Sharing between Multiple Operating Systems
As expected, people have problems sharing files and folders on their home networks when they use different operating systems. For those of you having problems with sharing between Windows 7, Windows Vista and Windows XP computer, do try out our tutorials on this topic. They can help you out:
Sharing Between Windows XP and Windows 7 Computers
Sharing Between Windows Vista and Windows 7 Computers
How to Customize Network Sharing Settings in Windows 7
For those of you using Mac OS X and Linux we will try to post some useful guides in the future.
Working with Network Printers & Scanners
Some of our respondents reported having problems with their network printers. Either the printer works only on a certain computer or it is not always accessible to all computers on the network, especially when working with wireless printers.
For this group of people we recommend our articles on this topic:
How to Share a Printer with Your Network
Install a Network Printer from Windows XP Using the Add Printer Wizard
Install a Network Printer from Windows XP Using the Driver Setup
A small group of users reported problems with devices which are both a printer and scanner. When sharing it with the network, only one of the two functionalities works, in most cases only the printing. This is not a very common scenario but still worth investigating.
Wireless & Internet Connection Problems
An important percentage of our respondents reported having problems connecting to their wireless network or simply configuring their router to work properly with both wireless and cable connections.
Unfortunately, from the description of the problems people have, they are using old routers which don’t work so well with Windows 7 and Windows Vista without a firmware update. Some might just need replacing with newer models.
Also, some problems are caused simply by the Internet provider and the poor quality of their devices & service.
A few people also reported having problems with configuring Internet connection sharing in Windows 7.
Working with Windows 7 Features & Tools
Another category of problems is caused by people not being very familiar with specific Windows 7 features and tools. The two most common sources of problems are the HomeGroup feature and theWindows Firewall.
People don’t like that the HomeGroup works on Windows 7 computers only or, when it does work, it is not reliable: there are times when a computer can access all others from the same HomeGroups and times when the computer just doesn’t see the others even though they are turned on.
For readers new to the HomeGroup feature, we recommend the following articles:
The HomeGroup Feature & How it Works
Share Libraries or Folders Using the Sharing Wizard
Network Storage and Backup
A slightly smaller group of people reported having problems to setup an automatic backups system across the network and synchronizing files and folders between computers.
Unfortunately we have no tutorials on this topic but we will create a series of articles about it.
Conclusion
We would like to thank once again all the people who took the time to answer our survey. This has proved to be a very useful exercise for our team and we will do our best to publish useful articles based on your input.
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