homegroup setup

Z

Zyme

Limp Gawd
Joined
Jun 5, 2004
Messages
185
So I'm having trouble setting up a homegroup.

My laptop is logged into the network on my wireless router. In the network and sharing center it says it's connected and the name of the network is the same as the SSID.

My desktop is plugged directly into the router and the network is just called "network"

Both are part of the MSHOME workgroup, both are running Win7 Home premium 64-bit.


but when I try to get the laptop to join the homegroup I created on the desktop, I get an ambiguous "I can't" message. the troubleshooter doesn't help, unfortunately. Any suggestions?
 
A few things.

1) Make sure the date/time are set correctly on both machines, this can be an issue for joining homegroups.

2) There have been some reported issues of weird behavior over wireless connections with home groups, can you try hard wiring it to join?
 
I've got a tablet and a next book connected wirelessly to my networks and I've had no issues with them and my homegroup.

Can yon get the laptop on your network from the desktop?
 
heatlesssun said:
I've got a tablet and a next book connected wirelessly to my networks and I've had no issues with them and my homegroup.

Can yon get the laptop on your network from the desktop?
Click to expand...

I can see all the computers on the network--both the wired and wireless ones. But I can't setup the homegroup. It seems to say that the different computers are on different networks. Which is really weird. When I try to view files on another computer, it asks for login and password. Win 7 even knows that there's a homegroup available on the desktop and asks if I want the laptop to join. But when I type in the homegroup password, it says it can't join and it doesn't know why.

I've checked that the time on both machines is the same. I have to try plugging it in to see if that works. Seriously, I thought the whole idea behind homegroups was to simplify this!
 
I still think it has something to do with the fact the laptop is connected to a network named by the SSID, while the desktop (hardwired into router) doesn't have a choice of which network to connect to (and is not named the same as the SSID). The thing is, I don't know how to change this.
 
nah we have 3 laptops on the networks wirelessly here and it connects the desktop homegroup just fine
 
Elios said:
nah we have 3 laptops on the networks wirelessly here and it connects the desktop homegroup just fine
Click to expand...


Hmm. Ok. I just upgraded the firmware on the router (linksys WRT54G to 4.21.1)

I gotta keep looking for what's wrong. A security setting? (I have the firewall down on both the laptop and desktop) maybe it's a sharing setting? I appreciate the help!

Also, doesn't it seem strange that the win7 premium desktop cant access the laptop?
 
I had the same issue and it was fixed by changing the name of the computer. My notebook and desktop happened to have the same name and it just gave me errors and couldn't see the homegroup.
 
I've had the same issue from time to time, 3 pc's are hard wired through out the house and then we have 2 laptops connected wirelessly. the pc's are in one homegroup and the two laptops in another even though you can view all of them in under the network tab. Funny thing is sometimes they're all on the same group and other times the laptops are on their own. I've given up trying. :(
 
HomeGroup requirements:

- Windows 7 on all the machines on the network
- A HomeGroup started on one of the machines (with password, of course)
- User accounts with passwords for those machines that wish to be part of the HomeGroup most especially the machine where the HomeGroup was created
- HomeGroup password (obviously) used on each machine to join it

After that, it shouldn't be an issue. Don't use a password that matches any user account password also - made that mistake myself once and it drove me batty trying to resolve it.

Aside from that, it's almost (note I said almost) idiot-proof to get a HomeGroup started. If you're having issues, do this:

- delete the HomeGroup on the laptop first (leave the HomeGroup) and disconnect from the network with it (delete that HomeGroup before you disconnect from the router, it's important)
- on the desktop box delete the HomeGroup and reboot
- when the desktop reboots, recreate the HomeGroup with the password and again, it can't match any user account passwords, and your account on the desktop must have a password - all user accounts that wish to access the HomeGroup from any machine on the HomeGroup must
- connect the laptop to the router and log back in making sure the user account on the laptop has a password on its account - if not you're not going to get far
- join the HomeGroup with the password assigned to the HomeGroup

You should be good to go...
 
Waht infomratin wdo you get when you run the homegroup troubleshooter? Do you have IPV6 unbound from your wireles connection, but bound to your wired connection? Homegroup depends on IPv6.
 
sub.genius said:
HomeGroup requirements:
- A HomeGroup started on one of the machines (with password, of course)

You should be good to go...
Click to expand...

Ahh! that was it. As soon as I created passwords for the desktop and laptop--I was able to join the homegroup right away. I didn't remember seeing that requirement anywhere, but I must have missed it. Thanks very much for the help!
 
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