I will say this for Windows networking. It is terrible!

topgundcp · 01 Sep 2015

I never have any problem setting up the Home Network whether with 7, 8 or 10 so if you have a problem with it, you might have missed some of the settings.

Having said that. Homegroup networking only works with Win 7/8/10 so if you have XP, Vista or any other devices then it's better to setup your Home Network using regular Networking.

If you wish, you can try my suggestion:

Turn the Homegroup off. In each Win 7 & Win 8 or 10:

Control Panel -> Homegroup, Click on Leave Homegroup
Control Panel->Administrative Tools->Services. Disable Homegroup Listener and Homegroup Provider.
Make sure the following services are running In all PC’s:

Control Panel->Administrative Tools->Services

COM+ Event System
Computer Browser
DHCP Client
DNS Client
Network Connections
Network Location Awareness
Remote Procedure Call (RPC)
Server
TCP/IP Netbios helper
Wireless Zero Configuration ( XP wireless configurations only)
WLAN AutoConfig
Workstation
In each PC, make sure they have the same Workgroup Name
For example: WORKGROUP
Control Panel->Network and Sharing Center->Change Advanced Sharing Settings
and set as shown in screenshot below:
Right click on Drives/Folders in each PC -> Advanced Sharing. Click on Advanced Sharing again, click on share this folder, assign a share name then click on permissions. add a user: Everyone if not already existed then set permission to Full for now.

Again, Right click on Drives/Folders -> Properties->Security. If Everyone is not on the user names list then click on Edit and add Everyone to the list and set permission to Full control
Now open a browser and login into your Netgear router: http://routerlogin.com
(If you have different brand of router, consult user manual on how to log into yours) click on LAN Setup and assign a local static(Fixed) IP for each of your PC’s starting with 192.168.1.2 since 192.168.1.1 is the IP of your router. NOTE: any other router brands will also have this option
The reason for doing this so that each time you boot up your PC's, each will have the same local static IP otherwise the router will randomly assigns to an available IP and that might mess up the router DNS Cache.
Power cycle your Netgear router so that it will refresh DNS Cache.
Boot up each PC and open the elevated command prompt and type:
ipconfig /flushdns hit <Enter>
then type: ipconfig hit <Enter>
You should see the local static IP assigned for each PC in step 6.
Click on Network Icon, you should see all the shares

Hope this helps.

musiclover7 · 02 Sep 2015

Well.. this was interesting.. Upon rebooting workstation, it came up with no graphics driver loaded, and screen that was choppy as can be. I reloaded the graphics driver, and now I am at least back to intermittently being able to see the upstairs computer from the down and vice versa. Is very strange. What I have to do essentially, is connect to upstairs computer via vnc which works 100% of the time, take some action on the machine, and then if I try to access the computer from standard windows explorer, it will work. If I try to go to a different share 20 seconds later, I get the same error. I connect via vnc, wiggle the mouse or something, come back to Windows explorer, and it works. It feels like a duct tape solution at best, but this is what we are relegated to in Windows 10 I suppose. I guess I have always encountered strangeness in Windows networking, but this is over the top. Highly frustrating. Another strange anomaly, is that sometimes my upstairs machine will not even be listed as an avail device, despite the fact that I know it is on, in the same workgroup, and ready. Now, my Win7 work laptop, which is joined to my company domain shows up there for some reason, as does my tenet's phone, even though I know he can't possibly be in the same workgroup. So strange.

musiclover7 · 02 Sep 2015

Topgund, I just saw your suggestions. I will give them a try and report back.

trembuzz · 14 Sep 2015

I have had many problems trying to watch videos On my networked WD Live box where I could see my shared folders one day and not the next. I changed the "use usernames and password" setting to" do not use" them and it worked for a day then next day no dice! WTF?
trembuzz

pyramid10 · 14 Sep 2015

@topgundcp re: post #11

Strangely non-intuitive.

1. Homegroup is turned off/disabled. There is no followup instructions to turn it back on. The user is trying to set up a homegroup network. What a contradiction.

3. Workgroup is emphasized, even though Homegroup is the goal.

4. Trying to set up a network in Windows 10. Yet, the choice is to take the OS out of the loop, against recommendation, in HomeGroup connections for Private Folder Sharing.

I will say this for Windows networking. It is terrible!

I think "flawlessly" is a gross overstatement