Homegroup aaarrghh!!

RandyD123 said:

Homegroup is ONLY for people who don't understand advanced sharing and permissions. Get out of the homegroup and use a workgroup instead.

Utterly rediculous and completely untrue. Go back to the books man, I've been running Win 7 since Jan and have been working with the networking features even since.

Homegroups was made for easy file sharing and media streaming in a home network environment, it's that simple.

Workgroup has many more security's in place, most of which simply aren't needed in the standard home network.

kegobeer said:

Are you attempting to connect via wifi? If so, try connecting both computers to the router with an ethernet cable to see if the problem goes away. You may need to update your wifi drivers on either the desktop or the netbook, depending on which one has the wifi connection.

Something else I just thought about - do both computers have the same name, ie: kegobeer_pc?

The laptop is wireless correct... I know it is connected properly because i can share a folder on the desktop and it can see and browse it. I will try connecting it directly to the router.

as far as updating wifi drivers on the laptop, is windows update sufficient for that?

computers have different names:
Rick-PC
Rick-Laptop

chev65 said:

recentrisk said:

torrentg said:

Alright. Are you saying that your password isn't accepted? Then rerun the wizard that creates it and go from there.

Correct. I have tried deleting homegroup and recreating in from both PCs with the same result.

I did notice that if I click on 'Local Area Connection Status' from the Network and Sharing Center that the IPv6 Connectivity: No network access (See image)

Is that a problem?

Home Groups does not work unless IPv6 is functioning properly. This is no doubt your problem.

That is also the reason I said this 15 posts ago:

"I think the problems people are seeing with homegroups has to do with their router not being capible of supporting IPV6 functionality."

I can't say for sure what is causing this problem but I can say for certain that Homegroups will not work unless IPv6 is working correctly. :)

Feel free to Rep me for being the first to bring up a potential problem with your IPv6 network connection.

strange it did pass the test of ping -6 computername... how else can i test if ipv6 is working correctly?

Since the connection is a gigabit one, we can assume the router itself is not too old.

I've quickly checked online and even my ancient DI-624 is reported to have IPv6 functionality.

And if that ping responded well, that means IPv6 packets were sent and received by the remote machine through the router.

So unless your router is crippled for some reason or another (configuration?), it should work out.

recentrisk said:

torrentg said:

Alright. Are you saying that your password isn't accepted? Then rerun the wizard that creates it and go from there.

Correct. I have tried deleting homegroup and recreating in from both PCs with the same result.

I did notice that if I click on 'Local Area Connection Status' from the Network and Sharing Center that the IPv6 Connectivity: No network access (See image)

Is that a problem?

So back to my earlier post and picture... other than ping -6 how can i test to see if IPv6 is working correctly?

That is the test. With a successfully returned ping, you can be sure IPv6 is enabled and well on the local (machine you are at) and remote ("other") machine. Also, the router has successfully transmitted all packets involved. You have no issue with IPv6 itself.

Mine also passes the ipv6 ping test on an old Draytek 2600g router which is wired.

However, when trying to copy from a wired QNAP server via the router, it times out, on "calculating, be it one small file or ten large ones.

All this ran quite happily via a "normal" network with the router, a mix of Vista desktop, XP desktop (both wired) and an XP laptop, Squeezebox, and a Xbox360 wirelessly.

Homegroup has a lot to answer for

Homegroup only works between Windows 7 machines and no other OS.

torrentg said:

Homegroup only works between Windows 7 machines and no other OS.

I know.
That's why I upgraded three computers to Windows 7

Anyway, I've managed to solve my problem, and hopefully it may help someone else. After playing with the various options in the driver (both original W7 and new Intel), I wondered if it was worth trying to upgrade my bios.

Went to Dell's website, downloaded and installed bios (which had no mention of any network card changes in the release notes mind you). Tried copying the file again - nothing

Decided to de-install the Intel drivers and reboot. W7 found the card and installed it's own drivers (I'd had these in originally), but this time file copy worked !
Everything the way it should be

So it may well be worthwhile checking to see if there is a later bios for your mobo.

Awesome. Right, those notes abut bios updates never tell the story at all. That's why I always suggest bios updates to those that say, "The notes don't say it will fix my problem...etc.."

Very glad for ya. Enjoy.