Network Scanners and Windows 7 Shares

I was visiting a clients remote office earlier this week doing some PC replacements. They have a multi-function printer that has “scan to folder” functionality and it previously worked quite happily on the Windows XP machines they were replacing.

The end user presses a button and the scanned document ends up in a folder on the computer.

After having setup the share, the NTFS permissions and the corresponding details for the path, username and password on the printer it refused to work. I needed to make a change on the PC to get it working.

Open the Network and Sharing Centre by clicking the Start button and typing “Network and Sharing” (or just enough to get the result you want!)

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From here in the top left corner click “Change advanced sharing settings”

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Scroll down the page and in the “File sharing connections” section select “Enable file sharing for devices that use 40- or 56-bit encryption”

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Be aware that this is lowering the security of your system. You’ll need to decide if you’re happy about that!

The specific device I was working with was a Ricoh Aficio MP 171. It’s possible a newer device would have been happy with the default Windows 7 settings.

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Andy Parkes is Technical Director at Coventry based IT support company IBIT Solutions. Formerly, coordinator of AMITPRO and Microsoft Partner Area Lead for 2012-2013. He also isn't a fan of describing himself in the third person.

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