How to Set Up Windows 7 Homegroups

[Nil]

The trick is to install the Link Layer Topology Discovery
responder on XP, or XP machines won't be visible to later
versions.

I don't have this installed on my XP SP2 computer, and it can see and
be seen by everything on the network. I don't think that's the key.

 

[Allen Drake]

I'm not sure what "You must be logged on as Admin" means, but for
about 99% of any typical day there is no one at all logged onto my
media server and sharing works fine.

All I know is if I am not logged on as Admin on a win7 system I can't
access files shared on XP. Otherwise I have not changed a thing when
I upgraded a few boxes to Win7 and left a few on XP Pro.

 

[Big Steel]

All I know is if I am not logged on as Admin on a win7 system I can't
access files shared on XP. Otherwise I have not changed a thing when
I upgraded a few boxes to Win7 and left a few on XP Pro.

What permissions do you have on the file share on XP? Maybe you only
have admin rights on the share instead of having Everyone or
Authenticated User Group rights on the share on XP.

 

[Char Jackson]

All I know is if I am not logged on as Admin on a win7 system I can't
access files shared on XP. Otherwise I have not changed a thing when
I upgraded a few boxes to Win7 and left a few on XP Pro.

Like the other post said, it's most likely a simple permissions issue.

 

[Ken1943]

How to Set Up Windows 7 Homegroups for Seamless, Instant Sharing
Between PCs In Your Home

http://lifehacker.com/5883517/how-t...less-instant-sharing-between-pcs-in-your-home

I am posting the link just in case it works. I tried to network a
Win7 drive in the past and just ended up just dumping and copying
everything from an XP drive.

I don't work for the CIA. I hope this works somewhat like XP does.

You have to use a WORK GROUP. The tricky part is that every Win 7 machine
will automatically set up a Home Group. When you set up a Work Group you
have to remove each machine from the home group.

Then you have to enable Advanced Sharing on every folder/drive you want
to share. The trick is to add user "everyone"(no " " ) to the shared
folder and check the boxes of how you want the share to work.

And this what I had to do on my four Win 7 machines as I don't have any
XP machines.


KenW

 

[Nil]

All I know is if I am not logged on as Admin on a win7 system I
can't access files shared on XP. Otherwise I have not changed a
thing when I upgraded a few boxes to Win7 and left a few on XP
Pro.

Are all computers part of the same Workgroup? Do you have an account
set up on the XP machine with the same user name and password as on the
Win7 machine? Does your shared resource permit that account to use it?
What errors do you get?

 

[z]

SNIP

The trick is to install the Link Layer Topology Discovery responder on
XP, or XP machines won't be visible to later versions. It either needs
to be installed before XP SP3 or you need to do the installation
manually by extracting the files from the installer package you download
from M$ and copying them to the right place. Go to:-

http://www.microsoft.com/download/en/details.aspx?displaylang=en&id=5577

To obtain the installer. With XP SP3, the LLTD responder is erroneously
tagged as already being present when you use the installer from M$.

Alas, two of the devices I want to connect to are non-windows devices. 1
is a boxee box, the other is a NAS.

 

[Char Jackson]

Alas, two of the devices I want to connect to are non-windows devices. 1
is a boxee box, the other is a NAS.

You're in luck. You can network those devices with Win 7 just fine.

 

[z]

SNIP

I bet you have Windows 7 Homegroups enabled. That networking system
only works with other Windows 7 computers. In order to network with
Vista and earlier computers, you must use the traditional Workgroup
and file sharing method. I believe there's some workarounds that can
let you use Homegroups, but I haven't tried them. I just turned off
Homegroups and everything worked as I was used to.

Homegroups was enabled. I disabled it, but still cant see the other
non-windows devices.

Here's an MS white paper describing how to network the various
operating systems:

http://www.microsoft.com/download/en/details.aspx?displaylang=en&id=17168

A 34 page white paper? Are you serious???

Typical blame-$omeone-el$e-for-their-own-ignorance rubbish. Try
taking some responsibility and doing some research. The tools are
all there. If you're unwilling to learn to use then, it's your own
fault.

Ah, a micro$oft lackie! Listen bud, you are obliviously some sort of
lonely computer geek who thinks nothing of reading a 34 page white
paper. Most of the general public wouldn't even know what a white paper
is.

The point is that micro$soft have now made networking to non win7
machines far too difficult for the average home network computer person.
This wouldn't be by mistake either. It would be by design. micro$soft
is all about making money, not about providing good products. They will
be hoping that the average user will find it too difficult to network to
old windows machines or non-windows machines and will be forced to
upgrade to new win7 machines just so they can network them. (I
personally see micro$oft like a parasite on society.)

The micro$oft help on networking is worse than useless. (unless you
start reading white papers that is).

If you're too stupid to see that, its your own fault.

 

[Char Jackson]

The point is that micro$soft have now made networking to non win7
machines far too difficult for the average home network computer person.

If that's your point, you would be wrong.

Anyone who can network earlier Windows systems should have no trouble
with Win 7. It's well known that Homegroups is a new-to-7 feature, so
it makes perfect sense that it doesn't work with older systems. Just
use the same old networking you used before and all will be well.
You're making it way too hard.

 

[Nil]

Homegroups was enabled. I disabled it, but still cant see the
other non-windows devices.

Do you have the proper user accounts set up on all computers?

A 34 page white paper? Are you serious???

Of course. It's a technical paper, if you want to know the details,
they are in there.

Ah, a micro$oft lackie!

Right. "Lackie". That's why they pay me the big bucks.

Listen bud, you are obliviously some sort
of lonely computer geek who thinks nothing of reading a 34 page
white paper. Most of the general public wouldn't even know what a
white paper is.

Listen, Junior, you're the one with a problem. Not me. I didn't need to
read any white paper to make things work. I did my homework and
followed instructions. You would obviously rather whine and point
fingers than accept some personal responsibility and solve your
problem. Well, good luck with that.

 

[Allen Drake]

Are all computers part of the same Workgroup? Do you have an account
set up on the XP machine with the same user name and password as on the
Win7 machine? Does your shared resource permit that account to use it?
What errors do you get?

I am not having any problems sharing files. I only log on as
Administrator and have no need for Homegroup. I get no errors and
don't even remember the message wording it's been so long. I just
remember having some issue at one time that said I did not have
permission. All is well in my networking family of computers but
thanks to all that have been concerned.

Al.

 

[Paul]

Homegroups was enabled. I disabled it, but still cant see the other
non-windows devices.


A 34 page white paper? Are you serious???


Ah, a micro$oft lackie! Listen bud, you are obliviously some sort of
lonely computer geek who thinks nothing of reading a 34 page white
paper. Most of the general public wouldn't even know what a white paper
is.

The point is that micro$soft have now made networking to non win7
machines far too difficult for the average home network computer person.
This wouldn't be by mistake either. It would be by design. micro$soft
is all about making money, not about providing good products. They will
be hoping that the average user will find it too difficult to network to
old windows machines or non-windows machines and will be forced to
upgrade to new win7 machines just so they can network them. (I
personally see micro$oft like a parasite on society.)

The micro$oft help on networking is worse than useless. (unless you
start reading white papers that is).

If you're too stupid to see that, its your own fault.

As long as they're still selling third party programs for
network setup, it implies Microsoft isn't doing a good enough
job. An example of such a third party tool is "Network Magic",
now owned by Cisco.

http://www.sevenforums.com/network-sharing/54808-network-magic.html

Apparently, it has network troubleshooting (which Windows does too),
but the Cisco product doesn't always reach the right conclusion. Which
is "par for the course".

In my experiences here, when I initially tried setting up a share
between machines, sometimes it would work, and sometimes not,
and order of reboot didn't seem to help either. I don't normally
use network sharing, and after a few experiments, turned it off
again. (As long as I have working USB flash sticks, that and
"sneaker net" is good enough.)

About all I can say about it is, you can remove the discovery
phase as an issue, by making share connections using an IP address.
But that won't cure a permissions or username/password problem.

Paul

 

[pjp]

Do you have the proper user accounts set up on all computers?


Of course. It's a technical paper, if you want to know the details,
they are in there.


Right. "Lackie". That's why they pay me the big bucks.


Listen, Junior, you're the one with a problem. Not me. I didn't need to
read any white paper to make things work. I did my homework and
followed instructions. You would obviously rather whine and point
fingers than accept some personal responsibility and solve your
problem. Well, good luck with that.

Well I took the time to read that white paper.

What I noticed was it actually was more about working with the HomeGroup
rather than how to avoid even using it so everything else was "as
before". I've enough pc's here in home here that have this "HomeGroup"
feature and it goes unused as I see nothing in it couldn't already do
before in the traditional way.

 

[Nil]

Well I took the time to read that white paper.

What I noticed was it actually was more about working with the
HomeGroup rather than how to avoid even using it so everything
else was "as before". I've enough pc's here in home here that have
this "HomeGroup" feature and it goes unused as I see nothing in it
couldn't already do before in the traditional way.

Do you just ignore the Homegroup feature, or did you specifically
disable? The usual advice is to turn it completely off, so I did, and
every computer on my network connects as expected. I haven't had any
need to try the Homegroups feature to see what conflicts, if any, it
causes. One of these days I'll try it out.

 

[pjp]

Do you just ignore the Homegroup feature, or did you specifically
disable? The usual advice is to turn it completely off, so I did, and
every computer on my network connects as expected. I haven't had any
need to try the Homegroups feature to see what conflicts, if any, it
causes. One of these days I'll try it out.

I did basically the same, e.g. just turned it Off. I've found biggest
problem is just getting the various shares "security" right, e.g.
there's some shares are read-only while others are read-write. Every PC
on my network has a "c:\Temp" folder that's shared and open to read-
write by anyone is my basic setup. Some shares are just for "streaming"
video and music to the other networked pc's. Every TV in the house has
a pc with TV-Out connected to it so that's my solution for watching what
you want on device you want.

 

[KCB]

(I personally see micro$oft like a parasite on society.)

Did you participate in the "Occupy" movement?