I have 2 windows 7 computers and i'm trying to share a folder (that I want password protection on) outside of the homegroup.
Both computers are part of the same workgroup and I have the same user account/password combination on both computers plus I have password protected sharing turned on in the network and sharing centre along with file and printer sharing turned on.
On computer 1 I have right clicked and selected that I want the folder shared. When I navigate via the network on computer 2 to computer 1 the shared folder shows up on computer 2 but double clicking on it to open it gives me an alert saying I don't have permission to access it, no option to type in the user name and password (according to the help files I shouldn't even need to type the password in if both computers have the same username/password anyway but would need it if I'm logged in as a different user). It's just a blanket denial of access.
Best Answer
Try mapping it as a network drive and providing a different user name in step 6. If that doesn't work try the Net Use command to change the credentials used when accessing the machine. Windows will only allow you to connect to a machine using one set of credentials, so sometimes it trys to connect to say a printer first with the guest account, and that is why you can't access the shared folder using different credentials. "net use * /delete" will clear any existing connections.
Also I have had strange problems before where I was only able to use the Administrator account to connect, but that was probably because I was using hidden administrative shares