Solved Accessing TP Link Router connected USB drive with Windows 11

Hello All,

I just wanted to share a problem/solution that I found after a day and a half's worth of frustration.

I recently purchased a Dell Inspiron 3030 Desktop i7-14700 Win 11 Pro machine to replace my Dell Inspiron i7-7700 Win 10 Home machine. I also recently upgraded my router to a TP-Link AXE75 (a.k.a AXE5400 Tri-band) and had it functioning normally. I also have a USB drive connected to the router to serve as network storage. I had the "secure sharing" option in the router's menu in the OFF position to avoid conflicts with many of the devices on my network. All of my devices - including my Windows 10 machine - connected without an issue.

However, when I was setting up my new Windows 11 machine, it would fail in it's attempt to connect to the router-connected storage drive, asking for "network credentials". This was confusing because I did not have any requirement for credentialed network access. I spent a day and a half searching the internet for a solution., implementing all of the relevant suggestions within Windows 11 and trying all of my sign-in credentials. But I still kept getting the annoying request for network credentials from Windows 11.

Then I tried something simple; I went into the router's menu and set the "Secure Sharing" option to ON, entered a user name and password, and rebooted the router. Then, I tried again to connect my desktop to the router-attached USB drive, entering the new user and password when it asked for credentials, and voila! It connected!

So, it appears that although the router did NOT have "secure sharing" activated, Windows 11 didn't care; it insisted on a secure sharing connection. (Windows 10 had no such qualm about connecting without secure sharing active.)

Of course I had to reconnect my other devices using the new user name and password (which was an adventure in and of itself), but apparently Windows 11 knows something I don't about non-secure sharing with the TP-Link AXE75 router.

Melsman

Welcome

Melsman said:

I spent a day and a half searching the internet for a solution.

Click to expand...

You should of come here first. Someone would of mentioned about the new requirements of Windows 11 24h2.

@Bree or somebody else could better explain the new (more secure/tighter) 24H2 networking requirements


24H2 insecure guest access is now blocked by default. So user/pass is needed.

If truth be told, this was one of the many sites I visited to try to find a solution. I incorporated the options suggested in Bree’s response (and others), but to no avail. That’s why it took me so long to just bite the bullet, and turn on Secure Sharing. There are so many toggles and options in Win 11 Pro, I thought for sure I could disable Win 11’s stubborn behavior. But that didn’t happen. So, I had to bend to the will of the MS gods.

We will be assimilated…

Melsman said:

We will be assimilated…

Click to expand...

Not taking anything away from your success, but in all honesty, secure connection due to 24H2’s new requirements, to me, is a no brainer and a welcomed progression.
No way am I going to play with group piolicies etc to disable something that in my belief is for my own benefit.

Adaptation is required…

I think enabling secure connection from within your router (is not only required) is a smart move.

I concur; it is a smart move. And generally, I will go back and activate disabled security measures once I’ve got everything up and running properly so that I can diagnose problems serially rather than in parallel. But I prefer actions to be what they say they are on the face of the matter, rather than having to blind-fold bumper-car my way to a solution. If I have “secure sharing” disabled, and if Windows doesn’t like that, tell me. Don’t give me an esoteric “Network Credentials required” error, because, in accordance with my actions, network credentials should not be required. Instead, Windows should say, “I’m not going to connect until you activate secure sharing because I’m smarter than you are.” At least I’ll know where I stand.