Windows 7 homegroup not working properly

[Halofan]

I've been trying for a while now to get this fixed and am still having no luck. My laptop is very inconsistent about whether or not it appears on the network. It's a Toshiba Satellite and it runs Windows 7 Home Premium 32-bit.
My brother has an identical laptop and it has worked fine every time I tried to do any network stuff on there, however my laptop doesn't show up on the homegroup I have created, nor does it always appear to my Xbox 360. I recently connected both laptops to my router by ethernet cable and set up the homegroup, but my brother's laptop doesn't show any other computers in the homegroup. My laptop shows his just fine. I've run several troubleshoots, under Admin settings to ensure it does everything it can, but Windows still cannot fix the problem. Can someone help me out on this?

Just to clarify:
-I have turned on Network Discovery and all other appropriate settings for the home network, and both PCs show that they are on their home network.
-After disconnecting them from the ethernet cables, neither computer could detect the other in the Homegroup.
-Both PCs are still able to detect one another under Network.

Thanks in advance.

 

[Slapshot136]

can your computers ping one another? if you go to "network and sharing center", do you see the other computer/xbox?

if not for both of the above, check that the router allows wireless devices to communicate locally to each other via wifi, this would usually be turned on in case of a hotspot for like a hotel or something where you don't want people to have access with each other

 

[Halofan]

Well I can't check that right now because the other laptop and Xbox are both off, and I don't know how to ping them, but yes I've seen them before when I click "see full map." Also, the Xbox isn't wireless, I run an ethernet to it. The only two devices on my network that are wireless are the laptops. Both Xboxs and the desktop are wired. I've been able to pick my laptop up with my Xbox before, it's just that sometimes it won't register.

 

[Nenad]

Put diablo 2 on both laptops and run the game in lan. If the game is playable it's the windows fault. If it's not, it's a problem with the wireless.


Why diablo 2?

In my opinion, the only game that will run 100% if you have any sort of connection in between two computers ^^

 

[Slapshot136]

to test ping, run "cmd.exe" on both computers, type "ipconfig /all", and look for the wireless IP - then type "ping 192.168.123.xxx" where you replace the number with the other computer's ping, do this on both computers

also, do you see your router when you go to the full map page? open it up and look for settings that would prevent wireless devices from communicating with each other

also, have you tried disabling all firewalls?

 

[Halofan]

Thanks Nenad, I'll try that. I already have D2 on my laptop.
And my router's firewall is disabled by default. The only firewall the laptops run is the standard Windows. I don't have time to test the ping yet but I'll update you guys as soon as I can do all this stuff. Thanks.

 

[Halofan]

Ok so my laptop isn't pinging anything. The other laptop is currently off but I've pinged the desktop and both Xbox consoles and every time I get the response "request timed out" four times in a row before seeing 100% packet loss. I'm able to ping the router and my own laptop but I can't hit anything else on the network. I'm finally able to stream music from my laptop to my Xbox but I wasn't able to earlier today or last night.

 

[Slapshot136]

and can the desktop ping the laptop? it's important to know because it helps determine which end the problem is on

and your sure that your anti-virus does not have a firewall as well (like AVG I know for example does)

 

[Halofan]

My desktop can ping my laptop, but I haven't been able to ping the desktop from either of the laptops, and my friend/neighbor who brought his Windows 7 laptop couldn't ping the desktop either. We were able to ping each other however, so my laptop was pinging the other two, and those both pinged mine and each other fine. No one was able to ping the Xboxs though. The request timed out four times before returning 100% packet loss, just like the response we've been getting from the desktop. I'm not very good at networking but at least from what I can see it seems like the wireless devices are able to ping each other but not wired devices.
Oh and to answer your other question, no I don't have any extra firewalls. My router's firewall is turned off and I only run Windows firewall on my computers. The name of the anti-virus is Avast! and it doesn't come with any firewall.

 

[Halofan]

Bump.

 

[Slapshot136]

not quite sure what else you could change, could you try creating an ad-hoc network with one laptop and having the other laptop join that network?

also, on both laptops, when you go to "network settings", does it designate the network as "home"?

 

[Halofan]

Yes, they are both set as home. My mom recently bought herself a laptop, it's an Acer Aspire One and it's running Windows 7 Starter and it can't see the other laptops either. I connected mine and hers to the network over the ethernet cables and they saw each other well enough for me to add her laptop to the homegroup, but then as soon as they went back to wireless they stopped seeing each other through homegroup again.
Also, I'm not sure how to set up an AdHoc network but in order for it to work, would the laptop hosting/creating the network need to be turned on for the others to be able to connect to the Internet or see each other?

 

[Slapshot136]

creating an adhoc network = turning the computer into a router, so yes it would need to be turned on, and in order to have internet on that network the computer would need to have internet via another network (such as an Ethernet cable)

 

[Halofan]

That's what I thought. That really isn't feasible, though. Thanks for your help but I think I'm going to give up on this for a while. I've asked around and no one seems to be able to figure out what's up.