup name on the Win7 machine matches the workgroup name on the XP system. (Vista tends to ignore workgroup names.)

To check and — if necessary — change the workgroup name on any XP PC, right-click My Computer, choose Properties, and select the Computer Name tab. If the workgroup name doesn't match the name used by the other networked PCs, change it.

In Vista and Windows 7, right-click Computer and choose Properties. In the Computer Name area, you'll see the Workgroup name; change it by selecting the Change settings link, clicking the Change button, and entering the new name. (See Figure 2.)

Windows 7 Computer Name/Domain Changes

Figure 2. Change the workgroup name on a Win7 PC via the Computer Name/Domain Changes dialog.

To avoid completely inscrutable problems, make sure all the PCs on your network have the same workgroup name, and reboot each one whose name you change.

Step 3: Use the same sign-ins on all PCs

No, it isn't high security, but using a single sign-in can avoid connection problems.

Different versions of Windows have settings that may or may not require passwords from someone attempting to access data, media, or printers.

You can flip through all the choices — but it's usually much simpler to enter the same username and password on all of the PCs you need to share. In many cases, using a single sign-in bypasses the extra network-security hurdle and provides a magic, behind-the-scenes "open sesame" when it's needed the most.

So there you have it. Three easy steps and a mumbo-jumbo decoder that should help solve most of your mixed-network problems. And yes, you're certain to encounter a few.