Home Group and Network Issues

Hi I am new to the forum as of today :) Today i setup my Laptop ( windows 7 Home Premium 32 bit) my PC ( windows 7 Home Premium 32 bit) & my IMac (Mac OS X 10.5.8) using the video tutorials from youtube, '
this one explains (easy) to connect the Window 7 machines
Networking is Easy with Windows 7 Home Groups - YouTube

this one explains (easy) to connect the Mac to Windows Homegroup
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JSm0YflelJ4

Hope this helps you as it did me :)
I also hope i am allowed to put in the urls.
cheers
Lea
good luck
P.S
I am 54 years old and not that tech savvy lol

Uh, uh, that worked!! I'm not sure why but it worked. THANKS!!!!

RON

SO, right after I wrote the above, I disconnected the wireless connection on the laptop and presto, the homegroup appeared; joined it and the printers are now, magically, ready. SO, is it a matter that network issues are inherently (or often) slow? Is that it? I feel that this setup is fragile and, to my mind, it shouldn't be.

AND NOW, when I tried to print the printer is off line. Magically, I suppose.

RON

Look, creating a home group is not all that difficult. You click on the button and there it is. Write down the password; go to the other computer, click, click and click on Join. Problem is (one of several it seems) is that Join is not an option. Both computers often act as if they are alone, sort of. For the purposes of a Home Group they are alone.

So, I delete the home groups on both computers. Go to the Desktop, create a home group. Go to the notebook, look at Network and Sharing Center. says Ready to Create. There is no Join option anywhere.

RonNYC said:

Look, creating a home group is not all that difficult. You click on the button and there it is. Write down the password; go to the other computer, click, click and click on Join. Problem is (one of several it seems) is that Join is not an option. Both computers often act as if they are alone, sort of. For the purposes of a Home Group they are alone.

I agree, it's very simple unless things go wrong like in your case.

You mentioned that the you tube video helped but there was certainly nothing special there as far as details go.

Did it revert back to the problem again after rebooting?

If so there are a few more things we can do to fix the problem.

If you can't join or create or leave a Homegroup you need to do this on both machines.

I will show you the more direct approach to fixing the problem here. This is another Windows 7 bug apparently so you need to delate a file to fix it.

The fix for this problem seems to be Deleting the file idstore.sst under C:\windows\serviceProfiles\LocalService\AppData\Roaming\PeerNetworking

Once everything at peer Networking Grouping is running you may also need to do this...

Start the Task Manager
Click on the service Tab
Find the "HomeGroupProvider"
and then stop the service.


You may need to go back into services and enable Peernetworking again after the fix. Don't forget to restart all machines making the adjustments.

Cannot leave Homegroup

Yes, it reverted after rebooting, but even before that, even when after some magic occurred and I created the home group on the Desktop and went to the notebook and it offered Join and I joined and it all seemed to work, and the printers were there!! and on line, as soon as I tried to print, the printer was Offline. At that point I decided to reboot and of course now it's worse.

Frankly, the issue for me is simple: I need to use Photoshop CS4. I have a legal copy and had it on both the notebook and desktop. BUT my desktop crashed and died so I got a new one. Adobe in its wisdom told me that even though I have a copy, purchased through them of CS4 (which I downloaded onto the dead and buried desktop), they will not give me access to another download. I have to buy CS5. So my only remaining copy is on the notebook and that's how I print now. But of course, now I don't print anymore.

RON

Yes, the workgroup. BOTH computers belong to the same workgroup; same network. BUT nothing.

I cannot create a network map. I used to but no longer.

BUT both computers can access my RAID drive where all the data is; both can get to the net and on occasion, both can see each other (sort of).

What I'm looking for is not so much a solution but some tool or method to drill down. Homegroup has no tools if things don't go right.