Connecting an android device to windows 7 homegroup

[arrogantmouse]

If you want to connect to a windows PC through your Android (phone or tablet) I have found the best app to run for this is ES File Explorer link to it here. https/play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.estrongs.android.pop&feature=nav_result#?t=W251bGwsMSwyLDNd

Not to sure of the S3 settings for the next bit, but you need to turn on file sharing for Nearby Devices, will find a few to connect with. You know MS why use one app and protocol when you can get three to do it. Connect to them all.

launch ES File Explorer and look down the left side for Network then LAN.
Touch Search at the bottom of the screen, It should auto find your Home PC. Touch on the IP for your PC and enter your User name and Password.

That should be you connected and have access to all your files you have set to share.

I was having the same problem, and this worked, thanks. I already use ES File Explorer on my Nexus 7 tablet, and it used to connect to my Home Group, but stopped. When I tapped my PC name in the LAN list of connected devices, it returned a rather cryptic message with a number of possible causes as to why I couldn't connect, that I didn't know how to address. However, tapping Search (or Scan in my version) brought up a new list of all the same connected devices, and when I tapped the new listing for my PC it asked for User Name and Password and that got me in. Using WiFi to connect to the internet or do e-mail was not an issue, just connecting to my computer on the network.

As for "why" someone would want to connect to their computer in this way (as some have asked), I like, for example, to download all my travel documents onto the tablet when travelling (airline ticket, electronic boarding pass, various vouchers as for hotel, etc.).

 

[GalacticGhost]

For future readers, SideSync from Samsung is good way for sharing as well

 

[Eman_1]

not a solution but a question, i want my zen2 to show in network places w/o typing ip adresses in the navigation bar. just like how my win7 and lubuntu see each other... so i wont be needing es because i will mange my android folder file in windows7.

i hate to write that ip adress given by es and airdroid i want it automatic.
pls help...thank you.

 

[mohan17]

yes using ES explorer it is easy . my setup is that- pc connected to wifi router using lan .and es explorer can easily find my HDD(shared) and i can play all multimedia direct.
but
when PC is connected through wifi to the router . iam not able to do same.
any solution .
thanks in advance.

 

[Mak Thorpe]

It is unnecessarily complicated to "share the hell out of a folder"- Here is an example which you can adjust for individual variations.

Skip ahead to the example if you are in a hurry, but there is nothing special you need to do to the windows machines other than set a login password on your windows machine. If you have never played with the workgroup settings, use the word "workgroup" instead of the name "Bedrock" in the example. For clarity, here are the full details of the environment for the example. I have a mixed home network of XP, Windows 7 and Windows 8 machines. All can be accessed using this technique with the minimal configuration steps.
All are set to a common Workgroup name: "BEDROCK". If you have never set this, chances are it will be "WORKGROUP". It is unnecessary to figure out how workgroup names are set. Just replace "Bedrock" with "workgroup" in the example, and you should be good.
I have a laptop running Windows 7 named BARNIE. When using it, I logon with the password "a" with the user name "Bettie Rubble". Bettie Rubble has administrator privileges on this machine which as I recall is default for Windows 7 and XP (not sure about Windows 8). For this example, I have not done any other special actions like sharing a folder or setting privileges. I am just using the shared folders windows sets up automatically.

I want to access the laptop from my android phone via wifi.

1. from ES File Explorer, choose Home Page.Menu.Network.New.LAN. (this notation means:Go to the Homepage and tap Menu icon in upper left corner. tap.Network. Tap "+ New". Tap LAN.)
2. I fill out the dialog with these values for my example: (note upper lower case does not matter except for password)
...Domain: bedrock
...Server: barnie
...User: bettie rubble
...Password: a
3. Result: I will now see in the Network LAN window a computer icon named Barnie.
4. I can now upload files to my laptop. For example, if I wanted to backup my entire photos folder DCIM to the laptop the steps are:
,,,(a) Home Page.sdcard1. Tap and hold on folder DCIM. It is selected.
...(b) Click copy.
...(c) Menu.Network.Barnie.Users.Public.Documents
,,,(d) Click paste.
...(e) On the Barnie Laptop, I will now see the folder DCIM under Libraries.Documents.My Documents.Public documents.


Techno details follows. For ease of lay users understanding the example, I refrained from jargon and eliminated unnecessary configuration details as much as possible. Do variations as suits your needs- For example you may want to set particular folders with read only privileges to avoid accidents and so on. One gotcha to be aware of- What I noticed was that if I tried to set up a New LAN name with a user name that did not have administrator privileges, that ES File Explorer gave the error message "Error- cannot find the server", which suggested that the Domain or server names were incorrect. I suspect you could attach as "anonymous" if you set access privileges to everyone as suggested by one poster, but I generally refrain from walking around buck naked. I'm shy about that sort of thing- not that giving full adminstrator privileges to accounts is necessarily a good practice either. But I suspect playing with the privileges will yield a result that more properly reflects best practices. I also found that I couldn't establish a Net name if the machine did not have a password set up for the user. There was nothing special I did with the XP or Windows 8 Machines. You can also use linux pathnames if you are more comfortable with that notation: EG In the example, it is faster to navigate using ES Folder's History- after selecting the folder, click DCIM in the navigation bar and you get the History dialog. Presuming you had recently visited the documents folder on the laptop, you could simply click the linux pathname smb/barnie/Users/Public/Documents.

The version of ES File explorer used was from the Google Play store, V4.0.4, with the double toolbar default layout. The phone for the example was running Android 4.4.2 (KitKat).