Windows 7 Homegroup Difficulties

[PR-0927]

Hey Swampies, not sure if anyone here has extensive experience with Windows 7 Homegroups, but the forum I frequent doesn't tend to have a lot of people post in or check the sub-forum in which I posted a thread about my difficulties:

 

http://forums.guru3d.com/showthread.php?t=321308

 

 

Any assistance would be much appreciated. And I'll copy and paste the thread here for those too lazy to click the above link (LOL):

 

So I'm kinda frustrated with Windows 7 Homegroups right now. In my apartment, we have my gaming rig, my laptop, and my roommate's laptop. All three were on a Homegroup, and everything was working fine.

 

As of the past two weeks or so, it gradually became more difficult to make computers show up on the Homegroup. So my roommate and I got rid of the Homegroup and tried to start from scratch. Nothing worked. No computer can see the other computer on the Homegroup. All of the basic troubleshooting has been done - network discovery and all have been configured correctly.

 

What is going on? When I tried to run the troubleshooter, it told me that Windows Firewall was incorrectly configured (on my desktop). So, I tried to apply the fix it suggested (the automatic "apply this fix" thing). It failed. I've tried this countless times. Eventually, I got into the advanced settings of the Firewall and tried to make sure everything was set right. Everything was set fine.

 

So I am confounded. At one point I tried to setup the Homegroup from my laptop as a test - it failed, and the same "incorrectly configured" thing showed up for Windows Firewall on my laptop (not my desktop this time). And yes, both times I tried to restore Windows Firewall settings to default. No luck.

 

Also, previously I could see the computers on the "Network" thing. Now I cannot. Every once in a while my laptop or my roommate's laptop will show up on the Network from my desktop, but they cannot be accessed as previously (and neither laptop can see my desktop, I believe).

 

The only anti-virus programs I am using are Avira AntiVir Personal (no firewall exists in this, IIRC) and Spybot's Security Center integration thing - both of which I have been using for quite some time, with no difficulty.

 

Can anyone assist? We really would love to get this working again, as we rely upon it for network printing, sharing music/movies/videos/documents, and general file-transfers.

 

Thanks!

 

- PR-0927

 

- PR-0927

[jon_hill987]

If you haven't got your solution yet I would suggest asking in the "thehowtogeek.com" forums. They really know their stuff there.

[PR-0927]

Yeah, problem hasn't been solved at all. I'll definitely look into those forums tomorrow. I appreciate someone having the courtesy to post a reply! Thanks!

 

- PR-0927