Can't Connect New Computer to Homegroup

[ArlisT]

Hello, all.


I'm trying to connect a new computer to my homegroup. They are all Windows 7. The original Computer I created the homegroup on is Win 7 Home Premium, the Laptop I connected a year ago with no problem is a Win 7 Pro, they are both Dell Inspiron, and this one causing me the trouble is a Win 7 Pro Dell Optiplex refurb. It's on the LAN via WiFi - no problems getting online. Then when I went to set it up with the homegroup it says my other computer has created a homegroup and invites me to join, but when I click join and enter the password I get the error msg "Windows cannot set up a homegroup on this computer."

So I go to Network and Sharing and find Network Discovery is off. turned it on, but it kept turning itself off. I found out I had to check if certain services were active and how to start them if they were not. One of these required services, 'Function Discovery Resource Publication' wouldn't start - it took me a whole day to figure out how to resolve that error, but once I did, I was able to set Network Discovery on, but I still couldn't connect to the homegroup. More searching and I found I needed Peer Networking Name Resolution and Peer Networking Grouping services, but I can't start those because 'error 1068 dependency service or group failed to start'. I determined the dependency service for these is Peer Networking Identity Manager so I tried to start that but I got "could not start Peer Networking Identity Manager service on Local Computer error 5: Access is denied.

I followed advice at another forum to delete contents of PeerNetworking folder. That didn't help. Other advice on that forum suggests deleting the ...\idstore.sst from that folder, but I had already deleted all the files from PeerNetworking before I found that advice. I don't even know if that file was in there, so I don't know if that by itself would have worked or not.

I have been at this for days, and finally I am stumped with these Peer Networking services. I am the owner of the machine and I'm logged in with the Administrator account. I can't figure out why I should have access denied to this basic service, or how to fix it.

 

[ArlisT]

addendum: I read the network diagnostics troubleshooting report, and there's this little nugget:
Connectable: No
Reason 0X00028002

I searched on that code and that's a WiFi problem. My WiFi adapter is a usb dongle - the computer did not come with a WiFi card installed. Could that be the problem? Should I get an expansion card? Dongle connected fine with modem/router, but could it be incompatible with homegroup?

 

[samuria]

By default a lot of routers have a settings user isolation or similar this is for security so if someone hacks in they can get on the net but not see local network it's normally under wireless settings work group needs ipv6 so check it's running

 

[ArlisT]

ipv6 is set to on. Anyway, as I said, I already connected a laptop to this homegroup with no problem. And this computer is able to connect to the WiFi, just not the homegroup. It sees the homegroup, it's invited to join the homegroup, but when I try to join it to the homegroup I get an error msg that Windows cannot set up a homegroup on this computer. I really think it just needs these Peer Networking services turned on, but nothing I've tried will give me access.

 

[samuria]

What happens if you try to start those services and what are they logging in as often the password is wrong

 

[ArlisT]

what happens is I get the error messages i just posted. see those images of the error messages where it says the services can't start? That's what happens when I try to start them. They don't start, and I get those error messages. Also my modem has the router built in. I have never had to change its settings and wouldn't even know how to begin to do that. I didn't have to change it when I joined my laptop to the homegroup. I clicked on the join button, entered the password, and presto, my laptop was part of the homegroup. When I try to join the homegroup on this computer, the error message I get is that a homegroup cannot be setup on this computer.