Turn local Win7 user account into network user account?

Question

I have a local administrator account on my gaming PC, and it is set up to my liking. I've recently added another PC to my home network, which I intend to use as a file server, TeamSpeak3 server, and other tasks.

I would like my local user to be accessible from both machines, but it is not set up as a network account. I have no experience setting up networks in Windows 7.

The primary reason I want to do this is to get the permissions correct, so that I can access my file storage drive (in the server computer) from my gaming computer. I have had no luck setting up file sharing or mapping the network drive for this.

Answer 1

To setup a true network account, you must setup an Active Directory Domain Controller using Windows Server. See http://windows.microsoft.com/en-us/windows-vista/what-is-the-difference-between-a-domain-and-a-workgroup

If you don't setup a domain, you can use a Windows Workgroup, but you must create accounts on each computer, they cannot be shared. You can however login from one to the other computer, by specifiying a local login, ie: COMPUTER\username where COMPUTER specifies the local account on that computer.

Another option is homegroups similar to workgroups, for Windows 7, as mentioned here: http://windows.microsoft.com/en-us/windows7/what-is-the-difference-between-a-domain-a-workgroup-and-a-homegroup