HomeGroup Issues

tanger · 10 Dec 2009

I was just messing around with it some more and I think I spotted something strange. It has to do with wireless internet. Normally, both the desktop and laptop are connected wirelessly to the internet and I can create the homegroup without a problem on either machine but cant get the other one to join. I just tried with the laptop hard wired and created the homegroup and magically, the desktop was able to join the group. But still I can only see one computer on the homegroup instead of both.

Edit: When I have both machines hard wired, it works flawlessly. The second I go wireless, the homegroup is lost.

chev65 · 11 Dec 2009

tanger said:

I was just messing around with it some more and I think I spotted something strange. It has to do with wireless internet. Normally, both the desktop and laptop are connected wirelessly to the internet and I can create the homegroup without a problem on either machine but cant get the other one to join. I just tried with the laptop hard wired and created the homegroup and magically, the desktop was able to join the group. But still I can only see one computer on the homegroup instead of both.

Edit: When I have both machines hard wired, it works flawlessly. The second I go wireless, the homegroup is lost.

In that case try going into the Router configuration page and see if any of the settings relate to wireless permissions or secrurity. Maybe you can change a settings to enable sharing on the wireless network.

I think it's clear from your report that Homegroup is working correctly and the problems seems to be with the Routers wireless security.

tbernstein · 11 Dec 2009

chev65 said:

tbernstein said:

One possible, I've posted elsewhere in this forum, is that there's a registry bug in Homegroups.
It isn't enough to have IPV6 enabled on your computer.
There has to be a line in the registry specifically saying that none of the IPV6 elements are disallowed.
Otherwise there will be error messages saying that IPV6 needs to be enabled, despite the fact that Win7 says that IPV6 is already enabled. Go figure!

What bug is this? I sure never had it on my system. Do you know what causes this bug and do you have the registry key available so we can fix this mysterious problem?

I'am guessing it's only a problem if you get the error message IPv6 diabled even though it appears enabled?

Well, yes. It needs that message.
Here's the original thread and within it the solution I found on the MS knowledge base.
Homegroup

Also, the Homegroup only works if the date and time are the same on each machine. I don't know how close they have to be, seconds, minutes,??
I made the mistake on one machine of not checking that - I'd got the wrong date on the latest one. It took hours of head scratching to work out what the issue was.

tanger · 11 Dec 2009

chev65 said:

tanger said:

I was just messing around with it some more and I think I spotted something strange. It has to do with wireless internet. Normally, both the desktop and laptop are connected wirelessly to the internet and I can create the homegroup without a problem on either machine but cant get the other one to join. I just tried with the laptop hard wired and created the homegroup and magically, the desktop was able to join the group. But still I can only see one computer on the homegroup instead of both.

Edit: When I have both machines hard wired, it works flawlessly. The second I go wireless, the homegroup is lost.

In that case try going into the Router configuration page and see if any of the settings relate to wireless permissions or secrurity. Maybe you can change a settings to enable sharing on the wireless network.

I think it's clear from your report that Homegroup is working correctly and the problems seems to be with the Routers wireless security.

Im not sure what to look for within my router settings. Not much of a networking guy. Could it be the wireless mode? Its currently set to AP but theres Client, Client bridge, Adhoc, Repeater, Repeater Bridge.

I can see the computer fine over the network though, so maybe its not an issue with the router. Maybe its got something to do with the router settings and/or the IPv6 protocol?

chev65 · 11 Dec 2009

tbernstein said this worked for him.

SORTED!!!!!

I found a reference in the MS knowledge base.
You won't believe this.
You have to set the disabled items registry key to 0
But..... if it hasn't got one ( mine didn't) you have to create one first and then set it to zero!!!!!!

Or in Microsoft speak - if nothing is disabled everything is disabled unless you tell it that nothing is disabled.

In technical terms;
regedit
hkey-local machine\system\currentcontrolset\services\tcpip6\parameters
Then you have to set the DisabledComponents Dword to 0
And if there isn't a disabled components dword you have to create one and then set it to zero???????

iseeuu · 11 Dec 2009

chev65 said:

tbernstein said this worked for him.

SORTED!!!!!

I found a reference in the MS knowledge base.
You won't believe this.
You have to set the disabled items registry key to 0
But..... if it hasn't got one ( mine didn't) you have to create one first and then set it to zero!!!!!!

Or in Microsoft speak - if nothing is disabled everything is disabled unless you tell it that nothing is disabled.

In technical terms;
regedit
hkey-local machine\system\currentcontrolset\services\tcpip6\parameters
Then you have to set the DisabledComponents Dword to 0
And if there isn't a disabled components dword you have to create one and then set it to zero???????

Yes, I included the link to that MS site in my first post on this thread:

How to disable certain Internet Protocol version 6 (IPv6) components in Windows Vista, Windows 7 and Windows Server 2008

Cheers!

tanger · 11 Dec 2009

I created the DWORD (32 bit) called DisabledComponents on both computers and set its value to 0. I created a homegroup from the desktop but the laptop didnt recognize it. So I created a homegroup from the laptop, and for some reason, the desktop recognizes it and was able to join. But I still have the problem thatonly the laptop is showing up in the homegroup. Im stumped....

chev65 · 11 Dec 2009

Where are you looking to see the desktop as part of the Homegroup?

Do they both have the same Homegroup network name? Those names need to match on both machines like in the first picture.

Can you post a screen shot of your network map like the one in the second picture.

tanger · 11 Dec 2009

chev65 said:

Where are you looking to see the desktop as part of the Homegroup?

I am looking through Windows Explorer, from both computers, but cant see the desktop on either.

The Network name is identical. Here is a pic of the network map.

chev65 · 11 Dec 2009

tanger said:

chev65 said:

Where are you looking to see the desktop as part of the Homegroup?

I am looking through Windows Explorer, from both computers, but cant see the desktop on either.

The Network name is identical. Here is a pic of the network map.

Everything looks good to me tanger.

Desktop sharing isn't a part of Homegroups so you need to add either the desktop folder or the "user" folder to the Homegroup like in the 1st picture below. Notice how I added the entire "Rob" user folder to the Homegroup.

The 2nd picture is all the folders being shared with the Homegroup inside of the "Rob" user folder. That is just to give you an idea of what's inside the User folder.

You have access to pretty much everything this way unless you set permissions for individual folders or users.

In order to share the entire User folder you just need to navigate to the User folder on the machine you want to share the desktop from, like in the 3rd picture "Tubbies" user folder.

After that just click on the "Share With" button at the top of the page 3rd picture, then choose "Homegroup read/write" or you can choose individual users to share that folder with. This setting is also known to fix Homegroup sharing problems with other folders as well.

The second I clicked on the "Share with" Homegroup read/write tab the user file appeared on my other monitor in Rob Homegroup.

"Tubbies" User files will now be shared with the Homegroup, 4th picture. Easy as pie.

You might also need to give permissions to other users in order for them to change and work with the files like in the 5th picture below.

tanger said:

Edit: When I have both machines hard wired, it works flawlessly. The second I go wireless, the homegroup is lost.

If you joined the Homegroup when those machines were hardwired into the network it could create problems when you reconnect with the wireless.

You should leave the Homegroup with the wireless computers while they are hard-wired into the network and then attempt to rejoin the Homegroup after you are connected to the wireless LAN. You may need to flush the old IP's in the router control panel. Or perform an IP flush IP renew on the wireless machines. ipconfig /release ipconfig /renew