Windows 7: 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?

Hi nolumo and Welcome to Seven Forums,

Have you tried disabling Norton Security completely? Click Windows Orb and type msconfig, click on it from the top, locate Services Tab and disable Norton temporarily.

Also, please follow the rest of my suggestions on this Post.
https://www.sevenforums.com/1719336-post2.html

An update will be nice.

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.

nolumo - It has became a common issue on NIS and setting up Home Networking, seems to be that the two doesn't get along well . What if, uninstalling NIS resolves your issue by using the Removal Tool? You may always reinstall NIS back whether it works or not.
To a few Members that I have assisted removing Norton resolves their issue and they are fine with it. Some didn't bother reinstalling Norton back and ended up using MSE, which is a Free AV/AS Software from Microsoft and would do a great job protecting your computer.

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.

Again, you have an option to reinstall NIS if you wish too if this resolves your issue or not.

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.

We can always continue troubleshooting, don't give up nolumo.
If you wish to continue, pls. provide both ipconfig /all output of the computers in question.
Click on the Windows orb type cmd, right click on cmd see at the top, and click on Run as Administrator. From the command prompt (black screen), Copy and Paste these ipconfig /all >c:\ipconfig.txt . You will find the output in your Local Disk 'C'.

If however you really want to give up, please consider at least the NAS (Network Attached Storage) solution. I use this at Home and Work. No need for Homegroup, plug in the NAS in your router's LAN Port thru a patch network cable and move all files to be shared. A reasonable 1TB NAS runs about <$150.
Please have a read at my Article about the NAS and how it works.

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