Homegroup issues

[wjohnsto]

I have a desktop (Windows 7 x86 Professional) and laptop (Windows 7 x64 Professional) and am trying to setup a Homegroup for my network. I have seen a couple forum threads with people having issues, and I am also having issues. I have tried all of the Homegroup troubleshooting options (this is not an IPv6 problem).

Basically, I booted both systems, went into Network & Sharing and saw the "Ready to create" option for HomeGroup. I created a HomeGroup on my Desktop, then rebooted the Desktop. After rebooting, I could see "joined" in the Homegroup area on my Desktop, but I still saw "Ready to create" on my Laptop. I rebooted my laptop, but I still saw "Ready to create."

I saw that someone had created a HomeGroup on two machines and it gave him an option to merge both groups. I went ahead and created a HomeGroup on my Laptop, and it allowed me to go through with it. It never gave me any errors or anything of that sort, but simply allowed me to create two parallel HomeGroups.

No matter how many times I repeat this process I cannot get any errors.

Both computers are connected to the same network on a Linksys WRT54GL router running Tomato.

Any ideas on what steps to take next are appreciated!

Thanks

 

[sup3rsprt]

did you properly install the firmware on your router? You're supposed to do a nvram erase prior to configuring it.

You shouldn't need to create two homegroups. In my house I just create a homegroup on one PC and then join that same homegroup from the others.

 

[TheSchaft]

Sorry that I only have a second right now, but Microsoft's TechNet has a video that might help:

"Learn how to join computers running Windows 7 to a homegroup and take the hassle out of sharing files and printers."

Windows 7 HomeGroup

 

[ultraplanet]

(this is not an IPv6 problem)

When you say this is not an IPv6 problem what do you mean? If IPv6 is disabled you will not be able to create a homegroup.

I am using an old version of Tomato, version 1.17 and do not have any issues with networking and see no reason to upgrade at this time.

 

[wjohnsto]

sup3rsprt: I did an nvram erase prior to installing the Tomato Firmware (1.23). I can try updating to 1.25 (the newest firmware).

TheSchaft: I have followed that video exactly with no success, neither computer will recognize that there is another HomeGroup on the network (it will recognize it's own HomeGroup).

ultraplanet: I have IPv6 enabled.

 

[ultraplanet]

In addition to IPv6 make sure the Peer Networking Grouping and HomeGroup Provider services are both started. Network discovery is turned on and both machines are actually logged on. And you can only belong to 1 homegroup at a time so pick one machine as the creator.

 

[wjohnsto]

I made sure that these services are running on both computers, and run on start-up:

Homegroup Listener
Homegroup Provider
Peer Name Resolution Protocol (not sure how necessary it is)
Peer Networking Grouping
Peer Networking Identity Manager
SSDP Discovery

I also have Windows Firewall disabled for Home networks on both computers. Both of my computers share the same Workgroup, Username and password, and Network. Network Discovery is enabled on both computers. My laptop has wireless disabled, and only has 1 saved network (the wired one). If I run a HomeGroup on one computer it won't be recognized by the other computer.

 

[wjohnsto]

UPDATE: I was able to install a Verihub server on my desktop and connect to my other computer through DC++ using its local ip, so I don't think it's my router.

 

[wjohnsto]

I managed to get it so if I go into "Network" I can see my other computer as a "Media Player" (this works on both computers), but I still cannot communicate through HomeGroup.

I am fine using the old networking style, but how do I also share my documents and other folders besides Music/Pictures/Videos?

 

[zigzag3143]

wjohnsto

homegroup is bad at its best. You should change to a standard workgroup and sharing will be easy

ken

 

[TheSchaft]

wjohnsto

homegroup is bad at its best. You should change to a standard workgroup and sharing will be easy

ken

I agree. If you do go this route, go to "Network and Sharing" and "Advanced Settings". At the bottom is an option to "allow Windows to manage Homegroup connections" or to "use user accounts and passwords to connect to other computers". Select that second one.

 

[ultraplanet]

wjohnsto

homegroup is bad at its best. You should change to a standard workgroup and sharing will be easy

ken

I agree. If you do go this route, go to "Network and Sharing" and "Advanced Settings". At the bottom is an option to "allow Windows to manage Homegroup connections" or to "use user accounts and passwords to connect to other computers". Select that second one.

....and then right click on the folders you want to share and select "Share with" from the fly out menu and pick who to share with ... or pick everyone.

 

[tylerorr95]

This is what I did to resolve this issue.

It used a program called "Network Magic". Its a good program and if you have the money I recommend buying the full version (runs on up to three computers per purchase). But if you don't (like a didn't) I downloaded the trial version and installed it on both my laptop as well as my desktop. I configured my network the way I wanted using it (Printers, file sharing ext.). The cool thing is if you let the trial run out and then unistall it off of both computers it allows you computer to stay configured.

Hope this works 4 u

 

[getSEVEN]

I'm pretty sure all Network Management App does is set the shared file/folder to "Everyone Read/Write" to the item to be shared. Not really rocket science there. One of the promised advantages of Homegroup is the "easy" manipulation of what you choose to share inside your Home (read trusted) network.

It would be easy if it worked. You are simply supposed to enable that you are sharing particular Libraries. Then as you add or remove folders/files to your library, they automatically get shared with the homegroup. This is accomplished with the definition and manipulation of a user named "homegroup".

I have too many issues with homegroup not working as expected or reliably to go into here but I also have some real concerns that it is not "ready for deployment" yet. I have spent many hours with MS Tech on the phone in the last week and still can not get it to function properly. At this time, the best route for sharing very well may be old fashioned, workgroup sharing with multiple user accounts defined at each machine (unless you just want to share with "everyone"). Good Luck

 

[getSEVEN]

wjohnsto:
The problems I am seeing are same as yours, but are also intermittent. I can't reliably reproduce them. Or, rather I should say, that once in a while, it looks like the homegroup is correctly displaying, or 90% correct. I have asked repeatedly of MS Tech's how to force machine to re-poll the network and have gotten nothing but close the explorer window or hit refresh. Neither of which work. Restarting or rebooting sometimes have effect. But what is most troubling is that I can be sitting here reading forums and the state can change with no input from me. I can loose Homegroup visibility/status or gain it.

Now mind you, that I can almost always, still access files via Network / Users / xxxx / etc. which incidentally, are only shared via the homegroup user and becasue that user has shared the library and the folder (ex. My docs) is in their library. This seems to indicate Homegroup is "partially" working even though you can't see it.

Other fundamental concerns I have not been able to get straight (or reliable) answers about are:
Mulitple user accounts within the same machine - When the machine IS connected to another physical machine in a home network, the second machine and all individual user accounts (under Homegroup) are visible to each other. However, when the multi-user machine is not on a network, the individual accounts disapear from Homegroup. Acording to MS, this should not be the case and I agree. these users intend to share with other users of that PC.

Secondly, who controls sharing and security definition for common folders/files that are added in each user's Library? As users add these locations to their shared Library, Windows sets sharing "User=homegroup Read". What if they remove it from library (ie. auto stop sharing) or try to manually override this share. They should not be allowed. Right? But then, who really has the rights to alter a file/folder's sharing level and how do you stop or control that if any homegroup user automatically can do it? This is sensitive to anyone who has a home network and common libraries (NAS or otherwise). As the Admin for my family network, I would like to know that no-one is changing the accessability of "Family folders". What they do with their own folders is fine.

Sorry for the lengthy post/rant. But these are important things to think about and all the MS resources I have found are only geared to the bare novice "plug in both machines and viola!". I had hoped that we finally had a good way to allow individual users to share files, simply. I don't think we are there yet.

 

[Brenz]

wjohnsto I had similiar Issues. I finally got it working so try this:

First leave the Homegroups on both computers. Then start another one but dont change any settings durijng the setup and leave the what to share as it is (Documents unticked) and then try and join from the other computer. Once its working you can go into the settings and enable Document sharing.

Im not sure why but it worked for me after trying lots of other methods.

Brendan