Joining a Homegroup - Nightmare...

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J

JDahl

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Sep 15, 2013
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For the life of me I cannot set up a homegroup on my network. I have a PC with a fresh install of Windows 7 64-bit on it. It has a wired connection to a netgear 7550 wireless router. The other computer is a laptop running Windows 7 64-bit. Primarily the laptop is has a wireless connection, but I've tried it both ways (wired vs. wireless) and simply cannot get the Homegroup set up.

I've gone through all the tutorials, troubleshooting guides, tried joining the PC to the laptop, the laptop to the PC in all possible combinations of wired and wireless configurations. Each computer is recognized on the network map, and I can create a home group on both, but cannot ever get the other to join. No error code is returned, simply "cannot join this computer to the homegroup".

I'm no networking guru, but my wife primarily uses the laptop for work, and she has several VPN networks for accessing files at work that are somewhat sensitive. She works for the U of M and does work in the health care field, so her data is somewhat private.... so.. MAYBE that has something to do with it? But I am no network engineer.

I'd remove that software, but that would not sit well with the significant other...

Does anyone have any idea how to get this set up? We want to set it up for sharing photos/videos over a network.

Thanks in advance.
 
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smorizio

smorizio

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Jan 22, 2010
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look at your wife network connection info. lok at the ip and dns info that in network. on most home pc and home networks there set to auto detect ip and dns info from router. if there hard set to a ip range ie (192.168.100.1)
and another pc set to auto then with homegroups turned on. (file and print sharing). both pc anre not on the same ip network (by default routers are 192.168.1.1 to work right the pc would have to be on 192.168.1.xxx
and have file and print sharing turned on.
 
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J

JDahl

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Sep 15, 2013
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I already verified that the IP addresses are the same. The issue is not connecting to the network, the issue is setting up and joining a homegroup. I can set up a homegroup on either computer, but I cannot get the other computer to join. It just returns the message "cannot join the homegroup".

The clocks are synchronized, all the correct services are running, the networks are named the same, each is set to a home network.
 
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J

JDahl

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Sep 15, 2013
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Also, by double clicking on the laptop icon in the Network map, I am able to browse through and view certain folders on the laptop from the PC, so I know they are connected. However, I can only look through my user account on the laptop, not my wife's, where the pictures are stored.

Besides, I personally want to have a homegroup set up for my user account on each computer (PC + laptop).
 
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hang-the-9

hang-the-9

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Mar 25, 2010
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If the VPN software is started, it's not longer on the same network and will not join the homegroup. You don't setup a homegroup for the user account, but for the whole computer.

There may be more details in the Event Log on the systems about why they failed to join the homegroup.
 
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J

JDahl

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Sep 15, 2013
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So, as long as the VPN is up and running, this wouldn't be the issue? Am I reading you correctly? I've never used an event log, and I don't think it would do much good given my skill level with PC's. If you thought it would help, I would be more than happy to find out how to produce an Event Log, but unless someone on this board is willing to take the time to look at it, its beyond my skill set.
 
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hang-the-9

hang-the-9

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Mar 25, 2010
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Event log is not too hard to read, it will give you the event and an error code. You can find the error code online, although many have more than one reason for failing. You'll have to do a bit of trouble-shooting here to find out what is causing that generic error message you see.

If the VPN connection was off, the system should connect, but along with VPN software the system may have a 3rd party firewall or some other security program that prevents it from joining the homegroup.
 
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