Homegroup Problem

I am a 63 year old (64 In Feb) Vietnam Veteran, now disabled by a stroke. I am getting very frustrated by not being able to setup a Home group. It previously worked very good, even sharing a printer. I don’t remember exactly but it appears that it stopped working after I changed my router. Presently using a Belkin N150 router, desktop is a Dell 546s with Windows 7 home premium and Norton Internet Security Suite 2012. Laptop is an Acer Aspire 5733 also with Windows 7 home premium and Norton Internet Security Suite 2012. Both are X64. I created the home group on the desktop and when I try to join the group on my laptop it says ‘Windows cannot setup a home group on this computer. I’ve run the troubleshooter several times on both computers, clocks are synchronized and router and modem have been reset. Even after synching the clocks it would say that they were not on same time. Then it would say it was an internet problem. I uninstalled my Belkin router from both computers and reset router by unplugging everything, including power, and plugging back in and then installing router software back to computers. I’ve turned off Windows firewall and temporarily turned off the Smart firewall on the Norton IS. Still won’t setup home group. I’ve gone onto Microsoft help forums but have not seen anything that will help. Has anyone got any suggestions that may help?

I tried so many suggestions that I can't remember them. Anyway, after all these 'fixes', even trying to delete idstore.sst, it always came back. Last action taken was to leave home-group, create new home-group on desktop and hard-wire laptop to router. Successfully joined home-group from laptop. Removed hard-wire. Restarted both computers, Now I am able to see and connect to desktop from laptop but desktop says there are no other computers on home-group. Someone in one of the forums mentioned doing it the old way. Guess I'll see if I can find out what that is as apparently Windows 7 still needs some work.

After trying all these suggestions, at least the ones I could understand and find the way to get to them, nothing seems to work. I believe now that these suggestions are just guesses. I see a lot of responses that mirror mine. 'I tried all that was suggested and it still doesn't work'. I wonder if people using Macs have this same type of problem. I am beginning to think that Microsoft programs and Norton don't get along and I don't want to uninstall my Norton Internet Security Suite just to find out if that is the problem. I can see that apparently no one in this Forum really knows how to fix this problem, if there is a fix. Since my last post, after several shutdowns , at night, I am back to square one. Can't join a homegroup from wireless laptop. It would appear that Microsoft has got us again. Bye ya'll.

2XG,
Thanks for your response. I'm still thinking about removing Norton but I'v got another 412 days left on my subscription and I really like the identity Safe feature, although it appears to be a problem between Norton internet Security(NIS) 2012 and IE 9. This home group problem appears to also be a conflict between NIS and Microsoft Windows 7. Just got done with a chat with Norton Support, out of India, he turned off the Norton Smart Firewall on my laptop and we tried to join home group. no help. I have tried this before, even turned it off on both computers with no help. When I mentioned my identity safe issue, he went through the process of checking. Actually i just showed him, as I have with another Norton tech about a month ago, the issue between NIS 2012 identity safe and IE9 not working properly but working fine with Chrome. Bottom line from India based Norton Support is that there is no problem with NIS 2012 but the problem lies with IE 9 and Windows 7. Got no response when I ask him, then why did these problems start when NIS 2012 came out and Norton users updated to it. There didn't appear to be any problems with NIS 2011 and IE9 or Windows 7. if I do eventually remove NIS 2012, I'll post the results here.

Hi 2xg,
As i said, here are the results of my latest attempt for a fix as you suggested.

--Uninstalled NIS 2012 on both computers first from Control panel, then ran Norton Removal tool.
--On laptop, turned on Windows Firewall and updated and ran Windows Defender. no problems, performed these actions after requested to from pop-ups
--Restarted both.
--When restarting laptop, no connection, ran trouble shooter, Wireless Network Connection 2 disabled (get this often), let troubleshooter fix.
--Could not join home group.
--On desktop, left home group, restart.
--On desktop, create home group.
--Try to join on laptop, 'Windows cannot setup a home group on this computer', same as always.
-- Re installed NIS 2012.
-- Same results, cannot setup home group.

--I QUIT. Maybe if Norton ever figures out that they have a problem and will admit it, then fix it, I'll try home group again. Maybe they will fix the problem with identity safe and IE 9 at the same time. I've been a loyal Norton user since 2007 but I think this is my last year, only staying because I have 411 days left on this subscription.

2xg, Here's the info on laptop, I'll get to the desktop next.