Windows 7 homegroup - only get option to create, never to join

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merk

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Aug 11, 2009
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got two pc's at home both running win7.

When i click on homegroup on either pc, i get the option to create a homegroup, never to join.

Both pc's see each other on the network - they show up under network. but under homegroup they appear to be invisible to each other. Both pc's have IP4 and 6 enabled. both have file/print sharing and network discovery enabled.

I've tried having both of them leave their homegroups, reboot and then creating a homegroup on one of them. The other one still insists there's no homegroup on the network.

Any ideas?

Ian
 
Solution
M
well, i finally got it working. I found a technet article that suggests you have all PC's start off with the network set to public. Then on the PC that's going to create the homegroup, switch the network back to home or work. Create the home group. Then on the other pc's switch them back to home or work and it should join.

it didn't exactly work that way. I created the homegroup first on my roomies pc. When i went to mine, instead of asking me to join the HG it prompted me to create a new one. So i tried that. When i did that i noticed for an instant some sort of alert box was on the network and sharing center screen but it went away too fast for me to read it.

So on a hunch i switched my pc back to public, then to home and created a...
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i dont remember the specific model of the switch but i'd assume it falls under the simple category since it wasn't expensive at all.

As for where i am seeing the no network access ...

network sharing center - change adapter settings - right click the adapter and go to status

At the very top under connection i have:

IPv4 connectivity: Internet
IPv6 connectivity: no internet access

I suppose 'no internet access' is different from 'no network access' - although i could have sworn it said network before. I wonder if it would say no network if there were no other IPv6 pc's on the network? it's possibly my room mate (the other win7 PC) turned on his PC between the first time i looked at this and next. Then again it's entirely possible I just made a mistake when i typed no network access.

I should be home in about an hour or so. I can test it further then.
 
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Yep, I saw that on mine, but it said no INTERNET access so I thought you might be seeing something different somewhere else. Thanks for clearing that up
 
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oh well - i guess i cant blame it not working on a simple failure to communicate. Both PC's can ping each other over the link-local IPv6 address.

Neither computer seems to realize there's an existing homegroup since neither one will give me the option to join a home group.

Both pc's are plugged into the switch - a netgear gs608 v2

The only odd thing i found was on the 2nd pc - there default gateway (for IPv4) was set to 111.111.111.111). There was also listed an unidentified network on the same network adapter. but when i fixed the gateway, that went away.

One thing i should have mentioned - both PC's have hamachi installed on them. Not sure if that makes a difference. both instances of hamachi are set to 'work' type networks. The other pc had it set to home initially.

If i create a homegroup on one pc, should the other pc realize this instantly or is there some delay? Is a reboot needed for either pc when leaving/creating a homegroup?

Any ideas as to how to get this working?

thanks
 
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How does hamachi present itself, I haven't used it for quite a while it was a part of LogMeIn the last time I used it. Do you have an option to disable it for testing purposes, just to see if that might be the issue. As I recall homegroups are pretty snappy, I don't think it takes much time for them to be recognized, one computer to the other. I don't think the reboot thing is necessary, but it certainly wouldn't hurt, just for peace of mind.
 
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well, i finally got it working. I found a technet article that suggests you have all PC's start off with the network set to public. Then on the PC that's going to create the homegroup, switch the network back to home or work. Create the home group. Then on the other pc's switch them back to home or work and it should join.

it didn't exactly work that way. I created the homegroup first on my roomies pc. When i went to mine, instead of asking me to join the HG it prompted me to create a new one. So i tried that. When i did that i noticed for an instant some sort of alert box was on the network and sharing center screen but it went away too fast for me to read it.

So on a hunch i switched my pc back to public, then to home and created a HG - at which point my roommates pc suddenly said there was another HG available and asked me if i wanted to join. I did, entered in the password and it seemed to work.

I did however notice something. If one of the pc's is not sharing anything, when you click on the homegroup it says there are no pc's. My pc was the only one that had anything shared with the HG. Maybe that had something to do with my PC not seeing the other HG when i created it on my room mates pc.

So i guess the thing to do is make sure both pc's are sharing at least one thing and to start them off on a public network.
 
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Solution
Glad you figured it out. Congrats...now I hope I can forget about homegroups for a while. They seem to be generally annoying for a lot of folks. Personally they just worked out of the box for me, even though I don't use them anymore. Again good work.
 
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By the way, now that you've got homegroups sorted out. You should probably go ahead and update the router with the latest version of DD-WRT that you and Mitchell were talking about earlier. I've been hearing some good things about it, suppose to add a lot of extended features as well as some enhancements to UPnP.
 
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Homegroup fails Netgear WNR3500 Router

I have the same problem in getting Homegroup to work. I have 3 Win7 Home computers, all hardwired, 2 to the router and one to a switch and then to the router. All have Home selected, all have Network discovery turned on, file & printer sharing and all have non 128 bit selected.

If I start a Homegroup with one PC the others never see it. Is this a IPv6 problem???
 
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It could be if you don't have it turned on. Ipv6 is necessary for homegroups to work. Also if all three are win7 machines 128 bit encryption is fine. Read the post above #25 by merc and try it the way he did it, and make sure all machines are sharing something.
 
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I've spent HOURS, no, DAYS to get this to work. I've tried with 128 on and 128 off. Obviously IPv6 off doesn't work. I've tried starting over on Homegroup...all off, then starting with each of my 3 PCs as the starter w/password. (HG off on all 3, then A is starter, then all off and B, then all off then C). I thought maybe it was because one of my systems was a Win7 upgrade from Vista and the other 2 wer full installs, so I crashed my good system and spent days building a full install, only to find no answer.

What I meant by IPv6 possibly the problem is that my Router (Netgear WNR3500 gigabit & wifi) is possibly not passing on the IPv6, but I have no way to know this.

I gave up trying the wifi (my 4th PC a laptop with Win7) until I can get the wired ones working. Doesn't someone at Microsoft have the answer? I've been working on this since November...I put questions on the Win 7 Forum, Vista Forum, MS Answers and googling all over with no answer. Obviously MS has not tested this enough (personal opinion). HELP

Dale
Retired computer guru
 
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While it is always good to have the latest firmware for your router, I don't believe that it will resolve your issues. You router, according to the Windows 7 compatibility page is Windows 7 32 bit compatible, however it doesn't have 64 bit information. See this link http://www.microsoft.com/windows/compatibility/windows-7/en-us/Details.aspx?type=Hardware&p=Netgear%20Rangemax%20Gigabit%20802.11n%201000%20Mbps%20Wireless%20Router&v=Netgear&uid=WNR3500&pf=2&pi=34&c=Networking&sc=Wireless%20Routers&os=32-bit
I would though, highly recommend checking to see if there are any driver updates for your network adapters on the individual machines.
 
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Homegroup Trouble

So recently I attempted to create a homegroup between two computers both with Windows 7 Ultimate. About 3 weeks ago my grandma recently purchased a new laptop with Windows 7, I unknowingly created a Homegroup on my network with her laptop and now sadly I have no means to connect both my computers since her laptop isn't anywhere near my network.

I'm wondering if there is any possible way to remove her homegroup from my network without her laptop or am I stuck with connecting the computers the hard way?
Is there a possible to create another homegroup on my network? There isn't any options allowing me to do so.
 
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Finally found out the answer...I think, but not a good answer. Netgear Support admits that their WNR3500v1 won't pass IPv6 packets. I guess I'm shot down unless I pop for a new Router (spent over $120 for the one I have so it would have gigabit & 802.11n...a good one!!)...oh well...
 
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It seems strange, that I understood the Homegroup system to be based on a primary computer that set up a Home Group and allowed other computers to join. I have no experience with your situation, but it would seem if the computer was not available that it would not be included in the group.

If nothing else, cancel the homegroup and start again.
 
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I have no options to cancel the homegroup, and no access to the laptop that created it.
I only have the option to join it, which I would be fine with if I had the password to do so.
 
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Can you not cancel the homegroup and start another one? Check the Network & Sharing Center and cancel the homegroup.

Sorry I can tell you exactly, but I am in XP right now.
 
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At the network and sharing center I have the following options available:
Tell me more about HomeGroups, change advanced settings..., Start the HomeGroup troubleshooter.
There is also under my active networks I have the ability to join HomeGroup. I attempted the troubleshooter but it just brings me to the same location where I have the option to join the already created HomeGroup
 
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Try reading this article and and following the steps....especially the first step, in taking your computers (all of them) back to "Public" from the article


To prepare each computer for this walkthrough
  • Click Start, type Network and Sharing Center, and then press ENTER.
  • In the View your active networks area, verify that the network type is Public network. If not, click Home network or Work network, and then click Public network.
  • Repeat step 2 for the second computer.
read more here. Windows 7 HomeGroup: Walkthrough I believe that this is the article that merk was referring to, that resolved the issue for him. Whether or not your router will actually pass (route) ipV6 is of little consequece since home groups occurr on the inside LAN and as long as all of your computers actually have IPv6 address, you should be able to make home groups work for you
 
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Hi Ian
Had nearly identical problems, see my post at:
Link Removed
best of luck.

regards

John M
 
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