LAN setup and file sharing in Windows 7 plus WinXP

Nowadays, it is quite common for families to have two or three computers, and some of them may have laptops of some brands that have been upgraded and installed with the latest Windows 7 operating system (hereinafter referred to as Win 7). Under such circumstances, how to set up a home LAN in a pure Win 7 system environment or a mixed environment of Win 7 and XP systems, and how to set up file sharing? If you have the same question, please check the methods introduced in this article in detail, I believe you can solve it easily.

Infrastructure construction to build a home local area network

When setting up a home network, the latest Win 7 system appears to be simpler and more convenient, mainly due to the system's "network discovery" function. At the same time, compared with the XP system, the Win 7 system can also choose different environments such as home network, work network, and public network, and the security is also higher. In addition, from an application perspective, in addition to traditional file sharing, Win 7 also allows sharing support for media files in the form of playlists.

Step 1: Unify the workgroup name

To successfully set up a home LAN, all computers in the LAN must have the same workgroup and different computer names. In Win 7, the specific operation is relatively simple. Right-click "Computer", select "Properties" in the pop-up shortcut menu, and then modify the computer's workspace under "Computer Name, Domain, Workgroup Settings" in the pop-up window. Just enter the unit and computer name.

Step 2: Set up your home network

To set up a home network in Win 7, you can open the "Network and Sharing Center" in the Control Panel, click "Select Home Group and Sharing Options → Change Advanced Sharing Settings" to set both "Home and Work" and "Public" Set up the LAN environment. Expand the "Home and Work" network and the items that must be selected are as follows.

Next, click "View Active Connections" in the "Network and Sharing Center" to select a different network location in the next interface.

Tip: In Win 7, you can choose three modes: "Home Network", "Work Network" and "Public Network" respectively. But the settings here only have two options: "Home and Work" and "Public". It turns out that it has unified the "home network" and the "work network" together. However, if you choose "Home Network", you need to set a password. Therefore, for the convenience of shared access, we recommend that you choose "Work Network" or depending on the specific situation.

Home network settings in XP can be completed with the help of the network installation wizard. Double-click "My Network Places" on the desktop, and then select "Set up a home or small office network" from the pop-up window to start the network installation wizard, and then just follow the wizard's prompts.

Open the guest account to realize mutual access between XP and Win 7

To allow XP and Win 7 to communicate with each other smoothly, please open the Guest account. In XP, select "Administrative Tools → Computer Management" in the Control Panel, and then select "Local Users and Groups → Users" in the pop-up window. Then, double-click "Guest" on the right side, clear the check for "Account is deactivated" in the pop-up dialog box, and then confirm that the "Password never expires" item is checked (the setting method in Win 7 is similar) .

Tip: Confirm that the password never expires. You do not need to change the password when accessing the shared folder again in the future, which is more convenient. Of course, everyone can set it according to the specific situation. In addition, the mutual access and sharing between XP and Win 7 (such as printer sharing) may cause many strange problems, which we will not list here. The solution is to open the guest account as mentioned above, ensure that the two computers are in the same workgroup, and make basic sharing settings. Please set up the firewalls of XP and Win 7 in detail, which can generally solve the problem.

Please click "Next Page" and we will introduce the settings for file sharing.

File sharing integrates multiple file resources

After the LAN is created, different folder shares can be created to share file resources between different computers. When installing Win 7, the system will automatically create a user named "Public" for us, and at the same time, a folder named "Public" will also be created on the hard disk. In the previous settings, we have chosen to allow public folder sharing, so other computers in the LAN can access this folder. For ordinary file sharing, just copy the files that need to be shared to the "Public" folder. More flexible applications require manual settings.

Note: The following introduction takes the Win 7 environment as an example. The settings in the XP system can be operated using this as a reference.

Step 1: Basic sharing settings

Let's take sharing the Share folder in the root directory of drive E of a computer as an example. First, right-click the Share folder in the root directory of drive E and select "Properties → Sharing". Then click "Share" in the dialog box that opens, select the user name Everyone in the dialog box that pops up, and then click "Add" to make it appear in the list box below. Next, set permissions for it under "Permission Level", such as: "Read/Write" or "Read" (as shown in Figure 1).

Tip: To cancel sharing, you can use the same method and clear the check box for "Share this folder" in "Properties → Sharing → Advanced Sharing".

Step 2: Assign different permissions

Basic sharing settings may not be able to meet the needs of more users, so how to set different sharing permissions for different users? Below we will change a folder named "Project Pictures" to a different name ("Project Pictures" DX" and "Engineering Picture ZD") sharing as an example to explain: If the logged in account is DX, then it has read and write permissions; if the logged in account is ZD, then it only has read permissions.

First, right-click "Computer" on the desktop, select "Manage", expand "Local Users and Groups → Users" on the left in the pop-up management window, click "Action → New User", select "User Name" ” then enter “DX” and set the password. Then uncheck "Users must change password at next login" and select "Password never expires". Finally, click "Create" to generate a "standard user" level system account. In the same way, create a similar system account named "ZD".

Then set the permissions for the two accounts respectively. Select "Advanced Sharing → Share this Folder" in the "Sharing" option of the folder, enter a name under "Share Name" (such as "Engineering Picture DX"), and then click "Permissions → Add → Advanced → Find Now" ", find the account "DX" you just created and click to add it. Finally, check "Full Control" under "Allow" (as shown in Figure 2).

Additionally, a user named Everyone is observed and has full control, please delete it). After the setup is complete, you will have read and write permissions when logging in with a DX account and accessing the folder. Similarly, if the permissions of the ZD user are set to "read", then when logging in with the ZD account to access the folder, you will only have read permissions.

Next, you need to complete the assignment of user permissions. Click "Start→Control Panel→Administrative Tools→Local Security Policy", in the dialog box that opens, expand "Security Settings→Local Policy→User Rights Assignment" on the left, and find "Access this computer from the network" on the right and double-click. Next, click "Add Users and Groups" to add DX and ZD. Then expand "Security Settings → Local Policies → Security Options", find "Network Access: Sharing and Security Mode for Local Accounts" on the right, double-click and select "Classic – Local users authenticate as themselves". At this point, the sharing settings are all completed.

Please click "Next Page" and we will introduce the settings for media sharing.

Media Sharing Home Entertainment Safe Sharing

Similar to ordinary file sharing, media files can also be shared, but there is a more secure form of media sharing in Win 7 - sharing media files in the form of a playlist. In this way, the visiting computer is not accessing the media files themselves, so there is no need to worry about the files being damaged or maliciously copied. At the same time, the shared content can also be controlled through classification, which is very suitable for home users.

Step 1: Media Sharing Settings

Double-click "Network" on the desktop, click "Network and Sharing Center" from the window that opens, click "Select Homegroup and Sharing Options→Change Advanced Sharing Settings", then expand "Home and Work" and find the and click "Media Streaming". After "Show device location" select "All networks" and then click "Allow all".

After the above settings are completed, enter the "Media Streaming Options" window under the "Network and Sharing Center" again, you can observe the names of the computers that have been added, click the "Customize" link behind the computers in the network (as shown in Figure 3 Show). Judging from the content displayed in the pop-up dialog box, it will not impose any restrictions on media sharing. Let's start modifying it.

First uncheck "Use default settings" and select "Only", and then select the level.

Tip: To ensure that unrated media files are also controlled, uncheck "Include unrated files".

Step 2: Share media playback

After the setting is completed, when other computers run Windows Media Player, you can observe the local playlist in the left pane, and you can also observe the computer icon of the shared media file under "Other Media Libraries". Find the playlist shared by the computer and play its shared media files (as shown in Figure 4).

Tip: Sharing of media playlists cannot be achieved in XP systems. This function is limited to media sharing access between Win 7 systems.

Please click "Next Page" and we will introduce the settings of LAN sharing security.

Tips for safely setting up LAN sharing

As we all know, LAN sharing not only facilitates our daily life applications, it has also become the main way for viruses to spread. Therefore, when setting up LAN sharing, be sure to set detailed access permissions. Only by ensuring sharing security can you make better use of the convenience brought by LAN sharing. In addition, the LAN interconnection between XP and Win 7 is not as troublesome as imagined. As long as you follow the methods described in the article and make basic preparations, you can successfully achieve smooth mutual access between XP and Win 7. The media sharing function provided in Win 7 brings more practical choices and provides convenience for our entertainment.

The LAN sharing setting of Win 7 is relatively simple, but the mutual access between Win 7 and Discuss planning.