Windows 7 - no 'Network' shares

[jaus]

My Windows 7 Home Premium 64 bit OS is not seeing anything uner the 'Network' tab in Windows Explorer.

I have set up a 'work' network at home with two xp machines.

The W7 macnine has a network connection,
all computers are on the same workgroup,
Network Discovery is on,
file sharing is enabled.

My xp machines can see shared folders and access files on my W7 machine so I know it is on the network, but the W7 machine sees nothing under 'Network', not even itself.

Any help is appreciated.
Joe

 

[chev65]

First make sure that network discovery is enabled on the Win 7 machine under Advanced Sharing settings, picture below.

It also helps to run the network set up Wizard on the XP machines after you create the Workgroup on the Win 7 machine. Be sure and enable sharing on the XP machines during the set up process.

This tutorial might help.
Networking home computers running different versions of Windows

These settings need to be like in the picture.

 

[aem]

H jaus, not sure if you know, Network Discovery is only W7 machines. The Network link in Explorer does not rely on Network Discovery. It is just a tool that locates what ever machine is on the immediate network. If you Xp machine is one the same Vlan as your W7 (ie if both machines can ping one another), then it should be on the Network page. Sometime it may not come up straight away, it needs time.

The Network and sharing pages that chev65 has displayed , is not all for W7s explicitly, some of those options are just for networking basis. Eg if you want to share files from W7 to XP, the File and printer sharing needs to be turned on.

 

[jaus]

As noted in my original post I have "Network Discovery" and "file sharing" turned on in sharing options. I have the same settings as in those images.

The xp machine is not the problem, it is seeing what it should (itself and the W7 machine). It is the W7 machine that does not even see itself on the network. I have waited up to an hour for the machine to recognize the network.

 

[jaus]

Well. with no additional input the network resources are finally displaying. I knew it could take time but never expected 8 hours. Thanks for the posts.

 

[aem]

Lol 8 hours, it was all worth it I'm sure.