Home Group ...Windows 7

[CarlTR6]

If your objectives are to share files, a printer, and other peripherals, you will need a group. If your printer was connected to the router and that was all you wanted to share, you would not really need a group. In my case, the printer is connected to the desktop and I needed the XP netbook to be able to access the printer. I finally have gotten the homegroup working with no problems.

I have no idea what could be causing the problem with your printer.

 

[LADYPINKtomato1]

Carl the printer is connected to Windows XP..my desktop...(.before I installed the router.. )...I then connected the Laptop by way of the adapter / power supply.. that came with the Laptop....before going Wi-Fi.. without the adapter /power supply... taking the Laptop to the den .
Does that make sense ?

 

[LADYPINKtomato1]

Carl thanks.. about the group .
I am hoping to share from one to the other.. the desktop and the Laptop.
I'll try to get the printer working.. it may need a updated driver... this is an older Lexmark printer. ( printed beautifully with just the XP)

 

[CarlTR6]

Carl the printer is connected to Windows XP..my desktop...(.before I installed the router.. )...I then connected the Laptop by way of the adapter / power supply.. that came with the Laptop....before going Wi-Fi.. without the adapter /power supply... taking the Laptop to the den .
Does that make sense ?

Yes, I understand it clearly.

Carl thanks.. about the group .
I am hoping to share from one to the other.. the desktop and the Laptop.
I'll try to get the printer working.. it may need a updated driver... this is an older Lexmark printer. ( printed beautifully with just the XP)

I suspect it is a driver issue. Does it print properly from your XP machine with the Windows machine turned off?

 

[CarlTR6]

There are some real pros here regarding networking. I hope one of these folks will come to your rescue.

 

[LADYPINKtomato1]

Carl YES the printer ..prints when the laptop is OFF.

 

[LADYPINKtomato1]

Carl...You need to enjoy your weekend..
I have to be out of town all day tomorrow.. I can start on this again.. Next week.
Thank you for your help.

 

[iseeuu]

Carl thanks.. about the group .
I am hoping to share from one to the other.. the desktop and the Laptop.
I'll try to get the printer working.. it may need a updated driver... this is an older Lexmark printer. ( printed beautifully with just the XP)

Hello LPT;

I read through your thread and hope you won't mind if I jump i here. If I may use less technical language, I hope no one takes offense ... as if I am talking 'down' to anyone ... I hope to make it easier to understand?

First your router. Very good idea, even if you did not have a home network. When a computer is connected directly to the Internet (through a cable modem or some other ISP device) the bad guys in the WWW can look at your computer and see what ports (like doors to you house) are open. By comparison, when you have a router in between your computer and the Internet, all they can see is the router! The router is what I would call a "dumb computer", not that it is a computer, but there is nothing there to see. There is a setting in most routers that will turn off responding to 'ping' requests from the Internet so the bad guys won't even know you are there! That is just about all there is to 'securing' a router. Most of the other features are so you can control / prevent users on your network from doing dangerous things and since you are the only user, no problem.

Your router will need a user name and password, but again that is mostly to prevent unauthorized users from making changes to your settings.

Yes you can get rid of the Windows HomeGroup, and yes you will need a "Workgroup" to share printers and files with the computers on your home network. Please have a look at this thread as there are several suggestions for networking 7 and XP computers together: http://www.sevenforums.com/network-sharing/66050-3-pc-network-sharing.html#post587385

I have more screen shots if there is something there that is not clear and would be happy to post what is needed.

Cheers!
Robert

 

[CarlTR6]

Thank you, Robert. That is the kind of help I hoped would come along.

LPt, since your printer works with your XP computer ( I figured it would), it is most likely a driver issue with the Windows Seven computer. We should be able to fix that.

 

[burtie]

Your lucky...i cant get my homegroup to work at between my pc and laptop both of which run W7

 

[LADYPINKtomato1]

Robert hi.. Thank you for the above link.. I'll go over it as soon as possible..thank you so very much..
No you were not butting in.. as Carl stated above...

Carl thank you as well.. no doubt we can get the driver issue resolved also.I'll read the articles you gave me links to as well.. again thanks.
Thank you both so very much
Now enjoy your weekend..
LPt

 

[LADYPINKtomato1]

burtie hi.... follow this thread.. we'll get it all working for you and me..
Enjoy your weekend.

LPt

 

[Cato]

This site was very helpful to me while setting up a Workgroup between my wife's XP and my 7 system. Biggest problem was the XP using the printer connected to the 7 system. Actually, this whole topic is one of my weakest points with computers. I still don't understand radio and tv.

Set Up Your Home Network, Windows 7 Edition - PCWorld

I built a Windows 7 system today for her, got us together on a homegroup and it was extremely simple...but...I haven't seen any advantages to what we had with our mixed XP/7 Workgroup. Maybe I will sometime.

 

[CommonTater]

Is there a way to get rid of HomeGroup in Windows 7 ?

Yep... go to Control Panel / Network and Sharing... in the center of the dialog where you see Network Homegroup... click on homegroup and you should be able to select Workgroup from the dialog that pops up.

Now go to the Change advanced sharing options link in the upper left corner...
Turn on Network Discovery
Turn on File and Printer Sharing
Turn OFF Public Folder Sharing
Turn OFF Password Protected Sharing
And finally ...
Use user accounts and passwords to connect to other computers

This is fully XP compatible file sharing.

To share a folder or file...
Right click on the item you want to share,
Select properties
Select sharing,
Click Advanced Sharing
Click Share This Folder

That's it... the other computers on the network should now see it.

Keep in mind that when you share a folder, every folder under (inside) that folder is also shared. So you want to be careful what you share and how you organize your file trees.

Everyone will have read only access by default.

To make changes in the share from another computer you will need to enter a valid username and password for an account on that computer.


Took me a little while to figure it out... but it seems to work just fine.

 

[CommonTater]

brady YES that's what I'm talking about...... I didn't go back after re-setting the router.. to do what I must get done .. I don't want others to get in my laptop .. thanks

If you've set up your laptop to access the wireless on their router, the passwords etc are actually stored on your laptop... not in the router. Nobody can get into your laptop unless it is presently connected to the router and if you use the XP style sharing as I outlined before, they won't get past the user account and password to access your files. They might, however, have read only access but only while your laptop is connected to that router.

At this point you are more empowered to do them harm than they are to hurt you.

IOW... it's not an issue.

If you want to delete the login for that router from your laptop... click on the wireless icon in your task bar, go to the list of wireless connections then advanced properties and delete the profile there.

 

[CarlTR6]

This site was very helpful to me while setting up a Workgroup between my wife's XP and my 7 system. Biggest problem was the XP using the printer connected to the 7 system. Actually, this whole topic is one of my weakest points with computers. I still don't understand radio and tv.

Set Up Your Home Network, Windows 7 Edition - PCWorld

I built a Windows 7 system today for her, got us together on a homegroup and it was extremely simple...but...I haven't seen any advantages to what we had with our mixed XP/7 Workgroup. Maybe I will sometime.

Thanks Cato; good link.

 

[CarlTR6]

Is there a way to get rid of HomeGroup in Windows 7 ?

Yep... go to Control Panel / Network and Sharing... in the center of the dialog where you see Network Homegroup... click on homegroup and you should be able to select Workgroup from the dialog that pops up.

Now go to the Change advanced sharing options link in the upper left corner...
Turn on Network Discovery
Turn on File and Printer Sharing
Turn OFF Public Folder Sharing
Turn on Password protected Sharing
And finally ...
Use user accounts and passwords to connect to other computers

This is fully XP compatible file sharing.

To share a folder or file...
Right click on the item you want to share,
Select properties
Select sharing,
Click Advanced Sharing
Click Share This Folder

That's it... the other computers on the network should now see it.

Keep in mind that when you share a folder, every folder under (inside) that folder is also shared. So you want to be careful what you share and how you organize your file trees.

Everyone will have read only access by default.

To make changes in the share from another computer you will need to enter a valid username and password for an account on that computer.


Took me a little while to figure it out... but it seems to work just fine.

Really good instructions. It took me a while to figure this out, too.

 

[Duke of Alinor]

Thanks Cal and Common. I have followed two other sites and failed with my own 64 bit to get back to workgroup sharing. Our "Garage" server is XP so when Win7 went in I was in trouble.

 

[burtie]

The problem I have is for some reason I cannot join the homegroup. If I create one on my desktop the laptop cannot join and vice versa. All files are set to sharing. I have my desktop connected to my router by cable and teh laptop is wireless. I also have a ps3 and xbox connect to the router by cable, they can both accsess files from the desktop and laptop and play them on my tv fine. In WMP12 the laptop picks up my WMP12 libary from the desktop and i can browse and play files fine but the desktop cannot acsess the laptop libary in WMP12...this is so strange and i have tried a few things but nothing seems to work.

 

[chev65]

If anyone here hasn't realized the advantages to using Homegroups then you simply aren't using it correctly. It's a superior way of setting up a Home network no doubts about this in my mind. There are too many advantages to list here but if you havn't figured them out by now you never will.

The Homegroup bashing I see in here daily is a very misinformed group who know nothing about using Homegroups. Show of hands, how many here have been using Windows 7 for longer than a year? ...I didn't think so.