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Category: Windows 7 support

  • Connect Two Computers Wirelessly in Windows 7



    INFORMATION:

    In order to connect two computers, now you need to configure ad hoc wireless setting on Windows 7 computer A, so that computer B can connect to it wirelessly, after that you can proceed to share file or printer.






    HERES HOW:

    On Windows 7 Computer A:

    1) Go to Start and click on Control Panel.
    2) Proceed to click View network status and tasks in Control Panel window.

    3) Network and Sharing Center window will appear, proceed to click on Set up a new connection or network.

    4) Set Up a Connection or Network window will appear, select Set up a wireless ad hoc (computer-to-computer) network option and click Next.

    5) You will see some explanation on this wireless ad hoc network. Please note that both computers must be within 30 feet of each other in order to connect successfully! Click Next.

    6) Here you need to fill up the details of this ad hoc network. Name your network, select security type and set security key if needed. Click Save this network option too, so that can manage it later. Click Next.
    Note: Although you can choose No authentication (open), WEP and WPA2-Personal as security type, but I advise you to use WPA2-Personal as this is the most secure security type.

    7) A window will be shown to tell you that the ad hoc wireless network is in the creation process. Finally this window will show you the created ad hoc wireless network with name and security key info, and this info is needed for other computers to connect to this ad hoc network.

    Note: You can always go back to Network and Sharing Center window, and click on manage wireless networks option to further manage this ad hoc wireless network.

    8) Let’s move to computer B, search for available ad hoc wireless network and connect to it.

    9) Once the connection is established, you are prompted to select network location type and/or homegroup on computer A. I will usually select Home network as network location type as the other connected computer is trusted computer. It’s ok if you do not want to create homegroup.
    At this point, you should be able to connect two computers and ping the other connected computer, finally proceed to share files if you like.

  • Configure IP Address – Windows 7 Tips

    Quick Way to Configure IP Address

    You can configure IP address, subnet mask, gateway and DNS servers manually on computer, but you can also configure computer to obtain IP address and other network information from DHCP server (most of the time is configured on router).





    Heres How:
     
    1) Go to Start and click on Control Panel.
    2) Proceed to click View network status and tasks in Control Panel window.

    3) Network and Sharing Center window will appear, then click change adapter settings.

    4) Network Connections window will appears. Here you can right click on the network adapter (can be wireless adapter or wired Ethernet adapter) that you wish to configure and click Properties.

    5) In the Network Connection Properties window, tick on Internet Protocol Version 4 (TCP/IPv4) and click Properties.
    Note: If your computer sits in IPv6 network, you can select Internet Protocol Version 6 (TCP/IPv6) to configure IPv6 address, but it’s not covered here.

    Manual IP Assigning
    If you wanna do manual configuration, you can now key in the IP address, Subnet mask, Default gateway and DNS servers.
    Note: IP address of your computer must be unique. None of the 2 computers in the same network can share same IP address, because it will cause IP address conflict.
    Note: Default gateway is a router that can route the traffic to the other network or Internet. DNS server is an application server that can translate URL to IP address. Check with your ISP on what DNS servers you should use. If not, you can try this free Opendns or Google DNS servers.

    IP Assigned by DHCP server
    If you have DHCP server setup on your router or you have dedicated DHCP server, your computer can be assigned IP address and other network information automatically by selecting Obtain an IP address automatically and Obtain DNS server address automatically.

    Note: If you have a notebook, and you use static IP at home and the IP assigned by DHCP server at the office, you can make use of alternate configuration to set IP and network information for these 2 different networks.
    Set Obtain an IP address and DNS automatically on General tab as according to what I specified above, so that the notebook will be assigned IP addresses automatically at the office. After that, click Alternate Configuration tab, select User configured option and key in your home network’s static IP and other network information. By setting this, when there is no IP information assigned due to no DHCP server at home, this alternate configuration will be applied automatically, so that you don’t have to spend time on configuring IP manually every time at home.


  • Check network driver status – Windows 7 Tips

    Checking Network or Wireless Adapter Driver Status in Windows 7

    INFORMATION: 


    This article will show you how to check the status of the network adaptor status





    Heres How:

    1) Go to Start and click on Control Panel.


    2) Control Panel window will appear, click Hardware and Sound.

    Note: If you view Control Panel by Large Icons or Small Icons, you can just double click the Device Manager.

    3) Click on Device Manager in Hardware and Sound window.

    4) The Device Manager will appear, then locate and expand Network adapters and right click the network or wireless adapter you want to check, finally click on Properties.

    5) The network or wireless adapter properties window will appear, your driver works well if it shows This device is working properly under General tab. You can also manually configure network adapter’s driver parameters under Advanced tab.

    Note: If your device does not work well, click on Driver tab to check driver details, update driver, rollback driver, disable driver or uninstall driver.

  • Computer Name and Work group – Windows 7 Tips

    Assigning Computer Name and Work group in Windows 7

    Assigning computer name and work group in Windows 7 is highly recommended, because it allows other computers to access your computer to access shared file or printer easily by using computer name.



    Please note you need to assign unique computer name on each computer, but can group all home computers under same work group for easy access. Default work group in Windows 7 is WORK GROUP, same as default work group in Windows Vista and Windows XP.
    1) Go to Start, right click Computer and click on Properties.

    2) System Properties window will appear, and you can see the configured computer name and also work group. Just click Change settings to change those settings.
    Note: You can also click Advanced system settings to make similar change.

    3) System Properties window will appear. Select Computer Name tab and then click Change…
    Note: Feel free to key in your computer description too in Computer description box.
    Note: You can also use wizard to join a domain or work group by clicking Network ID…

    4) Proceed to key in new computer name and work group name in Computer Name/Domain Changes window. Finally click OK button to close all windows and restart your computer. Wow! You’ve done it!
    Note: Make sure computer name is unique in your network, not more then 15 characters and avoid from using this characters for naming your computer: ` ~ @ # $ % ^ & ( ) = + [ ] { } | ; : , ‘ “ . / ?

  • Access shared files or printers – Windows 7 Tips

    Simple Methods to Access Shared Files or Printer in Windows 7

    Here are few other simple methods to access shared files or printer of other computers on same network in Windows 7. I also assume you have enabled file sharing or other sharing correctly on other computers.



    Please also ensure there is no firewall blocking on the computer that you try to access, if not you won’t be able to get the access.
    Method 2:
    1) Open Network and Sharing Center, click on See full map.

    2) Full network map that contains all connected network devices will be displayed, you can proceed to double-click on the computer to access shared file or printer.

    Method 3:
    If you know the IP address or hostname of the computer that you wish to access, type the \\IP-or-hostname in file explorer bar and then hit “Enter” button, you should then be able to access that computer if it’s online.

    In this example, I type \\192.168.1.101.

  • Access Shared Files or Printer – Windows 7 Tips


    INFORMATION:

    This article will show you how to access shared files and printers in Windows 7


     
    Here is a simple methods to access shared files or printer of other computers on same network in Windows 7. I also assume you have enabled file sharing or other sharing correctly on other computers.


    Please also ensure there is no firewall blocking on the computer that you try to access, if not you won’t be able to get the access.
    Method 1:
    1) Go to Start and click on Computer.

    2) A file explorer window will appear, scroll down on left panel to locate and click on Network.

    3) It will then show you all connected computers, printers or other network devices, you can just double-click on the computer to access the shared documents.
    Note: Press F5 button to refresh the screen if you do not see the other connected computers or network devices.


  • Network Icon – Windows 7 Tips

    Network Icon Explanation in Windows 7

    This is simple network icon explanation in Windows 7 article, and this icon is useful to give you visual indication of network connection status of your computer that you use to connect to wireless network, wired Ethernet network, dial up or other network connections.



    This icon is shown in right hand corner of task bar area.
    1) Not connected – No connections are available -> Your computer is not connected to any network and no network is detected. This can due to WLAN Auto Config service is not started, wireless adapter is not activated, wireless or wired Ethernet adapter driver is not installed correctly, faulty network cable or other network problem.

    Note: If you click on the network icon, after that you can click on Troubleshoot to troubleshoot this problem.

    2) Not connected – Connections are available -> Your computer is not connected to any network but there is network detected, most likely is wireless network. You can click on this icon and connect to those detected networks.

    3) Connect to a network -> This icon with blue bubble appears when your computer is in the process to connect to a network.

    4) Connected – No Internet access -> This icon with exclamation mark means you are connected to network but no Internet access, you should check the router or modem to see any Internet connection problem.

    5) Connected to network –> This white network icon means the computer is already connected to a network successfully, it can be wireless or wired network! You should be able to access other computers or Internet.


  • Disable IPv6 – Windows 7 Tips


    INFORMATION:
    This article will show you how to disable IPv6 in Windows 7, the feature which is enabled by default? Most of the Windows users might ask this question as this IPv6 feature is not popular yet and not in used by most of the users.



    Disabling this feature can also conserve Windows’ CPU and memory resources, however if you are going to use this computer to create or join home group, this feature cannot be disabled as it’s required for home group activity.
    Here’s How:
    1) Go to Start -> click on Control Panel -> click on View network status and tasks in Control Panel window -> click on change adapter settings in Network and Sharing Center window.

    2) Network Connections window will appear. Here you right click on the network adapter (can be wireless adapter or wired Ethernet adapter) that you wish to disable IPv6 and click Properties.

    3) In the network adapter properties window, un tick Internet Protocol Version 6 (TCP/IPv6) and click OK. Repeat the same process on other network adapters if you want.
    Note: This method disables IPv6 on your LAN interfaces and connections, but does not disable IPv6 on tunnel interfaces or the IPv6 loop back interface. You need to make change in Windows registry in order to disable the IPv6 on tunnel interfaces. You can stop here if don’t feel like working with Windows registry. If not, continue your reading.

    4) Type regedit in command prompt to launch registry editor, proceed to locate following registry item in Registry editor.
    HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Services\Tcpip6\Parameters\DisabledComponents
    5) If the Disabled Components item is unavailable, you must create it in following format by going to Edit -> New -> DWORD (32-bit) Value and set the value to 0xffffffff (just type ffffffff). This will disable all IPv6 features except the IPv6 loop back interface, finally click OK and restart computer.

    Note: Once you have restarted computer, the following IPv6 tunnel interfaces will be disabled and removed.


  • Network Discovery – Windows 7 Tips

    Enabling or Disabling Network Discovery in Windows 7

    Network discovery in Windows 7 is the similar feature you can find in Windows Vista, which allows your computer to find and discover other computers and display them in network map. If this feature is disabled, other computer will not be able to see your computer too.



    If your computer is located on home network or other safe network (not public network), it’s recommended to enable this feature in order to ease the files or printer sharing.
    By default this network discovery feature is activated in Windows 7 if the network location type is set to Home network or Office network, but it’s good for you to know how to configure it in case you want to disable it later. This feature is disabled by default if the network location type is set to Public network.

    1) Go to Start and click on Control Panel.
    2) Proceed to click View network status and tasks in Control Panel window.

    3) Network and Sharing Center window will appear, proceed to click Change advanced sharing settings.

    4) You will be shown Advanced sharing settings window, you can then find out network discovery is on (turn on network discovery) under Home or Work profile section. You can also select turn off network discovery option and Save changes to disable this feature.
    Note: You need to scroll down to public profile in order to turn on/off network discovery if your network location type is public network.

    5) Let’s move back to Network and Sharing Center window, you can click on See full map in order to see the discovered network devices and know how they’re connected if you have enabled this feature.

    6) As an example, here you can see I’ve another computer (David) on the network and both computers are connected to a router (gateway) with 4 ports switch, and this router is connected to Internet.

    Note: You can also select different network to be displayed under network map’s drop down menu.


  • Change Network location type – Windows 7 Tips

    Changing the Network Location Type in Windows 7


    You will be required to select network location type in Windows 7 when you first connects that computer to network, this will automatically set the appropriate firewall and security settings on computer.


    However you are advised to understand which network location type you should use before connecting computer to network to better secure your computer. Also you should change the location when you connect to different networks as needed. This is because hacker can be everywhere, so have to be extra careful.
    Here are different network location types you can set on windows 7, do take note on the difference.
    Home network – This is the most open type! You can choose this type for home networks or when you know and trust the people and devices on the network. Computers on a home network can belong to a homegroup. Network discovery is turned on for home networks by default, which allows you to see other computers and devices on the network and allows other network users to see your computer.
    Work network – Mainly used for small office or other workplace networks. Network discovery is enabled by default too, which allows you to see other computers and devices on a network and allows other network users to see your computer, but you can’t create or join a homegroup.
    Public network – This is the safest type! You should select this option for networks in public places (such as coffee shops or airports). This location is designed to keep your computer from being visible to other computers around you and to help protect your computer from any malicious software from the Internet. HomeGroup is not available on public networks, and network discovery is turned off. You should also choose this option if you’re connected directly to the Internet without using a router, or if you have a mobile broadband connection.
    Domain network – This option is used for domain networks such as those at enterprise workplaces. This type of location is controlled by your network administrator and can’t be selected or changed.
    1) Go to Start and click on Control Panel.
    2) Proceed to click View network status and tasks in Control Panel window.

    3) Network and Sharing Center window will appear, proceed to check existing location type (Home network in this case). If you need to change it, just click on that location.

    4) Set Network Location window will appear, let say I want to change it to public network as I try to connect to public hotspot at airport, I just click on Public network.

    5) You will get confirmation on newly selected location type, click Close.

    6) If you go back to Network and Sharing Center, you will find out the location is changed.