I’ve recently got a Linx 7 tablet which runs W8.1 and for £60 is frankly brilliant.

The one issue I’ve run into is with trying to access files (eg video files) on my W7 PC which is the media PC. I can see the W7 PC on the network from the tablet but I can’t access it. I was previously able to access files on it from a (no longer used) W7 laptop so I’m fairly sure that the sharing settings are right though I can’t be certain that they still are (I’ve since installed plex on the W7 PC and that may have changed the sharing settings I can imagine).

I noted that I can’t get the tablet to connect to the homegroup of the W7 PC – I only get an option to create a new homegroup rather than join the existing one.

Given that, I’ve also tried connecting directly (eg \\W7PC\drive\etc ) as I’ve done before and that asks for logon credentials which don’t work with details for either the W7 PC or the tablet. I note that the credentials state that I’m on a domain named the same as the tablet name.

Any suggestions? Much appreciation in advance 🙂

lunchtime bump

I note that the credentials state that I’m on a domain named the same as the tablet name.

That’s just a naming convention. If you’re on a domain it’ll be DOMAIN\username (or username@domain.whatever), if you aren’t it’ll be MACHINENAME\username etc.

I don’t know much about Homegroups, never used them in anger. Wouldn’t surprise me if you could join a W7 machine to a W8 homegroup but not the other way around though, might be worth trying that?

Good point though the documentation from MS suggests you can do it either way.

Maybe I’m better off just trying to get network shares working and go that way as I know that the different PCs can actually see eachother.

It does work. I’ve got a Win 7 machine as a HTPC/media server and a Win 8 desktop and Win 8.1 tablet reading from it.

If I remember rightly you need to go in to the sharing settings for folders and add an ‘everyone’ user.

As for homegroups, I couldn’t get it to work for a while – turned out it was the clocks. They all need to be synchronised to the same clock service.

Ah, maybe that everyone user is what I’m missing. The clocks all appear the same though I haven’t checked on specific sync settings.