Instruction On Networking

Not my first rodeo with Network issues so was wondering if this forum has any instructional documents on local networking.

I have just moved to Win 11 from 10 and the issues are the same. If I try to "SEE" my laptop I am asked about credentials ( I have no idea what is required ) and trying to see the DESKTOP I see both drives but do not have PERMISSION to look into the drive. Drives have share turned on. My printer is on the network (wi-fi) and my Media player (cabled ) is on and I can see both 4Gig WD drives and get into them. The laptop is also WI-FI.

I just want to be able to get into the laptop and desktop. Never worked back with workgroups.

Any ideas, please?

You did not indicate what device you are trying to access the Desktop and Laptop from. Generally to access them you need to enter the userid and password (Local account or MS account). This would also be the case if you are trying to access the Laptop from the Desktop using Explorer. The folders are need to be setup for sharing.

If this does not help then provide more details.

Just trying to look into each other in this home network; password is turned off on both machines. It is the laptop the displays the message that permission is required to access \\Desktop\c for example and it is the desktop that displays ENTER NETWORK CREDENTIALS.
I just don't know what is required here to get it all working. If I have to enter any other info I just want to do it once, not each time I want to look into each machine. I am not trying to access either from outside the home.

On the plus side the Media Player showed up on it's own and I can access both 4T drives and all it's folders on the network. Didn't have to change anything. Cant look back at the 2 machines but not needed.

Not sure how you turn password off, but that may just mean that you do not have to enter the password to use the PC. When trying to access another PC, that is on the same network, you need to provide the account ID and password. There is an option to save the information so that it does not have to be entered again.

are we talking my microsoft account ID

He needs to add credentials in the control panel.

Can be solved by unticking "Users must enter a username and password" in Netplwiz, not sure that's a good idea though if others have access to PCs. If using an MS account on all PCs you can use that.