Yesterday I setup a new mini-tower computer for my wife. It's running
Windows 11, and doing very well.

Today she created a folder and shared it with my laptop ... or tried
to.

When I expand the Network entry in Windows Explorer, I see her
computer. But when I click on it to see shares under it, I get a box
that says "Enter network credentials". It shows the name that I use to
login to my laptop, and it wants a password. What password? It rejects
the password I use to logon to my laptop.

On her old computer (Win 8.1) she shared several directories with me,
and I never saw this box.

At this point neither one of us has any ideas what to do. Googling
brings up nothing useful. What do we need to do?

Thanks.

--
Tim Slattery
timslattery <at> utexas <dot> edu

Tim Slattery wrote:

> When I expand the Network entry in Windows Explorer, I see her
> computer. But when I click on it to see shares under it, I get a box
> that says "Enter network credentials". It shows the name that I use to
> login to my laptop, and it wants a password. What password?

it wants a username+password from *her* computer, I'd ask her to create
a user just for you, rather than give you her existing credentials.

Tim Slattery wrote:
> Yesterday I setup a new mini-tower computer for my wife. It's running
> Windows 11, and doing very well.
>
> Today she created a folder and shared it with my laptop ... or tried
> to.
>
> When I expand the Network entry in Windows Explorer, I see her
> computer. But when I click on it to see shares under it, I get a box
> that says "Enter network credentials". It shows the name that I use to
> login to my laptop, and it wants a password. What password? It rejects
> the password I use to logon to my laptop.

It wants the name and password for HER computer - not yours!

Your name is prefilled, but you simply change it.

--
Graham J

On 12/9/2023 2:30 PM, Tim Slattery wrote:
> Yesterday I setup a new mini-tower computer for my wife. It's running
> Windows 11, and doing very well.
>
> Today she created a folder and shared it with my laptop ... or tried
> to.
>
> When I expand the Network entry in Windows Explorer, I see her
> computer. But when I click on it to see shares under it, I get a box
> that says "Enter network credentials". It shows the name that I use to
> login to my laptop, and it wants a password. What password? It rejects
> the password I use to logon to my laptop.
>
> On her old computer (Win 8.1) she shared several directories with me,
> and I never saw this box.
>
> At this point neither one of us has any ideas what to do. Googling
> brings up nothing useful. What do we need to do?
>
> Thanks.
>
wife:abcde
tim:12345 tim:45678 <=== create this account, the homedir will not get used,
+----------------+ unless you really want session capability there.
| | The alternative could be Guest Access. If the
| | passwords did not match, you'll need a bigger
TimMachine Mini-Tower brain-pan to remember the details later.

The SID (Security ID) of the two tim accounts
in the diagram, is different. If the left-hand "tim"
touches a file on the right, the ownership of the file
can have two tims, one tim is symbolic ("tim"), the other
is just a numeric SID, since the right hand machine
does not know the SID values the left-hand machine uses.

If that was your setup, when the dialog box appears
for entry of credentials, you would be entering "tim"
and entering whatever password you happened to have
used on the Mini-Tower ("45678").

Since this isn't a Domain, there is no Domain Server
as an "authority" for running the network. On a Domain,
the account tim would have one and only one password, and
it would allow tim to log into any machine using the
same details in each case.

When you work in a home environment, a certain amount
of the "certainty" is removed. It requires more
organizational brainpower on the users parts, to make
things work. Notice how I used a different password on
one machine than the other, and now I have to remember
when accessing the file share on the right, I have to
use "45678".

Using an account on the Mini-Tower, which belongs to
the Administrator group, you can

start : Run : control <=== open legacy control panels, "pin" the icon to taskbar

User-Accounts-control-panel <--- "Manage another account", if logged in as Wifey,
and needing to change the password on the Tim account.

(As Microsoft transitions the OS from legacy GUI to
modern (ugh) GUI, when you click a control panel,
you could be sent to a less-pleasant modern GUI instead.)

Modern versions of Windows, don't really like unauthenticated
access particularly, but I've seen them do it (the machine
likely passes Tim:12345 to the machine on the right). I suspect
being logged in as Tim, on the left of the picture, then
clicking the share icon on the Mini-Tower in file explorer,
that could well be as seamless as I've seen it happen here.
Once a TIm:12345 is on the right-hand machine, it might just
all work.

but if the password on the right is 45678, passing
tim:12345 silently across the LAN, is going to fail, and
then the dialog should appear, asking for the correct password.

But on my setup here, one direction may be seamless, the
other always puts up a dialog. I still get in. That part
works. But it's of course, an extra nuisance.

I don't run things here, such that shares are
thoroughly matrix-seamless. It's a mess on purpose.
And intended to waste a few milliseconds of the time
of someone entering the network. But my intention is
also, not to have shares fail completely. For example,
if I didn't have a "tim" account on the box on the right,
I might be completely rejected. Maybe if I turned on a
less-secure Guest option, I could get in. But perhaps
I might not have the ability to do certain things if
connecting that way.

As I write this, it's after spending three hours
cleaning up a melt-down. I can't even be sure it's fixed
yet :-/ But, we'll see. I did a Repair Install, to see if
this will be an easy fix. My networking suddenly developed
DNS problems, and even switching to 8.8.8.8 was not
a consistent experience. The trigger seems to be
whatever came in on the last Patch Tuesday. I also
had a seeming display manager failure. The Repair Install
won't change my file sharing situation at all, but the
ability to connect to shares still needs to be vetted
after a Repair Install, to be sure. Repair Installs can
and will change settings (the machine was telling me
it had turned on the Dont Bother Me setting for Notifications
and I don't really care if the stupid thing beeps and boops).

*******

Summary: I think you're pretty close, and most of the gubbins
are aligned. Now, try working on your account matching
details. Using Manage Another Account, you may be able
to enter a consistent password.

Windows also has a Windows Credential GUI, but I don't
know a thing about using it.

And remember that File Sharing, was designed to work at
Internet (WAN) level. If the rules it sets seem "harsh",
it's to protect the scenarios where you're on the Internet.
Personally, I would never consider allowing Internet access
to a Home machine. Like, burrowing in from Starbucks, is just
asking for trouble, to a Home machine.

Paul

In article <ktju2dFb9blU1@mid.individual.net>, Andy Burns wrote...
>
> Tim Slattery wrote:
>
> > When I expand the Network entry in Windows Explorer, I see her
> > computer. But when I click on it to see shares under it, I get a box
> > that says "Enter network credentials". It shows the name that I use to
> > login to my laptop, and it wants a password. What password?
>
> it wants a username+password from *her* computer, I'd ask her to create
> a user just for you, rather than give you her existing credentials.

Is the simplest thing to do perhaps to add you (using your "Microsoft Account")
to her computer? Then share the folder with you.

--

Phil, London

Philip Herlihy wrote:

> Is the simplest thing to do perhaps to add you (using your "Microsoft Account")
> to her computer? Then share the folder with you.

Depends if the O/P has (or wants) an MS account? For me, not having one
is preferred. It's straightforward to create a local "tim" account on
his wife's tower ...

Philip Herlihy <PhillipHerlihy@SlashDevNull.invalid> wrote:

>In article <ktju2dFb9blU1@mid.individual.net>, Andy Burns wrote...
>>
>> Tim Slattery wrote:
>>
>> > When I expand the Network entry in Windows Explorer, I see her
>> > computer. But when I click on it to see shares under it, I get a box
>> > that says "Enter network credentials". It shows the name that I use to
>> > login to my laptop, and it wants a password. What password?
>>
>> it wants a username+password from *her* computer, I'd ask her to create
>> a user just for you, rather than give you her existing credentials.
>
>Is the simplest thing to do perhaps to add you (using your "Microsoft Account")
>to her computer? Then share the folder with you.

I've added an acount on her computer using my MS account. Right now I
can't even see her computer from mine. Yesterday I could.

--
Tim Slattery
timslattery <at> utexas <dot> edu

Tim Slattery wrote:
> Philip Herlihy <PhillipHerlihy@SlashDevNull.invalid> wrote:
>
>> In article <ktju2dFb9blU1@mid.individual.net>, Andy Burns wrote...
>>>
>>> Tim Slattery wrote:
>>>
>>>> When I expand the Network entry in Windows Explorer, I see her
>>>> computer. But when I click on it to see shares under it, I get a box
>>>> that says "Enter network credentials". It shows the name that I use to
>>>> login to my laptop, and it wants a password. What password?
>>>
>>> it wants a username+password from *her* computer, I'd ask her to create
>>> a user just for you, rather than give you her existing credentials.
>>
>> Is the simplest thing to do perhaps to add you (using your "Microsoft Account")
>> to her computer? Then share the folder with you.
>
> I've added an acount on her computer using my MS account. Right now I
> can't even see her computer from mine. Yesterday I could.

Is her computer connected to the LAN?

Can it see things on the internet?

Can you ping it by IP address?

Can you ping it by <network_name>?

Can you browse it by \\<IP address>\<share_name>?

Can you browse it by \\<network_name>\<share_name>?

Worth testing again after rebooting both computers - Microsoft
networking often gets itself confused, particularly after sleep or
hibernate.

--
Graham J

Graham J <nobody@nowhere.co.uk> wrote:

>> I've added an acount on her computer using my MS account. Right now I
>> can't even see her computer from mine. Yesterday I could.
>
>Is her computer connected to the LAN?

Yes. She can use the Internet and the printer/scanner, to which she
connects via the LAN.

>Can it see things on the internet?

Yes.

>
>Can you ping it by IP address?

Yes

>Can you ping it by <network_name>?

Yes

>Can you browse it by \\<IP address>\<share_name>?

Responds "Access is denied"

>Can you browse it by \\<network_name>\<share_name>?

Responds "The user name or passord is incorrect"

--
Tim Slattery
timslattery <at> utexas <dot> edu

Tim Slattery wrote:
> Graham J <nobody@nowhere.co.uk> wrote:
>
>
>>> I've added an account on her computer using my MS account.

When you created the network share on her computer, did you configure it
so that the account you created had read-only or read-write permissions
to that share?

>>> Right now I
>>> can't even see her computer from mine. Yesterday I could.

[snip]

>
> Responds "The user name or passord is incorrect"

So you need to provide the credentials in the form:
DOMAIN\Username
Password

Where DOMAIN is the the name of her computer
Username is the name of the account on her computer
Password is the password of the account on her computer

--
Graham J

Graham J <nobody@nowhere.co.uk> wrote:

>>
>> Responds "The user name or passord is incorrect"
>
>So you need to provide the credentials in the form:
>DOMAIN\Username
>Password
>
>Where DOMAIN is the the name of her computer
>Username is the name of the account on her computer
>Password is the password of the account on her computer

Her computer has now appeared in Windows Explorer on my machine. I
double-click it to see the shares, and it displays the userid that's
on both machines, and asks for a password. I enter the password the I
use to login to my machine - Voila! there are the shares!

She's shared her entire d drive with me. She also created a separate
share of one directory on the d drive. They both appear. I can get
into all the shares except the one that's in the D drive, which is
really what I've been trying to get to. It's named "Tim drop here".
When I click it, nothing happens. There are two other shares, the D
drive and the Users directory. No problem with them, but I can't get
in to "Tim drop here". If I use the D share and double click on the
"Tim drop here" folder - nothing happens

Now what's going on?

--
Tim Slattery
timslattery <at> utexas <dot> edu

Tim Slattery wrote:

[snip]

>
> She's shared her entire d drive with me. She also created a separate
> share of one directory on the d drive. They both appear. I can get
> into all the shares except the one that's in the D drive, which is
> really what I've been trying to get to. It's named "Tim drop here".
> When I click it, nothing happens. There are two other shares, the D
> drive and the Users directory. No problem with them, but I can't get
> in to "Tim drop here". If I use the D share and double click on the
> "Tim drop here" folder - nothing happens
>
> Now what's going on?
>

Something wrong with the sharing permissions on "Tim drop here". Try
un-sharing it and see if it's visible when navigating from D.

Also be aware that the name of hte folder on the the D: drive seen from
its host PC may be different from the "Share Name" you gave to the share
when you created it.

--
Graham J

Tim Slattery wrote:

> She's shared her entire d drive with me. She also created a separate
> share of one directory on the d drive. They both appear. I can get
> into all the shares except the one that's in the D drive, which is
> really what I've been trying to get to. It's named "Tim drop here".
> When I click it, nothing happens. There are two other shares, the D
> drive and the Users directory. No problem with them, but I can't get
> in to "Tim drop here". If I use the D share and double click on the
> "Tim drop here" folder - nothing happens
>
> Now what's going on?

You need permission both at the network share level and the NTFS level,
has she got "simple sharing" turned on at her end?

On 12/11/2023 12:46 PM, Tim Slattery wrote:
> Graham J <nobody@nowhere.co.uk> wrote:
>
>
>>>
>>> Responds "The user name or passord is incorrect"
>>
>> So you need to provide the credentials in the form:
>> DOMAIN\Username
>> Password
>>
>> Where DOMAIN is the the name of her computer
>> Username is the name of the account on her computer
>> Password is the password of the account on her computer
>
> Her computer has now appeared in Windows Explorer on my machine. I
> double-click it to see the shares, and it displays the userid that's
> on both machines, and asks for a password. I enter the password the I
> use to login to my machine - Voila! there are the shares!
>
> She's shared her entire d drive with me. She also created a separate
> share of one directory on the d drive. They both appear. I can get
> into all the shares except the one that's in the D drive, which is
> really what I've been trying to get to. It's named "Tim drop here".
> When I click it, nothing happens. There are two other shares, the D
> drive and the Users directory. No problem with them, but I can't get
> in to "Tim drop here". If I use the D share and double click on the
> "Tim drop here" folder - nothing happens
>
> Now what's going on?
>

The overall permissions for a thing, can depend on more than one setting.
You can make one setting relaxed, the second setting restrictive, to make
it easier to "manage" who does what.

[Picture] A share has permissions for the sharing action, the disk has local permissions

https://i.postimg.cc/xqDCf2bB/share-permissions.gif

A folder can have more than one owner. Doing an implicit Takeown,
adds a second user for example.

My boot drive here, has two OSes. When the second OS is booted, I
sometimes visit the "Downloads" folder of the first OS. An implicit Takeown
(the green progress bar appears...) causes the permissions of
"Downloads" to change. If I check the Properties and Security tab
on "Downloads", I see

SYSTEM
Administrator
MSA-Name # What I'm logged into, on this daily-driver W11Home account
5-1-5-21-333333-222222-111111-1001 # An unknown SID, from the usage of the other OS (implicit Takeown)
# The person doing it, was a member of the administrators group

Those are the owners on C: .

In one of the folders in not-C: partition (and also in a partition
which is not shared), I'm seeing

Authenticated Users
SYSTEM
Administrator
Users (WALLACE\Users)

The icacls utility can be used to dump the permissions
in detail, for every item on a disk, and store the information
in a text file.

The icacls also has a playback function -- as an IT guy, you
can re-load permissions after you've been mucking about, so there
aren't any security holes later. This is a step home-users miss,
as home-users (that's me) smash permissions while fixing stuff,
and we don't "put the permissions back later".

Paul

On 12/11/2023 1:48 PM, Graham J wrote:
> Tim Slattery wrote:
>
> [snip]
>
>>
>> She's shared her entire d drive with me. She also created a separate
>> share of one directory on the d drive. They both appear. I can get
>> into all the shares except the one that's in the D drive, which is
>> really what I've been trying to get to. It's named "Tim drop here".
>> When I click it, nothing happens. There are two other shares, the D
>> drive and the Users directory. No problem with them, but I can't get
>> in to "Tim drop here". If I use the D share and double click on the
>> "Tim drop here" folder - nothing happens
>>
>> Now what's going on?
>>
>
>
> Something wrong with the sharing permissions on "Tim drop here".  Try
> un-sharing it and see if it's visible when navigating from D.
>
> Also be aware that the name of hte folder on the the D: drive seen from
> its host PC may be different from the "Share Name" you gave to the share
> when you created it.
>
I agree with the above. I have three computers on my lan, and have
never been bothered by the sign on to the drive/folder nonsence.
I would tell you the specific parameter but since I don't do it a lot
done remember the values for all of the parameters that need to be set.
I do know that to share a drive or folder, you must be the owner of that
folder. AND I know it can be done from alll of the normal windows
screens with out entering the registery.
I would suggest that you search set up shared folder, and follow the
instruction.

Tim Slattery <TimSlattery@utexas.edu> wrote:

>Philip Herlihy <PhillipHerlihy@SlashDevNull.invalid> wrote:
>
>>In article <ktju2dFb9blU1@mid.individual.net>, Andy Burns wrote...
>>>
>>> Tim Slattery wrote:
>>>
>>> > When I expand the Network entry in Windows Explorer, I see her
>>> > computer. But when I click on it to see shares under it, I get a box
>>> > that says "Enter network credentials". It shows the name that I use to
>>> > login to my laptop, and it wants a password. What password?

Yesterday, after having mysteriously disappeared from the laptop's
Windows Explorer for couple of days, the new mini-tower just as
mysteriously reappeared. When I clicked on it, it wanted a password,
so I put in my login password, which I'll swear I've tried before.
This time it worked, and all three shares appeared. Two of them work
perfectly, but when I click on the other one - nothing happens.

Anyway, we killed that one and created another with a different name.
Everything works fine now. I just don't quite know why everything
works fine. But then I didn't know why things didn't work fine before.

--
Tim Slattery
timslattery <at> utexas <dot> edu

On 12/12/2023 12:04 PM, Tim Slattery wrote:
> Tim Slattery <TimSlattery@utexas.edu> wrote:
>
>> Philip Herlihy <PhillipHerlihy@SlashDevNull.invalid> wrote:
>>
>>> In article <ktju2dFb9blU1@mid.individual.net>, Andy Burns wrote...
>>>>
>>>> Tim Slattery wrote:
>>>>
>>>>> When I expand the Network entry in Windows Explorer, I see her
>>>>> computer. But when I click on it to see shares under it, I get a box
>>>>> that says "Enter network credentials". It shows the name that I use to
>>>>> login to my laptop, and it wants a password. What password?
>
> Yesterday, after having mysteriously disappeared from the laptop's
> Windows Explorer for couple of days, the new mini-tower just as
> mysteriously reappeared. When I clicked on it, it wanted a password,
> so I put in my login password, which I'll swear I've tried before.
> This time it worked, and all three shares appeared. Two of them work
> perfectly, but when I click on the other one - nothing happens.
>
> Anyway, we killed that one and created another with a different name.
> Everything works fine now. I just don't quite know why everything
> works fine. But then I didn't know why things didn't work fine before.
>

You have discovered the essence of file sharing.

That's how it works :-)

For every sunny day, there is a rainy day.

Paul

On 12/12/2023 12:04 PM, Tim Slattery wrote:
> Tim Slattery <TimSlattery@utexas.edu> wrote:
>
>> Philip Herlihy <PhillipHerlihy@SlashDevNull.invalid> wrote:
>>
>>> In article <ktju2dFb9blU1@mid.individual.net>, Andy Burns wrote...
>>>>
>>>> Tim Slattery wrote:
>>>>
>>>>> When I expand the Network entry in Windows Explorer, I see her
>>>>> computer. But when I click on it to see shares under it, I get a box
>>>>> that says "Enter network credentials". It shows the name that I use to
>>>>> login to my laptop, and it wants a password. What password?
>
> Yesterday, after having mysteriously disappeared from the laptop's
> Windows Explorer for couple of days, the new mini-tower just as
> mysteriously reappeared. When I clicked on it, it wanted a password,
> so I put in my login password, which I'll swear I've tried before.
> This time it worked, and all three shares appeared. Two of them work
> perfectly, but when I click on the other one - nothing happens.
>
> Anyway, we killed that one and created another with a different name.
> Everything works fine now. I just don't quite know why everything
> works fine. But then I didn't know why things didn't work fine before.
>
I could be wrong, but I'll bet it has to do with the Master Browser
Table. On my lan, the router has a built in Master Browser table and if
I add in a new VM, and I want to access it immediately, I have to reboot
the router. Then, all is fine.

Richard

Tim Slattery wrote on 12/12/23 10:04 AM:
> Tim Slattery <TimSlattery@utexas.edu> wrote:
>
>> Philip Herlihy <PhillipHerlihy@SlashDevNull.invalid> wrote:
>>
>>> In article <ktju2dFb9blU1@mid.individual.net>, Andy Burns wrote...
>>>>
>>>> Tim Slattery wrote:
>>>>
>>>>> When I expand the Network entry in Windows Explorer, I see her
>>>>> computer. But when I click on it to see shares under it, I get a box
>>>>> that says "Enter network credentials". It shows the name that I use to
>>>>> login to my laptop, and it wants a password. What password?
>
> Yesterday, after having mysteriously disappeared from the laptop's
> Windows Explorer for couple of days, the new mini-tower just as
> mysteriously reappeared. When I clicked on it, it wanted a password,
> so I put in my login password, which I'll swear I've tried before.
> This time it worked, and all three shares appeared. Two of them work
> perfectly, but when I click on the other one - nothing happens.
>
> Anyway, we killed that one and created another with a different name.
> Everything works fine now. I just don't quite know why everything
> works fine. But then I didn't know why things didn't work fine before.
>
That condition is not unusual.
When it does occur, entering the device's router assigned ip address in
Windows Explorer( or its \\computername ) is the first step on the
diagnosis path.
Networkind devices and sharing can be hardened(higher reliability) by
having the exact same username/pw Windows logon account on all devices,
configuring file sharing/network discovery the same on each device, ane
enabling that logon account as admin, and credentialing properly in
Windows Credential Manager/Windows Credentials.

--
....w¡ñ§±¤ñ