Homegroup hell!

Hey, guys.

I've been trying so hard to resolve this, but to no avail. Hoping one of you can. :)

OK. I am trying to establish a homegroup between 3 computers, to share files, and a printer.

- A wired desktop, running Windows 7 Ultimate (64-bit)
- A wireless desktop, running Windows 7 Ultimate (32-bit)
and
- A wireless laptop, running Windows 7 Ultimate (32-bit)

I've tried lots of different methods, but can't remember entirely what I did, so I'm willing to retry anything.

The wired desktop used to be running a 32-bit version of Windows 7, and the homegroup worked perfectly then. I'd guess at some communication issue between 32-bit and 64-bit.

This homegroup is almost a necessity in our household, and I'm really eager to get it working again.

Any help appreciated, I'll tell you what I can if asked. :)

Teekz.

Wow. That was a fast reply. Thanks. :)

I forget what the error was, word-for-word, but if I set up the homegroup on the wireless desktop, my 64-bit machine can see it, but when I press join, it says something along the lines of "Windows cannot set up a homegroup on this computer".

Also, If I create the homegroup on the 64-bit machine, neither of the 32-bit ones can detect that there is a homegroup.

PS - Changing PC's from wired to wireless, or vice-versa, is pretty much not an option. :/

Most likely your A/V software is causing this problem. You may need to uninstall or reconfigure it to fix the problem.

You can also try going down this Homegroup check list to make sure everythign is set up correctly.

Ultimate Troubleshooting Guide for Windows 7 HomeGroup Connection Issues

Teekz said:

Could you be more specific as to what my "A/V software" might consist of, please?

Also, I'm going to start running down that checklist, on all 3 machines, now.

EDIT - Are there any known issues in running a homegroup between 32-bit and 64-bit machines?

I was referring to your anti virus software which can frequently causes connection problems with Homegroups. This would be something you installed.

There are no problems using Homegroups between 32 and 64 bit machines.

You will need to configure Eset to work with Homegroups or completely uninstall it on every machine if you want Homegroups to work properly. These A/V's cause nothing but problems with Homegroup sharing, Eset is famous for this already. Sometimes if you go to the forum for your A/V you can find out how to configure it properly to work with Homegroups. It's always best to get your network up and running before installing any type of A/V software.

Teekz said:

Looking on another forum regarding my A/V software, I found this advice.

From looking at the messages on ESET's support forum, it seems that:
ESET Smart Security's firewall does not natively support Windows 7 homegroups yet.
ESET has scheduled support for Windows 7 compatibility in firewall module v1052, which is still in development. They are currently at 1051.
Several message threads contains suggestions for manually creating rulesets to support Windows 7 homegroups, such as here and here. You could try one (or both) of those and see if they work.

If you would like to create your own ruleset, I would suggest reviewing Microsoft's HomeGroup and Firewall Interaction document. It is twenty-seven (27) pages long and seems to contain enough information from which to build a ruleset.

Download details: HomeGroup and Firewall Interaction

Is this worth a shot? If so, could anyone be kind enough as to assist me in such an operation?

For now, I'm willing to uninstall the software on my machines.

Nope it's not worth a shot in my opinion, if you want Homegroups to work simply uninstall Eset. You asked why it didn't work, I came to the conclusion that your A/V software was causing the problem even though you didn't tell me you were using one. That should tell you something right there.

I can't hope to figure out the set up procedure's for every A/V out there, just too many and I don't care for real time A/V's one bit because they only seem to cause problems. You are much better off using a good A/V scanner like Malware bytes and Spybot S&D.

Your welcome for the help. :)