Sharing files amoungest three computers on my home network

[GregDC]

I have a home network with three computers. They are all running Win 10 Home. I have "shared drives" with "Everyone" on each computer. When I am on my laptop (WiFi connected to the network) I can see Desktop#1 computer, but it asks for credentials (I do not know what user name/password it is looking for. When I am on Desktop#1 I can not even see my laptop. Desktop#2 does not show either Desktop#1 or Laptop.
I am getting tired of doing "sneaker-net" to transfer files from one to the other computer, or to read files on another computer. I hope that this forum will help me fix this problem.

 

[PA-WOODCHUCK]

I think I get to my computers on home network in file explorer like this. Can't remember if I need to set sharing permissions or not.

\\LIVING-ROOM\documents

 

[glricht]

When setting up to share folders/data between PCs on a home network, the last step is to usually disable the requirement for the owning PC to require a password. Unless disabled, the requesting PC will be required to enter the remote folder/data's password. To turn off the password prompt, you need to tell Windows (on the remote PC) to not require a password.

There are a number of ways to do this, but here's the simplest:

1. Open the Control Panel
   (if it's not already open, on your keyboard hit the WINDOWS KEY+R, type Control Panel, then click OK)
2. Open the Network and Sharing Center
3. Select Change Advanced Sharing Settings (left side of window)
4. At the bottom of the screen, select All Networks
5. In the Password Protected section at the bottom of the screen, click Turn off password protected sharing
6. Click Save Changes at bottom of screen

Hope this helps.

p.s. this setting often gets reset by a Windows update, so be prepared to do this again periodically.

 

[GregDC]

I am going to try this tomorrow on my computers. The question, how do you protect non-home network people from getting into your files with this password disabled?

 

[glricht]

The question, how do you protect non-home network people from getting into your files with this password disabled?

If the other users are NOT connected to your home network, they can't access the PC or its files -- that's the whole point.