File Sharing Between Two Computers

If you have been following Software-Planet , you may notice that this week's articles have similar topic. We are covering about "Networking Setup and Troubleshooting" for Windows 7. These 3 articles: Setup Internet Sharing, Troubleshoot Internet Sharing and File Sharing are related to each other. Hopefully these articles can help and guide from general computer literates until advanced users to setup their sharing easier.

For convenience and to avoid confusion, this article will show how to share files and folders between two computers with and without internet connection separately. Both computers are connected via a crossover cable and using Windows 7. If any or both of the computers are using different Windows, the methods are almost the same. The file sharing however, does not limit to cable connection: a wireless connection can be setup for the file sharing too.

File Sharing Without Internet Connection

1. From your taskbar, select Open Network And Sharing Center. Choose Change Adapter Settings from the left pane.

Taskbar > Network Icon > Click Open Network and Sharing Center

Change adapter settings in Network and Sharing Center

2. Right click on your Local Area Connection > Properties. Now under Networking tab, make sure the File and Printer Sharing for Microsoft Networks is ticked.

Tick File and Printer Sharing for Microsoft Networks

3. Browse to your Windows Firewall under Control Panel via start menu. From the left pane, select Allow a program or feature through Windows Firewall. Make sure File and Printer Sharing is also ticked for Home/Work (Private) and (not mandatory:) Public.

Tick File and Printer Sharing under Windows Firewall

4. Choose any folder that you want to use it as the sharing folder. Right click on it > Share With. You can choose either Homegroup (Read) or Homegroup (Read/Write) depending on your preference. If you have not had created a Homegroup yet, create now and make sure both computers are connected to the same Homegroup for optimal function.


Check if both computers can connect and share the files now. Otherwise, you need to proceed the following to correct the local area connection settings.

Local Area Connection Configuration For File Sharing

a) From the same method on how you set the IP and DNS server address obtained automatically in this article: Troubleshoot Internet Sharing (step 2), instead of setting it as automatic, selectUse the following IP address:. Enter the following details for both computers respectively.

Computer #1
IP address: 192.168.1.1
Subnet mask: 255.255.255.0

Computer #2
IP address: 192.168.1.2
Subnet mask: 255.255.255.0

Enter the IP address accordingly to Computer #1 and #2

Note:
The IP address can be different as long as it is in the private range: 10.0.0.0 - 10.255.255.255, 172.16.0.0 - 172.31.255.255 and 192.168.0.0 - 192.168.255.255. Subnet mask however, must be kept the same.

b) Press Windows button + R, and type cmd. On the DOS (black-screen), ping each computers by typing ping (IP Address). From the example above, Computer #1 should type ping 192.168.1.2and Computer #2 should type ping 192.168.1.1 (not the way round).

Check the result of ping. A successful ping should show something like this:

Ping statistics for (IP Address) :
Packets: Sent = 4, Received = 4, Lost = 0 (0% loss)

While unsuccessful one, it will show request timed out with:

Ping statistics for (IP Address):
Packets: Sent = 4, Received = 0, Lost = 4 (100% loss)

If you have successful ping, now from Windows + R again, type: \\(IP Address). For instance, Computer #1 will type \\192.168.1.1. This way, now you can copy and paste files from both computers. Getting unsuccessful ping? You may have missed some of the steps setting up the correct Firewall and File Sharing settings (see step 1) or done something wrong in modifying theIP address (see step a).

The methods and steps listed should be almost the same with all version of Windows. Have you found yourself followed the instructions carefully but still cannot share your files between computers? You can post your problem in the comment form.

For Vista users, you may need to configure this correctly before you can do the files sharing.

Configuring files sharing for Vista users

If you want to set password for file sharing, right click the folder > Properties. Under Sharingtab, choose Advanced Sharing... to configure your settings.

File Sharing With Internet Connection

The only difference is only that you do not need to set the IP address (192.168.1.1 and 192.168.1.2). Instead, check your configured IP address under Local Area Connection from Network And Sharing Center. Choose Local Area Connection > Details to see your IPv4 Address. Ping the computers using the same method and type \\(IP Address) to share the files between computers.