Solved Windows Media Player 11 stopped streaming in Windows 7 Pro

[fredvau]

I have an Acer Laptop 7720G downstairs with retail version of Windows 7 Pro SP1 and a desktop with Windows 7 Home upstairs, connected as a workgroup via a Home Network.

There is a hardwired connection and a wireless connection via a Netgear D6300 router which has the latest broadcasting facilities like ac. My Samsung TV (x2) and Internet radio also have wireless and have excellent wireless signals.

Recently I purchased Nero 16 to upgrade from Nero 12 and it came with some free extra programs. I installed Nero 16 with its inbuilt new media player and a Micromedia program. All seemed to be working well so I left my laptop turned on as my weekly backup with a system image was due to run late that evening.

The next day I went to stream music from the laptop via WMP11 and got messages to turn on streaming. clicking the Turn On Streaming button did nothing. Sharing Centre shows that streaming is turned on but the media player says Turn On Streaming.

I noticed that my Local Connection had disappeared and that my Adapter had a red cross saying that there is a broken cable or something. Disabled the wireless connection and enabled the laptop adapter and the hardwired connection worked, showing local connection again with Internet access, except for streaming. It did prove that the cabling in the walls is intact. Contacted Nero Help desk and after a few messages that did not solve the problem I asked for a refund and was reimbursed after uninstalling their programs.

I tried to restore my laptop but unfortunately my last system backup with system image had been overwritten prior to uninstalling Nero upgrades. I then surfed the Internet for 3 days without finding any solution to the streaming problem. Did the Sfc, uninstalled Windows Media and re-installed it but streaming still did not work, ran the On-line troubleshooter from MS to fix a corrupted installation which reset the player, library and some other things, it passed with a dozen or more green ticks but the player refuses to stream.

I reset the firewall to default, enabled all the options required to pass for Home networking without solution, tried to turn on steaming with the firewall turned off and got no result. There seems to be no other solution but to do a clean re-install as I fear that upgrading to Windows 10 will most likely carry over something left in the Registry from Nero. Have done a full deep scan with MSE and Malwarebytes and all is clean.

I did see somewhere during my surfing that Nero Video or Nero Vision is incompatible with WMP. Besides a clean re-install requires original discs of other installed programs which I may not have. Does anyone have any clues about this problem?

I noticed that I am just one of many with streaming problems that worked very well for me for a few years now and get evil thoughts like perhaps Microsoft puts something via an update in my computer which might urge me to upgrade to Windows 10 before next July.

Any suggestions would be appreciated as the multi suggestions listed on the Internet have been tried and failed, at least on my laptop.

 

[fredvau]

After more than 50 hours and researching every (unsuccessful) item for a fix on Microsoft and Google plus some self education, I was able to fix my problem. For those who cannot solve this 'unsolvable' error and despite other posts, I can assure them that it is definitely a Firewall problem. That being said and the Firewall investigation being my final attempt, all is well now and streaming problem totally solved.