Windows 7 Homegroup problems

Hey guys, I'm currently having a problem trying to get the Homegroup feature working. I have a desktop with Windows 7 Professional attached to my router via WiFi. I'm trying to connect my netbook, which has Windows 7 Starter and is connected to the same router via WiFi, to the PC via Homegroup, but it's not letting me. I've gone through the troubleshooting guides on both machines, but the problem remains. I've set all the sharing settings to allow all types of sharing on private networks and I've made sure the McAffee firewall (which is on my PC) is not blocking any connections. The machines do see each other on the network and I was able to connect to the printer from my netbook, but it's not allowing to share any media files. I've also tried connecting my Xbox 360 to the PC, but it comes up with an error when I tried connecting to it. So far I've tried taking my firewall off, rejoining/recreating the Homegroup, checking the "Peer Networking Group" and "HomeGroup Provider" services on both machines. For some reason the netbook wasn't running those services, so I started them and also the "HomeGroup Listener" service. Any suggestions? Thanks in advance Nahumi

You may have to manually add who you want to share with, such as the actual name of the computers …. \\*name*-PC

My Xp, Vista and Win 7 have names like *XP*-Computer, *Jeri*-PC and *Jacee*-PC

** The asterisks aren't included in the names … I put them there to point out the name of computers

Here's a great tutorial http://www.sevenforums.com/tutorials/44464…g-settings.html

Hmm, I'm fairly sure you can't manually join a Homegroup. As far as I know you have to click the "Join now" button. But it's grayed out, which means that it can't detect that the PC has made a Homegroup. Any more suggestions? Cheers Nahumi

Did you read the tutorial?

Yes. I'm fully aware of how sharing works, and how Homegroup should work. You don't seem to appreciate what the problem is. My PC, regardless of sharing settings and whatever tutorials and troubleshooting guides I follow, is unable to connect to all other devices on the local network. The only way for a netbook running Windows 7 Starter to share files is to either join a Homegroup (which it can't, because it does not recognise that there is one), or to go through the horribly complicated process of setting up a single password protected account on both machines. The second option seems rather pointless however, because I want to be able to share my music and documents on my Xbox 360 too. So… that means that there is a bug somewhere. My PC is not broadcasting that there is a Homegroup on the local network, and this same bug is affecting my ability to connect my Xbox 360 and netbook to the PC. (P.S, Homegroup is just a fancy name for the new Windows 7 media sharing features. The tutorial does cover manually changing sharing settings on particular folders, however it all operates through the same sharing system, which is referred to as Homegroup. So if Homegroup isn't working, then trying any other routes to get all the devices connected isn't going to work either.) Thanks for the advice though.

Okay, just to give you some more details that I have uncovered. For some reason my PC can now see my netbook and access it's media library. My Xbox 360 can also see my netbook and access it's media library. My Netbook and Xbox 360 both, however, can not access my PC's media library, even though my PC says it is sharing it. Furthermore, I can edit the Media Streaming options for my Xbox 360, but despite being able to to see my netbook in the "network" tab, it's not on the list. That means I can't adjust any of the access settings. I have also found a problem with some of the services which aren't running on the PC. I think the major reason to why I can't connect my Xbox 360 to my PC is that it keeps turning off the "Media Centre Extender Service". I've had to enable it twice now, but it's still not recognising the Xbox 360 as an extender. Since my original post I have turned off my McAffee firewall completely, restarted all devices several times, turned Homegroup on and off several times, turned Network Discovery on and off several times, changed the UPnP settings on my router so that the Advertisement Period is now twice as frequent and the Advertisement Time to Live is longer. The latter resulted in my PC being able to see the router as a network device, something which it did not do previously. I also changed the LAN IP ranges in-case there was a conflict somewhere, but that didn't have any affect. So, any ideas on what could be going wrong?

Firewall, firewall, firewall… Have you checked the windows firewall? Have you uninstalled McAfee? Something on the PC is blocking the communication. Uninstall McAfee and disable the windows firewall. Even then you can't be sure something else isn't blocking it, such as some stray piece of Norton internet security that came with your computer, etc.

I have uninstalled McAffee and disabled Windows Firewall, but it doesn't make any difference. McAffee was the only piece of security software installed on the PC, which has only had Windows 7 for about 6 weeks. Is it significant that before I disabled Windows Firewall that it automatically blocks all Media Center Extender ports and disables the service?

Being that Windows 7 is so new, I'm not real sure on the answer to your question about the media center extender. However, although that service may be critical to getting streaming media to work, there is no reason that service should be required in order to access files/printers on the PC. Can you please list the computer names of each machine involved on the network? I'm going to revisit this issue later and I can custom taylor some commands using the actual machine names.

Thanks, My PC is called "James-PC" and my Netbook is called "Netbook-James". The netbook was originally called "James-Netbook" but I changed it because I read that someone was having issues due to having named their computers the same thing. I have also changed the account name on the Netbook to "James(Net)" as opposed to simply "James" on the Pc, as before I read that this was causing problems. I've also tried using an ethernet to directly attach my Netbook to the router as this was a fix mentioned by Microsoft, yet that didn't have any affect. By the sounds of it, a lot of people are having this problem.

If Windows Defender is enabled, disable it in Services. (it could be the culpret)
You need an Antivirus program, so these are free:
Avira Antivirus
Avast
Microsoft Security Essentials –> This will work with 32bit right now.

You also need a firewall! Windows 7 firewall is pretty good. You can configure it for inbound and outbound.
This is a handy little app that works with Win 7 and it's free.
http://www.sphinx-soft.com/Vista/order.html

Sorry Jacee.. My suggestion was not to force the OP to change his anti-virus/firewall software, but to eliminate it as a possibility - temporarily. Nahumi, you are free to reinstall the McAfee suite you had if you'd like, or check out the other recommended products by Jacee.

@ appleoddity, I understand your intent and not a problem

I think I'll just leave it uninstalled for now, just to simplify things a little.

Just a little update for you guys. A friend came over yesterday with his laptop which also has Windows 7 installed. I disconnected my PC from it's homegroup and was able to connect both my PC and netbook to my friend's laptop. All computers can see eachother and were able to join, however they will not recognise any shared files or folders. That goes in all directions (PC to friends laptop, netbook to PC, netbook to laptop etc.) I hope that gives you guys a bit more to go in terms of suggesting any solutions. (P.S. I've also just replaced the AV on both my machines with Avast 5. The new update makes it one of the best AV's I've used in a while, definitely worth a try).