Windows 7 Homegroups- CANNOT FIX, Have reviewed for hours every posting!

[confusedman]

The Problem: Cannot access homegroup because I am told "Homegroup Password Incorrect."

Before anyone flames me, I have spent at least 10 hours over the last week trying to find why in the world I have such a stupid issue. Please only serious "helpful" responses. I am not a dumb$ss because I can absolutely follow directions, type a password correctly, and check settings. With that said, I have nowhere else to go. Please help me Moderators and other experienced members.

My computers:
1. Compaq Presario Desktop SR5500f series
Windows 7 Ultimate Japanese version
Connected to router directly with ethernet cable

2. NEC Japanese laptop with Windows 7 Starter Japanese version, connected to router via wireless

Router:
Linksys WRT54G V8 updated firmware last week
Windows Compatibility test shows 100% OK


What I've read: "Windows 7 is the EASIEST for setting up network sharing"

My Experience:
* First I could not create a homegroup from my Compaq. I read forums and updated Regedit and Services.msc. I was able to then create a homegroup.
My laptop was unable to even see the homegroup, so I spent more time updating various parts and was able to finally have the laptop see my created homegroup.

*Second, I tried this part at least 20 times with many passwords, many restarts, many settings verifications and changes all to no avail. When I enter the password on my laptop to join my created network, it says "Homegroup Password Incorrect." I am in the "Home" network, not Work or Public.

*Third, For Both Computers: I did the time update sync (with different services), I did the IPv6 checks, I restarted, I edited DisabledComponents in the Regedit, I edited Peer Group Networking and PNPG to all "start", i checked the network adapter properties and all was OK. I checked the advanced settings and turned ON network discovery and file sharing, 128 bit and 40 bit encryption, and tried both options dealing with passwords.

*Fourth, I've read nearly every post on this forum, overclocked.net, sevenforums.com, and checked the search engines, Microsoft's website and have found a few others with the same problem but no actual answer to fix it.



So to recap:
I can create a homegroup from my windows ultimate desktop. I can access internet from my windows starter laptop and can see the homegroup but cannot join it because the password is ALWAYS incorrect. I can actually see my desktop's public folder only, if I look under the network itself, not the homegroup.

Please help me. I was a Mac person many years ago and switched to Windows and like it much better despite it being 10 times harder to use than mac. Now, I really don't care any more but I just want my laptop to be able to connect to my home desktop pc and I can't do it in Almighty Windows 7.

Thank you in advance.
Mike

 

[RAK]

Main reason for the malfunction is usual unsyncronised time, but you hae dealt with that.
First try is to remove any firewalls you have running, for the sake of the experiment. That could be th Windows 7 ; router; and Anti virus firewalls. If that solution works, you can adjust the firewall settings later.
I realise you are confident that your password is correct, but just to cover the eventuality, open the Homegroup and select "View or print the HomeGroup".
password.

 

[confusedman]

Thank you RAK for your comments. Yes, I forgot to say that I disabled my windows Firewall and uninstalled my Zonealarm firewall and no luck. I don't have any anti-virus programs running either. There must be a setting wrong or the compatible router is not set up right. I'll check the password idea but it doesn't seem likely. Should I reset the router just for giggles?

Thank you,
Mike

 

[RAK]

Sure. Its an option. It wont do any harm. A hard reset, which is the way to go with your problem (Usually a very small button insert at the back somewhere) It will mean that boptionally, you will have to give the router a name again and, if you want it, a network password. But the reset should work without customising. You will then need to lok at you internet icon in the notification area and reconnect to the available network. It will, at that stage, say "LinkSys" or Netgear" or similar. Remembr , at the same time, to enable, in the same small reconnect window, "Connect automatically."

If that gives no help whatsoever, I woud suggest the big step of closing your homegroup and starting all over with a new one??

 

[confusedman]

Thank you Rak. I will try the hard reset for the Linksys router when I get home. I have closed the homegroup and started a new one about 3 or 4 times and with no luck. Surely, I am not the only one with problems. Do you think the problem is coming from the homegroup creator computer or the homegroup joining computer?

 

[RAK]

<<<i am pinning it on the homegroup joining computer. Adding to the above. When you have reset the router, pop in and disable the firewall again.

 

[Saltgrass]

My Experience:
* First I could not create a homegroup from my Compaq. I read forums and updated Regedit and Services.msc. I was able to then create a homegroup.
My laptop was unable to even see the homegroup, so I spent more time updating various parts and was able to finally have the laptop see my created homegroup.

Having to update a Win 7 install is not normal and could be actually the cause of the problem. Do you have any idea why you would need to update? Could it be related to the Japanese version? I am going to try to figure out exactly what you did just in case I can find something there. A link or explanation would help.

If you open task manager, services tab, do you show a HomeGroupProvider service running? There may be two more services necessary, the Peer Networking Group mentioned in the link and the HomeGroup Listener, but not completely sure about the last one.

If you were trying to create a homegroup in a Starter version, I might understand extra steps being needed. I copied the below from a Microsoft site. I do realize you are creating the homegroup in an Ultimate version.

You can join a HomeGroup in any edition of Windows 7, but you can only create one in Home Premium, Professional, or Ultimate.

Also, homegroups have to be created on Home networks, public will not work.

Check this Microsoft site.

 

[confusedman]

OK, I'm back. I've hard reset the router- no luck, Rak.

Saltgrass, thank you for your input. I've done what you say and apparently the laptop computer (joining computer) does not have Homegroup Listener showing in the services tab of task manager although the other two are showing. I enabled Listener service but it still doesn't show in Task manager. I restarted and got the same result. I activated again and same result.

Thank you for the tips on creation but I'm not trying to create from the starter edition. And the network is configured as "Home"

What else can I try???? Please help.

 

[Saltgrass]

I would think the Listerner service would need to be running on the Compaq.

I would like to ask again why you think you needed to update your install to allow for creating a Homegroup, or an explanation or link to information about that problem... Knowning this may help us understand your situation.

Someone in another forum pointed out that there are several dependencies related to the Homegroup services. If you had to alter you Ultimate install to allow for creation of a Homegroup, maybe one of those dependencies is also not installed or running. Seems like the RPC service is involved quite heavily. To see the dependencies, open services in the Admin Tools, and right click on the Homegroup services and look under the dependencies tab.

Is there any possibility the Japanese keystrokes could be misinterpreted by the password checker?

Did you run the Homegroup troubleshooter, just in case it might find something?

If you open the Network and Sharing center, click on Advanced sharing settings on the left, go to the bottom of the window and see if you have it set for Windows to manage Homgroups.

 

[Kainzo]

The same issue is happening to me. I have researched this for the last three days and haven't found an answer that has fixed my problem. I am still unable to see PC2's Homegroup and PC2 cannot join my home group citing it is "incorrect password." I also see that PC2 was having trouble installing MW2 via steam games, stating a "network error (16)"... Whenever I downloaded and attempted to use Network Magic Pro, it believed that PC2 was on "ICS" and Network Pro did not support it and must disable. Though during installation for PC1 for network magic pro, I didn't get an "ICS" message. Interesting.

The reason why the homegroup thing is so important is for 1) File sharing and 2) I believe it ties closely into why she cannot connect to games on MW2 PC Multiplayer. She is stuck at "synchronizing settings..." for a long time. There seems to be other things going on that I'm not very sure about.

I have double and triple checked that all computers are on the same network, network discovery is on, have the same time synchronization, and all services are started (and automatic in most cases). Yet this issue still seemingly persists. PC2 has a fresh install of Windows 7. The router configurations (Ultraline Series 3) look to all be correct. The firewall configurations have not been messed with and no third party ones have ever been installed. As a side note, I do work for a System's Support group for a major tax software development company and I am wholesomely stumped by this.

My next steps are
1) turn off both firewalls (though I have tried this before but will again)
2) Possibly format PC1 to ensure there are FRESH installations on both PC's
3) Exchange the router for a new model / etc.
4) Throw in a new network card for PC2

Any more feedback/advice would be greatly appreciated.

 

[confusedman]

Saltgrass,

The listener service along with all the other previously mentioned ones are running on the compaq (Ultimate-creator) but I cannot seem to activate it on the NEC (starter-joiner).

Actually, I didn't update Windows specifically. I just ran windows update on both computers and uninstalled all the garbage free firewalls and antivirus. That was my first step in order for the Compaq to be able to even create a homegroup.

I thought that there might be something to do with the keyboard being different but even with the Japanese version, english characters show correctly as english characters and correct size. That shouldn't be the problem.

I did run the homegroup troubleshooter and it didn't find anything wrong with the homegroup. It just says I cannot connect to a network. But that doesn't make sense, since I can see the other computer and can connect to the internet, right? Maybe there is a problem with the router or something silly relating to the network.

And, the homegroups are set to let windows handle them.

When I get back home, I'll investigate the homegroup dependencies.


Kainzo,

That might be a good idea for both of us. There can't be any logical reason why some people (who know better) are having these random issues. Reinstalling is such a pain and I'm not sure if it would fix it nor do I know about buying a new router but it may be causing the problem. Do we know of any known problem routers?

I look forward to possible suggestions.

 

[Kainzo]

I'm still experiencing issues, here's some more things I threw at the table to try and fix this. I have triple checked that all needed processes are running. I have ensured that BOTH machines are running at the standard MTU's of 1500, done by CMD | netsh | interface tcp show global, etc. Everything on the onboard LAN cards seem to be fully functioning. I have run a PING test from the working computer (PC1) to the non working computer (PC2)... after 3 hours, it came back with ZERO failure packets. I tried reversing the ping test, it produced the same results. There is nothing, that I can see wrong, with the connectivity on either of these machines.

I really wish I could find an answer to this issue, I'm runing out of options here.

 

[confusedman]

bump for the message

 

[Kainzo]

I resolved this by throwing in a new network card. Go to BestBuy, buy a card, throw it in, try it. If it doesn't work, bring it back to BestBuy and get your money back.

 

[confusedman]

Sorry, I give up. I cannot think of any way to do this.

 

[CommonTater]

Mike... Straight up... Microsoft's "Homegroups" and IPv6 are a flaming disaster.

Seriously, if you want your network to "just work", set up a "Work" network (i.e a Workgroup), which is the old-school XP style file sharing.
This will allow you to have multiple OSs on your network, share only the folders you want shared, with only the access
you give them... and most importantly... usernames and passwords that actually work.

There are lots of tutorials for setting up Workgroups on Win7.

 

[confusedman]

CommonTater, Thank you for the honest reply. I'll try the "Normal" way tonight and perhaps have some luck. I didn't realize you could still use the XP way for networking. I'll post again once I have a result. THank you again.

 

[CommonTater]

Glad I could help.