Windows 7 Windows 7 computers not visible and cannot see others on the network

bigdawg

New Member
I have 2 Windows 7 boxes (one laptop and one desktop) plus a vista machine and a Windows Home server. All but the Home server is connected via a wireless connection. All machines can access the web, etc. however only the home server is visible on the network (and the home server can access the other 3 machines). I cannot ping (by name or IP) any of the other machines and they don't show up in Windows Explorer. Before I put Windows 7 on the laptop and desktop everyone could see everyone.

I tried creating a home group from the Win7 desktop and joining that from the laptop but the home group is not found. I also played with changing the wireless network from a "home network" to a "work network" without any luck. the Win7 installs were clean installs not upgrades.

Any ideas?
 
Windows Firewall can be an issue sometimes (at least with Vista and XP), but I would assume setting up a workgroup would eliminate this (I never deal with workgroups)

For my domains, however, I do have to enable "Network Detection" (I think, it is the second option to enable in Vista) in the Network and Sharing Center.

I have not put my Win7 box on the domain yet, but I assume it functions like Vista.
 
Could be that the "homegroup" concept works only for computers running windows 7? So, maybe others not running windows 7 can't be included with the homegroup?
 
thanks guys. I haven't tried turning off the firewalls yet but I will. All the machines are in the same workgroup and I'm not expecting "Home Group" to work across Win7 and legacy clients but still think that they should be visible on the network.

More info. I'm seeing this in the system event log of the Win7 laptop:


EVENT ID 8003: The master browser has received a server announcement from the computer WIN7_DESKTOP that believes that it is the master browser for the domain on transport NetBT_Tcpip_{23CFC9E0-FFDA-4288-87F8-0900CB. The master browser is stopping or an election is being forced.
 
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Also having the same problem. Win7 completely can't see my XP PC. The latter however can see my win7 laptop but can't access it. It says that it's not accessible and the network path wasn't found. Both PC's have been set to be in the same workgroup. Firewalls are turned off. Password protection on sharing too is turned off. Already installed SP3 to the xp rig to have the LLTD responder enabled.

God, still no go. :frown: I really need to sync the desktop with my lappy asap.
 
I had a problem like that. After messing around trying to find my win7 on my xp machine, went and started to add a network place. Click on entire network, then RIGHT click and explore. It'll ask your username and paseword of your win7 machine: voila!
Close off all windows and explore your network. You'll find your shared drives and maps on win7.
Good luck!
 
I had a problem like that. After messing around trying to find my win7 on my xp machine, went and started to add a network place. Click on entire network, then RIGHT click and explore. It'll ask your username and paseword of your win7 machine: voila!
Close off all windows and explore your network. You'll find your shared drives and maps on win7.
Good luck!

Hmmm....this is not my experience running one Win7 box and one XP box. WinXP will SEE the Win7 box after reboot(s), but is barred from access and there is no opportunity to input username/password.

Next....NE1 else have an idea? Thank!
 
Hmmm....this is not my experience running one Win7 box and one XP box. WinXP will SEE the Win7 box after reboot(s), but is barred from access and there is no opportunity to input username/password.

Next....NE1 else have an idea? Thank!
Did you do an upgrade or clean install?
I did an upgrade and had the same problem as you. After doing a lot of diagnostics, it said that I had two services running NAT at the same time and that could be causing the problem. I had Microsoft OneCare installed which said it was not compatible with Win7 so I decided to uninstall that and now everything works fine and everybody can see everybody.
If anyone is having a problem with netwoking and you have Microsoft OneCare installed, don't just stop it running, but instead uninstall the whole thing and see if that helps. After hours of agrivation, that finally worked for me.

Hmmm....this is not my experience running one Win7 box and one XP box. WinXP will SEE the Win7 box after reboot(s), but is barred from access and there is no opportunity to input username/password.

Next....NE1 else have an idea? Thank!
Did you do an upgrade or clean install?
I did an upgrade and had the same problem as you. After doing a lot of diagnostics, it said that I had two services running NAT at the same time and that could be causing the problem. I had Microsoft OneCare installed which said it was not compatible with Win7 so I decided to uninstall that and now everything works fine and everybody can see everybody.
If anyone is having a problem with netwoking and you have Microsoft OneCare installed, don't just stop it running, but instead uninstall the whole thing and see if that helps. After hours of agrivation, that finally worked for me.
 
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Did you do an upgrade or clean install?
I did an upgrade and had the same problem as you. After doing a lot of diagnostics, it said that I had two services running NAT at the same time and that could be causing the problem. I had Microsoft OneCare installed which said it was not compatible with Win7 so I decided to uninstall that and now everything works fine and everybody can see everybody.
If anyone is having a problem with netwoking and you have Microsoft OneCare installed, don't just stop it running, but instead uninstall the whole thing and see if that helps. After hours of agrivation, that finally worked for me.


Did you do an upgrade or clean install?
I did an upgrade and had the same problem as you. After doing a lot of diagnostics, it said that I had two services running NAT at the same time and that could be causing the problem. I had Microsoft OneCare installed which said it was not compatible with Win7 so I decided to uninstall that and now everything works fine and everybody can see everybody.
If anyone is having a problem with netwoking and you have Microsoft OneCare installed, don't just stop it running, but instead uninstall the whole thing and see if that helps. After hours of agrivation, that finally worked for me.

I did a clean install, Paula. Is there a User / Permission issue that needs to be addressed on the Win7 box? I've seen elsewhere that could be the cause. I'd like to solve this, as this seems to be a major point in the friendliness of "7". IMHO, few people will originally be running multiple versions of Win7 in their home net. Any further thoughts are appreciated.
 
On my machine it was not a firewall issue. On the Windows 7 computer I had to go to the Networking Properties of the connection from Control Panel\All Control Panel Items\Network and Sharing Center and turn off AGN Filter Interface (64-bit).
 
Indeed firewall can be the problem :
my Win7 could ping but not see XP and Vista computer ressources nor the shared printer,
- the solution was to open windows FireWall/advanced settings / in the "public profil" section click on "window firewall properities (hope the translation from my non english windows version is correct), select the "private profile" tab, and allow all "incoming" (or "entering" ?) connections.
- check if now you can see those network ressources
- whatever the result, go back to that "private profil" tab, and block again the "incoming connections", the ressources may still remain visible and accessible as now those network ressources are being reffered
 
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