Re: How to share between Windows 11 and 10, over a specific cable?

On 02/08/2026 7:28 PM, Java Jive wrote:
> On 2026-08-01 22:05, Johann 'Myrkraverk' Oskarsson wrote:
>>
>> How would I go about creating a shared folder, that is only shared
>> through the direct cable between my two computers?  I guess it's less
>> about the security, and more about the speed and convenience of not
>> having file transfers interrupt the internet traffic.
>>
>> As far as I can tell, this is not discussed at all on the Microsoft
>> QA website, nor can I find anything with a casual websearch.
>>
>> So, to break down the problem statement, I don't know how to
>>
>> * configure the extra ethernet ports with a different local
>>    area subnet IP addresses,
>>
>> * use those addresses to enable sharing only through said cable.
>>
>> Is there a kind soul who can direct me to the right website or
>> knowledge base where this kind of setup is discussed?
>>
>> I can provide an ASCII art diagram of my LAN if requested.
> 
> Well, my first advice would have to be, don't bother with this, just 
> connect the two PCs via your LAN.  If the LAN is not coping with the 
> traffic, then cure that problem, rather than creating the complexities 
> of the separate LAN.  So, before attempting to answer your actual 
> question, I will say a few words about that first.

Thank you for the detailed answer(s).  I've now configured sharing
between the two computers.  At least, sharing on W11 was trivially
available on W10.  I haven't tried the other way around yet.

My network is not congested.  I just habitually do this on Unix systems,
where it's no problem at all to direct certain services to a specific
cable.  I was not expecting to have to get a graduate degree in Windows
networking just to get this to work between W11 and W10.

I've not yet given up, but I'll take it slowly, and just allow the usual
sharing in the mean time.  This might take years, because I have other
projects.

> 
> For us to help with that problem, we'd need to know more precisely 
> exactly what is happening when you're experiencing slowdowns, as well as 
> the specifications of the hardware involved.  The cause of slowdowns may 
> be insufficient processing power in one or more PCs or your router, or 
> old slow network gear.
> 
> Note that there are four possible current networking standards that can 
> be connected by visually similar cables and connectors, each 10x the 
> speed of the last, and that backward compatibility means that traffic 
> will only run at the speed of the slowest link in the chain (units are 
> Megabits per second and Gigabits per second, earlier experimental and 
> obsolete standards are not listed here):
>      Ethernet                   10Mbps
>      Fast Ethernet             100Mbps
>      Gigabit Ethernet        1,000Mbps or  1Gbps
>      10 Gigabit Ethernet    10,000Mbps or 10Gbps
> 
> Thus, if you have two PCs each with Gigabit Ethernet ports but your 
> router has only Fast Ethernet ports, everything will run at Fast 
> Ethernet speeds.  Similarly, if all the hardware has Gigabit Ethernet 
> ports, but a particular PC is linked to the router by an old cable, 
> which is, say, Fast Ethernet, then that PC will only be able to 
> communicate to the rest of the LAN at Fast Ethernet speeds.
> 
> So check out the specs of all your hardware including the cables, and if 
> possible replace anything slower than Gigabit Ethernet.  You may be able 
> to work out if you have any old cables by studying the LEDs on the 
> ethernet ports (connectors) of your PCs or router; different hardware 
> may implement different standards, but, generally speaking, green is 
> good, amber is not good:
> 
> <https://www.google.com/search? 
> q=How+do+ethernet+port+LEDs+respond+to+old+slow+cables+being+used>
> 
> Now to attempt to answer your original question ...
> 
> You would set up shares on the PCs in exactly the same way as you would 
> normally set up shares on any PC, instructions are included below, the 
> problems would come from the PCs being connected directly in a different 
> subnet without a router.  The consequences of this are, as a minimum, as 
> follows:
> 
>      1)  As there is no source of IP addresses on the separate subnet, 
> each PC will assign itself a default IP in a separate 'Link Local' 
> subnet range 169.254.0.0/16 which will be different from the PC's IP 
> address of the LAN proper.
> 
>      2)  OOTTOMH I am not sure which firewall settings on each PC will 
> have to be altered to allow the second subnet range through, but this is 
> something that will have to checked out.
> 
> Windows Sharing Instructions
> ============================
> 
> IMO, M$'s default sharing arrangements have always been dangerously 
> insecure.  What follows is the comparatively secure
> way that I've always set up sharing, ever since Windows 2000.
> 
> Note: These are W7 instructions, other more recent versions of Windows 
> will obviously be similar but not exactly the same, because of M$'
> pointless and idiotic habit of hiding all the control levers in
> different places with every new edition of Windows, thus forcing
> people continually to relearn everything they've known for years. (Can
> you imagine the catastrophic chaos that would result on the roads if
> car manufacturers decided to do that?).
> 
> In what follows, I assume that you want to create shares on each PC
> visible to others, and that none are work PCs authenticating to a domain
> controller server.
> 
> On each PC:
> 
> 1)    Go into ...
>      Control Panel, All Control Panel Items,System,
>      Advanced system settings, Computer Name, Change
> ... and ensure that name and workgroup are changed to something
> memorable from the defaults, and that the latter is the same for all
> the machines that you wish to share files together.
> 
> 2)    Any user wishing to access a share on a PC must have a user
> account on that PC, so set up the necessary accounts up on each PC,
> giving them the same logon user id and passwd as they normally use on
> their own PC.  (If on a particular PC you want a user only to be able
> to access a share, but not be able to sign on to it, you still need
> his/her account to exist, but then it must be added to a block list in
> that PC's security policy  -  however, this may not be possible on
> some lower cost editions of Windows, and is beyond the scope of these
> notes).
> 
> 3)    Go into ...
>      Control Panel, All Control Panel Items,
>      Network and Sharing Center, Advanced sharing settings
> ... and set the following:
>      Network discovery
>          Probably on, unless reason otherwise;
>      File and printer sharing
>          Probably on, unless reason otherwise;
>      Public folder sharing
>          Probably off, unless reason otherwise;
>      Media streaming
>          Probably off, unless reason otherwise;
>      File sharing connections
>          Use 128-bit, unless reason otherwise;
>      Password protected sharing
>          Turn on;
>      HomeGroup connections
>          Use user accounts and passwords.
> 
> 4)    On each directory or drive of each machine that you want to
> share, creating subdirectories for this as required ...
>          <rt-click>, Share with,
>              Advanced sharing, Advanced sharing;
>          Select Share this folder;
>          Type a suitable share name
>              (Note:  ending it with a '$' will hide it from
>              users casually browsing from other Windows PCs,
>              but Linux users may still see it via Samba);
>          Type a suitable comment, if required;
>          Click Permissions, remove the relatively insecure
>          default permissions offered, and then click ...
>              Add, Advanced, Find Now
>          ... and by <click>ing and <ctrl-click>ing select and add
>          the following:
>              Admininstrators
>              System
>              Authenticated Users
>          ... and then give them the following permissions ...
>              Admininstrators        Full Control
>              System            Full Control
>              Authenticated Users    Read or Read/Change
>                              as required
> 
> 5)    If necessary, but DO NOT DO THE FOLLOWING ON THE WINDOWS FOLDER OR 
> OTHER SYSTEM FOLDERS (hopefully you're not trying to share these anyway, 
> not normally recommended) including user folders but sub-directories of 
> the latter that you've created especially to share are perfectly safe ...
> 
> <rt-click> the drive or directory being shared
> and select ...
>          Properties
>          Security
> ... and ensure the above permissions are replicated on the drive or
> folder itself.
> 
> Notes:
> 
> To prevent a particular account from logging on to a particular PC  - 
> if, say, you want a child to be able to log on to a share on your PC so 
> the child must have his user account credentials existing on the PC, but 
> you don't want the child actually logging on to the PC itself  -  then 
> you must be running a version of Windows that allows access to the 
> Security Policy management console (from memory, Home versions do not, 
> and note that I haven't needed to do this in quite a while, so I can't 
> guarantee these instructions, but IMS they're correct):
>    1  Get a Run dialog, say by <Win R>
>    2  secpol.msc <Enter>
>    3  Security Settings, Local Policies, User Rights Assignment
>    4  Add particular username to 'Deny logon locally' list, Ok
>         (by default this has only 'Guest')
> 
> To prevent logging on using an M$ account, again you need to get into 
> the Security Policy management console:
>    1  Get a Run dialog, say by <Win R>
>    2  secpol.msc <Enter>
>    3  Security Settings, Local Policies, Security Options
>    4  Click 'Accounts: Block Microsoft accounts'
>    5  Select from the drop-down list ...
>         'Users can’t add or log on with Microsoft accounts'
>       ... Ok
> 
> To allow XP and earlier to connect to more recent versions of Windows 
> such as 10, or those between which are running Microsoft Security 
> Essentials, you have to enable SMBv1.  To do this ...
> 
> Windows 10+: Run Powershell as Admin and enter the following:
>    Enable-WindowsOptionalFeature -Online -FeatureName SMB1Protocol
> 
> Windows 7-:  SMBv1 is enabled by default, so normally no change is 
> needed, however, ISTR that installing Microsoft Security Essentials 
> disables it, in which case you have to set or make a registry change to 
> enable it, as follows:
> 
> HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Services\LanmanServer\Parameters
> 
> Registry entry: SMB1
> REG_DWORD: 0 = Disabled
> REG_DWORD: 1 = Enabled
> Default: 1 = Enabled (No registry key is created)
> 
> Windows 8 versions:  I'm not sure about and cannot test here, but one or 
> the other of the above should work.
> 
> In all versions of Windows, allegedly you have to reboot after making 
> the changes, but perhaps restarting the service may suffice; again, as 
> it's a while since I had to do this, I can't definitely say that this 
> would work:
>    net stop Server
>    net start Server
> 

Thank you.  As of yet, I have not tried to connect my XP VM, but I'm
sure to keep in mind those instructions.
-- 
Johann | email: invalid -> com | http://www.myrkraverk.com/blog/
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