How to Solve Printer Sharing Problem in Windows 7

There are numerous factors that tin trip up Windows File/Print Sharing. Unfortunately considering in that location are so many factors, it can have some testing to figure out the exact cause in any given scenario.

TL;DR/DIY: Skip to the Summary

Workgroup/Homegroup

Windows Vista changed the style that File/Print Sharing works. Instead of simply setting the same workgroup name like in XP, you at present take to create a homegroup as well and set the network
blazon
(public/private (home)/domain).

Configuring File/Impress Sharing
should
exist piece of cake past default, but once yous start changing settings or using third-party security software, information technology becomes quite tricky to
make certain everything is set correctly
over again considering there are and so many factors.

If you want to share, set up the network type to
private. If you practise not want to share, set the network type to
public. It may seem counterintuitive, merely it makes sense: in a public network, you want to lock downwards the sharing settings, but desire more lax sharing in a private network.

Services

There are no less than
four
Windows services that
must
be running in order for File and Impress Sharing to work correctly and fully:

• Computer Browser
• Server
• TCP/IP NetBIOS Helper
• Workstation

Open the Services MMC snap-in (services.msc) and make sure that those for are running and set to Automated commencement. Open Network Places again and refresh. If information technology doesn’t piece of work, try again in a minute or ii.

Personally, I don’t like having all those extraneous services running all the time, even when I’m non using File/Print Sharing. As such, I have created two batch files that let me turn them on and off as needed without having to manually start or stop each individual service:

        ::LANOn.bat: cyberspace showtime browser internet first server net start lmhosts net beginning lanmanworkstation  ::LANOff.bat: cyberspace end browser internet cease server net stop lmhosts internet stop lanmanworkstation
        
      

Adapter Settings

In addition to the service, NetBIOS must exist enabled on your network adapter as well:

While it seems like an obvious step, also make sure that File/Impress Sharing is installed and enabled for the agile network adapter, particularly if more than than one network adapter is installed:

Besides make sure that the DNS settings are the defaults if you don’t specifically need to alter them considering these settings can bear upon visibility to and from the LAN:

Finally, brand certain that the system name and domain/workgroup are configured correctly for your network; for case:

NB: Ensure that the computer and workgroup names are valid. The official Windows interface prevents using invalid characters or making it besides long, only third-party software does not necessarily prevent that. This can cause bug with network discovery.

Ports

Another common cause of File/Print Sharing
not working
is that a firewall closes a required port. Windows File/Print Sharing

requires

TCP
and
UDP ports 135-139 to exist open up.

Check your security software (firewall, anti-virus, proxy programs) to ensure that the necessary ports are
non being blocked. File/Print Sharing has historically been a
potential vulnerability
and and then frequently locked down. You can run a test with
ShieldsUP!.

Security Software

Have you installed or changed the settings of whatsoever security software like firewalls, antivirus, etc. recently? Those kinds of programs oftentimes like to fiddle with various aspects of the OS to lock things downwardly, and if you gear up “privacy” setting or something, it may block or disable an aspect of Windows. For example, the
WWDC
(Windows Worms Doors Cleaner) is a cracking way to harden Windows XP, but setting information technology to maximum security has the side-effect of disabling F&P Sharing, the Chore Scheduler (and thus the prefetcher), etc.

Check your security programs’ settings for an option related to sharing.

In addition, make sure the Windows Firewall is configured correctly in case yous have changed something a while back. You can compare to a
complete listing
of (default) Windows Firewall rules for File/Impress Sharing from a arrangement with File/Print Sharing functioning correctly.

Misery, Meet Company

Plenty of other people have had like problems with File/Print Sharing.

All these people
concluded up having to either alter their network configuration (public/private/home/homegroup/etc.) to lucifer that of the balance of the network, or reset/disable the Windows Firewall (or 1 of the other items listed in this reply). One person linked to a
file
that may or may not help ready this issue.

This person
had a problem with File/Print Sharing that was fixed by resetting the Windows Firewall rules, and there is also a guide linked in that thread which shows a couple of steps involving changing the default sharing settings that are supposed to help.

In
this thread, resetting the TCP/IP stack was suggested as was
removing extraneous
6to4 adapters.

Official Responses

Network discovery
is a network setting that affects whether your estimator tin see (find) other computers and devices on the network and whether other computers on the network tin can see your computer. By default, Windows Firewall blocks network discovery, but you can enable it.

At to the lowest degree as a temporary diagnostic pace,
turn off your antivirus
and Windows Firewall. It is not as simple as you lot would call up; it requires a


whole 1-minute video


to show how to do information technology.

These
people
solved it by disabling the Windows Firewall birthday.

Here are 2 official Microsoft help pages that talk over fixing
File/Print Sharing
and
computers non showing
upwards in a network. They also have two troubleshooters:
[1]
[two]
for resolving these bug.

Resource

• Tom’due south Guide did
  an article
  on File/Print Sharing troubleshooting and covers well-nigh of the above steps.

• Microsoft
  File/Impress Sharing FAQ

• Microsoft’south
  Fix It Center
  has numerous automatic troubleshooters. If you didn’t go a re-create during the beta, then y’all tin even so use the
  online version.

Summary

When File/Print Sharing is non working, make sure that:

If afterward all this, you system is still messed up and File/Print Sharing is
still
not working correctly, and so you lot may too resort to generic prepare-information technology steps like

chkdsk
,

sfc
,

organization



restore
,

repair install
, or fifty-fifty

reinstalling
.