Windows 7 Firewall and the Homegroup

Yes, sometimes these 2 features from the same company do work together but if they dont, FORGET trying to fix unless you have nothing else to do for a couple of weeks. You will get no Microsoft as all their stuff assumes win7 never not works fine. They said use the Homegroup troubleshooter but it says it is a NETWORK problem and the Network troubleshooter says it cant find a fix.

Mines has worked great for months, my desktop and laptop, both, win 7 Home Premium, 64bit but it stopped sharing, and I suspect it is the firewall,

Can anyone tell me how to make the Firewall EXCEPT its own Homegroup? yes, I know it is SUPPOSE to accept the Homegroup but TWICE in the last couple months, it has done this.

I just can not see ANY setting, etc to add to the firewall afterr resetting it to the default which also does not work.

jagman55 said:

Yes, sometimes these 2 features from the same company do work together but if they dont, FORGET trying to fix unless you have nothing else to do for a couple of weeks. You will get no Microsoft as all their stuff assumes win7 never not works fine. They said use the Homegroup troubleshooter but it says it is a NETWORK problem and the Network troubleshooter says it cant find a fix.

Mines has worked great for months, my desktop and laptop, both, win 7 Home Premium, 64bit but it stopped sharing, and I suspect it is the firewall,

Can anyone tell me how to make the Firewall EXCEPT its own Homegroup? yes, I know it is SUPPOSE to accept the Homegroup but TWICE in the last couple months, it has done this.

I just can not see ANY setting, etc to add to the firewall afterr resetting it to the default which also does not work.

The problem isn't with the Windows firewall, it's most likely a problem with which ever third party anti virus software you have installed on one of these systems.

1. So happens, both the Firewall AND the antivirus are both from the same company, Microsoft. Would be better if was not as other vendors will SOMETIMES help you but MS has NP support without a credit card.

Firewall came with the system and decided to use Microsoft Security Essentials. My "other" system is identical to this one. The laptop and desktop are both HP, have identical OS (home premium 64bit) but the Laptop is fine, it is only the desktop that got screwed up. I uninstalled the MS Security Essentials, installed AVAST, then uninstalled AVAST, I turned OFF the firewall and Network Discovery stays on BUT still will not SHARE any drives. Just that STUPID message about "cant do it now" but does not TELL you WHEN it will, and "invalid function" like sharing is an invalid function.
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2. Is the network set as Private (Home/Work Network)? Do you have the two "Homegroup" rules in Inbound, also the two "Homegroup" rules in outbound, are they enabled? There might be a few other rules. Might try turning Homegroup off and re-enabling.
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Have created homegroup, re-created it over and over, yes, IS defined as HOME network.
Got to remember, this just happened. My system performed for over a year sharing over 9 USB drives, and about 6 USB flash drives without a flaw. I have redefined, installed, uninstalled about every button in Win 7 Network, Firewall, changed permissions to ADMIN and EVERYONE, etc and still that DUMB, meaningless message when trying to share.
My ND is now ON since I turned the firewall OFF but no help. The big issue now is: WHY does it REFUSE to SHARE any folders or drives? One would think that when you put a feature like Homegroup in, you would do something to YOUR firewall to stop the feature you just offered? Like, "ohhh, he has homegroup turned on, LETS let this stuff work together"



RULES escape me and NO, my Firewall has never had RULES in the inbound and outbound. Attempted to try to create some but that is like trying to decipher the Rosetta Stone. I found nothing in the rules that even looks like "Network" or "homegroup". and could not find ANY example of RULES on the net either.
ANY help on rules would be GREATLY appreciated as at this point, willing to try selling my second born.

I do know that the net says "Microsoft is suppose to "set" the firewall to accommodate Homegroup but seems it does not. i have hit DEFAULT SETTINGS on the Firewall so many times, I am wearing out my mouse.
Now, I can not SHARE anything, changed ALL Permissions to "EVERYONE" so it cant complain constantly about me being an "unauthorized user" on my own PC's.

To say I am "ticked off" at Microsoft is an understatement to think I have to reload OS and re-install over 100 programs just to recovery this terrible OS.
The only bright spot is: TEAMVIEWER still works, WONDERFUL Remote Console for Home Premium that Microsoft TOOK out and then dropped support on MESH. On my laptop, I can remote into my desktop and do the work needed using TEAMVIEWER (AFTER Microsoft in its infinite wisdom stopped support on MESH remote console) and use the now, UNSHARABLE drives attached to the desktop.

Thanks for the comments............ and reading my rant on the worlds worst OS.