Home network and sharing erratic behavior

[Louie2816]

Homegroup and network -- now you see 'em now you don't. We have 5 computers, 4 of which have Win7 home premium (all 64bit), 1 runs Win7Pro 64 bit. We are using the Lynksys E2000 wireless n router (WPA2 mode). The desktop is directly wired through LAN. Each machine has Norton Internet Security 2011 installed, I have set up each system to 'full trust' (Norton's network map shows all machines on the network.
All workgroup names match. Each computer shows itself as having joined the homegroup. I made sure all libraries are shared and all pcs are discoverable. None of the computers see each other in Network and sharing center network map, or in network, or in homegroup. What's weird about it is sometimes I can get them all showing up and the next day (sometimes only an hour later) - gone. Sometimes one pc goes missing, or two, or all. Individually each machine can connect to the network and has internet access without a problem.
I have tried pinging all machines from each machine and some are reachable, some time out, some unreachable, it's different for each machine each time I do it.
Sometimes resetting the router works for all pcs, sometimes it doesn't. Today it worked on 2 of the machines but less than an hour later they were gone again. I have searched the forums for months and have tried every recommended fix I could find that seemed applicable.
Please, if anyone has any ideas to help me sort this out, I would be forever grateful. Thanks in advance for your time. Oh, and I have also completely reset all Homegroups a few times, it may work for a bit, then it stops working again. I have also tried disabling Norton and looking at router settings (I don't understand the 3/4 of the settings so I haven't messed with it)
I have added ipconfig stuff, maybe there's a problem there. Honestly, I don't know what any of it means, but maybe it will help.

 

[inspireit]

Hi Louie. I too am experiencing what I think is the same problem - alas I have no solution (yet). I have a laptop and a printer, connected using WiFi to a router. Laptop and printer can see the internet, but not each other. But, on occasions they do, but then, they no longer do, with nothing I am aware of occurring in between.
I had Kaspersky AV installed on the laptop and have removed it just in case - that wasn't it. I will let you know if I have any success. I too have wasted hours on this!

 

[mr pc]

sitting in the same boat

Desktop - supposedly Homegroup base - shows my laptop but cannot connect and the troubleshooting options bring nothing

BUT

my new laptop- setup homegroup and blam! I can share my desktop files with my laptop.

Oddly - nothing shows in my homegroup in explorer. But my network options show both machines.

Everything is identical in the Homegroup sharing details.

Laptop is connected wirelessly - would that be the problem?

anyways Win7 networking is a mess from my experience

 

[Louie2816]

Thanks for replying! And guess what... as of this morning it's working again. Last night the power went out for a couple of minutes. The router must have reset and everybody is showing up as they should. I've done router resets before, though, to no avail. Maybe I should just get in the habit of flipping the main breaker every morning, or as a less drastic measure pull the power on the router while the coffee is brewing. There must be some sort of conflict happening between the router settings and W7, or Norton. I will continue to dig, focusing more on Linksys tech support site. If I find anything I will post it here. Thank you again!

 

[paul1149]

One thing isn't clear - whether you're on a homegroup or workgroup. XP cannot join homegroups, so you'll have to use a workgroup.

Beyond that, I would update the router's firmware, flush computer DNS Cache, and then drop firewalls for testing.

 

[Zepher]

Maybe it's the router at fault.
We have the same router but are experiencing none of the issues that the other people in here are experiencing.
We have all 4 machines hard wired, 2x Win7 X64 and 2x Win7 32bit. Libraries all work fine as well as the network shares.
There is also an Xbox 360, Panasonic BluRay Player, WDTV Live, and an HP4500 Color laser that is wired to the network as well.

 

[Louie2816]

One thing isn't clear - whether you're on a homegroup or workgroup. XP cannot join homegroups, so you'll have to use a workgroup.

Beyond that, I would update the router's firmware, flush computer DNS Cache, and then drop firewalls for testing.

We are all using W7 64 bit , we use Homegroup, router firmware is up to date, I flushed DNS Cache yesterday, only on one machine though, I haven't done the others yet. I have repeatedly tried shutting down Norton. It doesn't seem to be an issue though. The networking works/doesn't work, with/without Norton. The network maps and home group showed up empty again this morning I pulled the plug on the router for a bit, plugged back in and voila... there they were. I, too, think the router is at fault. Thanks for your time Paul!

 

[paul1149]

Louie - sorry about that. I mistakenly read XPPro for that last machine. Sure does sound like a router issue. Mine also kept on breaking down, with increasing frequency, and I replaced it two months ago. End of problem.

 

[Louie2816]

We just bought this E2000 back in March to replace a Linksys WRT54g. If I have some time this week I'm going to call Cisco tech support. The network is holding strong at the moment. Of course when I desperately need it to print it'll take a powder, as is usually the case! If I find out anything that may be of use to anyone else experiencing this problem I will be sure to post it. In the mean time I will keep the "check and reset" as part of my morning routine.

 

[Louie2816]

Maybe it's the router at fault.
We have the same router but are experiencing none of the issues that the other people in here are experiencing.
We have all 4 machines hard wired, 2x Win7 X64 and 2x Win7 32bit. Libraries all work fine as well as the network shares.
There is also an Xbox 360, Panasonic BluRay Player, WDTV Live, and an HP4500 Color laser that is wired to the network as well.

Zepher, thanks for the response. The Xbox 360 and the Desktop are both hardwired. The rest of the machines are laptops that we prefer to run wirelessly. Unfortunately, neither the laser printer or the ink jet have ethernet ports. The deskjet is wireless, the laserjet is USB wired into desktop machine. I wonder though... I saw something about changing channels on the Linksys site. The article said it applied to when downloads or uploads slowed, due to some type of interference. I'm kind of afraid to mess with it for fear of creating bigger problems for myself. I'm not particularly tech savvy. Do you, or anyone else think that channel interference may be a problem?