Shared files not updating over the network

[yoippari 0]

At work there are two networked computers. They connect through a wireless router (linksys, but not sure of the model) and are not connected to the internet in any way. When the second computer was added someone would try to access the shared documents folder and everything in it was out of date. Files that had been updated that day would be shown as last modified months before and the dates in the files (mostly excel) would be dated the same as the "last modified" date.

 

Now this was when the second computer was brand new. The problem has persisted and has our office guy (this is a small company if you haven't noticed) going nuts going between his computer and the boss'.

 

Both computers are HP and fairly new (past 6 months), they both have windows XP. I haven't done any testing but I wanted to get this question out there and maybe get an answer (or at least a direction) before I go in to work tomorrow.

[Sampson 0]

This is one of those problems you have to look at first-hand to see what is going wrong. I don't want to sound partronizing, but I wonder if your boss and the tech guy understand sharing? Most HP's have a folder called Shared already. You do have to make that folder "shareable" by changing the properties of it. Let's say this was done. Because what you have described is a peer-to-peer arrangement, that folder should then be seen by the other computer. When you want to share documents, the documents have to be saved to that specific shared folder. What I am wondering is if they are saving their documents to the Shared folder on their own computers thinking that they are actually sharing their documents. All sharing is in a peer-to-peer arrangement is making the other computer's hard disk accessible through that folder. One computer can save its documents to its Shared folder assuming it has been set up to share. The other computer to access that document must manuever to it, just like changing drives or folders. It sounds like they are both saving their documents to their local Shared folder on their own C:\ drives.

[yoippari 0]

I looked at the computers since the last post and not being able to save/modify the other's files was a simple fix (shared docs was set to read only) but I haven't found anything about why the documents won't read the same on both computers. It doesn't even seem to be consistant. Today I messed with making a text file and altering it and it worked just fine from all perspectives, but last week the files came across as out of date.

 

It was Geek Squad who set this network up and they did something with network drives for c: and My Docs that makes no sense to me. I guess I will have to take some time and become familiar with exactly what the network drives are set up to do. They don't seem to be using them anyway.

[Sampson 0]

Sorry, but your second post makes no sense. If the Shared folder was read only, no changes could have been made to it. That being the case, had a user on a different machine attempted to modify the file, they would have received a message that the file could not be modified. If on the other hand, their modification was saved, and the shared folder on the other machine was Read only, it only goes to show that they are saving the modification on their own machine not on the other machine.

 

You don't seem to understand that a document has to be saved to the same Shared Folder on a designated machine. If the two computers are saving to the Shared Folder on their own machine in a peer-to-peer network, there is no sharing going on.

[yoippari 0]

Ok, I guess I just was not clear.

 

Computer one works fine.

Computer two (the new one) is the one having problems.

 

Computer one had it's shared docs folder set to read only.

 

Computer two could not modify files in computer one's srared docs folder. Simple fix.

 

The out of date file problem is:

 

Computer one has shared files. Assume file *.xls is modified today and has todays date in it. And yes it is saved.

 

Computer two opens *.xls and the most recent entry is two days old.

 

This has happened multiple times and makes absolutely no sense to me.

[Sampson 0]

The out of date problem seems to be that you are thinking that if computer one saves its spreadsheet to its shared document folder on computer one's hard drive that automatically it is saved on computer two's hard drive in its Shared folder. That doesn't happen. If you are computer one and you pull up a spreadsheet, modify it and save it, it will save to the folder you pulled it up from, lets say that was computer one's Shared folder. If you want to save that spreadsheet to computer two, you will then have click on File - Save As and then when the box comes up as to where to save it, click on the pull down arrow for the box that says Save To. Look then for Computer two's drive or folder, click on it, then click on Save or OK. You don't even have to change the name of the spread sheet. Guaranteed this will save that spreadsheet to computer two.

[yoippari 0]

But it never is saved on computer two, we don't want it on computer two. It stays on computer one. It just needs to be modified from computer two and saved on computer one.

 

In this sense computer one is acting as a file server. These files are stored on computer one, nowhere else.

[Sampson 0]

As you say, that does not make much sense. If computer one saves the document in a shared file, and pulls it back up to make sure that everything that was entered was actually saved - you are saying the computer two going to that exact same file pulls it up and and the data in it is two days off.

 

Tell you what, since you are using Excel and it cannot share a spreadsheet at the same time with another user the way a database can, have computer two go to the shared file on computer one and bring up the spreadsheet. Then have computer one go to the exact same spreadsheet in the exact same folder - you should get the message that another user is modifying data and you can bring it up as Read Only, or notify you when they are finished or cancel. If this happens, your shared folder is working correctly. If, on the other hand computer one brings up the document without the popup, it means that it is accessing a spreadsheet that is not in the Shared folder.

[yoippari 0]

Ok, I will try that when I go into work on monday.

[yoippari 0]

Ok, I figured out the problem. Geek Squad did it. The shared docs folder was not shared but the sub folders in it were. These are the folders I was messing with and tring to figure out why they weren't keeping up to date. When geek squad came in (the dates match up) they copied those shared folders onto the desktop. Those desktop folders were the ones that were being kept up to date and everyone was assuming that they were just shortcuts to the shared folders. So no the current folders were not the shared ones. The confusing thing was that they had the exact same name so the difference was "all users/desktop/2004 Billings" vs "all users/documents/2004 Billings". I am slowly cleaning up the duplicate files but I need to go through and make sure that all the entries in all the files (problably three dozen .xls files) are included in the version that will be kept.

 

I am blaming this one entirely on geek squad. They also did something where c drive on both computers was made a network drive y: and my documents was made z:.

 

Thanks for putting up with this stupidly confusing problem that was way too simple.

[Sampson 0]

Sometimes in trying to make something easy for others we so complicate them that we make it twice as hard. They apparently used the subst command to make a folder a letter or they assigned a drive letter to a folder. Anyway, glad you got it all straight. Now, if you can just educate your boss ...