HomeGroup Heartaches !!!

I know from a number of support bulletin boards that a great many Windows 10 users have been really struggling to enable HomeGroup functionality, between two or more computers, sharing a private network. Although it was possible to set up a HomeGroup on the "server" side, any "clients" were being told that there were no HomeGroups to join on the network.

There have been countless suggestions, regarding deleting the local HomeGroup files & ensuring that certain critical services were running & set to "Automatic", but all to no avail. I have even posted requests on the main Microsoft technical support forums, but nobody has been able to come up with a working solution.

HOWEVER, surprise surprise !! Following the installation of this week's Windows 10 cumulative update, I have suddenly been able to join the "server" Homegroup, and the shared folders from this unit have finally become visible on the "client" side.

My excitement has unfortunately been somewhat short-lived though, as although I can now see the folders in the joined HomeGroup, it is still impossible to actually open them and access the files contained within. I get the old dreaded message about not being able to access a network computer, which has been doing the rounds for years.

BUT, with a bit of trial & error, I now find that everything works like a dream, if I disable the Windows Firewall on the "server" side. Now, clearly this is extremely undesirable, particularly in the current security climate, so could some clever soul out there please offer me some straightforward advice & guidance about how to open up the Firewall to other units within the Homegroup, without allowing North Korean hackers to access my family photograph albums, etc, etc ?!?

I have had a look "under the hood" of the Firewall settings, and it all looks rather "daunting", so a point in the right direction would be enormously appreciated, given that Microsoft have decided (as usual), to only fix part of the problem.

Many Thanks,

Intarest.

Your better removing homegroup and just using workgroup as its never worked well from the start. Remove it then disable ipv6 on all pc and try then. Do pc have username and password windows doesnt like it if you dont have a password

Seems a little bit drastic, because it was working absolutely fine, until I upgraded one of my network PC's from Win 7 to Win 10. Thanks for the suggestions though.