I had a Win7 Ultimate 64-bit machine nicely networked with a WinXP machine. Then I tried to add another Win7 Ultimate machine to the same network and something went haywire. My home network is a work network because one of the machines is XP and I read somewhere that you can’t have an XP machine on a home network. Before I added the new Win7 machine, both machines showed up under one network named “Sneakers”, which I named after my cat. It showed up that way on both the XP and the “old” Win7 machine and everything was fine. Since I added the new Win7 machine, however, it shows up under “Workgroups” on the WinXP machine although it shows up correctly under “Sneakers” in the old Win7 machine. It seems to be working OK, but I’m afraid that having dual networks will mess things up. How can I make the WinXP machine see it under “Sneakers”?

Okay, I'll give this one a shot... First of all, let's get some common terminology going: Networking on NT/2000/XP/Vista has two modes, Workgroup and Domain - the home versions of XP/Vista only support Workgroup. Windows 7 has what amounts to three modes: Workgroup, Domain and Homegroup. The home versions of Windows 7 only support Workgroup and Homegroup. In order for Homegroup to function properly, all machines on the network must be Windows 7. In other words, if you are not on a domain and your network has a mixture of operating systems, you must use Workgroup in order for the computers to "see" each other properly. Now I suspect one of two things - your second Windows 7 machine isn't set up for the proper Workgroup (Sneakers), or you managed to somehow set up a Homegroup on that machine and also name it "Sneakers". That said, if everything seems to be working properly except for the names, I suggest you leave it be with the old caveat "If it ain't broke, don't fix it!".

I really appreciate your willingness to help on this. Actually, there are more symptoms. It is “broke” and I still don’t have a solution. Either of your possibilities could be accurate, but I don’t know how to pin it down. I would like to delete the network on the new machine and re-install it, but I haven’t been able to find a way to delete a network connection once it is set up. Can you help me with this? Here are some other symptoms: · All 3 computers have one other connection named “NPI2BFF03”. I have no idea what that is. I have 2 other devices on my home network (printer and PS3). I have never seen them under “Sneakers” before and I don’t think I am supposed to, but I thought one of them might be NPI2BFF03. So I turned them both off, and I still see NPI2BFF03 on all computers. If I open NPI2BFF03, it shows up empty. · On the XP machine, NPI2BFF03 shows up grouped with the new Win7 machine under “Workgroups” with the new machine – not under “Sneakers” with the XP machine and the old Win7 machine. I should have mentioned this before. Sorry. It seemed like a small problem and I didn’t want to make my post too long, but I believe now that it is probably a major clue to this situation. · “Workgroups” doesn’t show up on either Win7 machine. Everything on both Win7 machines shows up under “Sneakers”. I think you already know that. I’m just making sure. · I can’t see .exe files on the old Win7 machine from either the new Win7 machine or the XP machine. I see the .exe files just fine looking the other way -- from the old Win7 machine to either the XP machine or the new Win7 machine. This is probably just a setting anomaly I haven’t been able to find yet, but it may be relevant to this. If it isn’t relevant and you happen to know the answer, please share it. Thanks!!

This is going to take a little while, so bear with me on this. First, we need to go over a few things: How is each device connected to your network, wired or wireless? If wireless, are you using any sort of encryption (WEP, WPA...)? I'm asking because "NP12BFF03" looks like it could be a network printer connection, and if so we can safely ignore it for the moment. Now we need to verify that all the computers are set up to use the same Workgroup. On the Windows 7 machines: Click on the Windows Orb. Right click on Computer. Click on Properties. In the left pane of the window that pops up, click on Advanced system settings. Click on the Computer Name tab. Click the Change button. Verify that Workgroup is selected and that it says "Sneakers". If so, just cancel all the way back out. If not, change the Workgroup to "Sneakers" and click OK all the way back out; you'll need to reboot if you made any changes. On the XP machine the procedure is basically the same except substitute Start Button for Windows Orb. We'll stop here for the moment so I'm not throwing too much at you at once. After you do this, we'll continue with checking your Homegroup and Sharing settings on the Windows 7 machines.

Bob! You nailed it! I greatly appreciate your patience. This one was over my head. I used your method for renaming the network, and things got better. Also, my problem with invisible .exe files turned out to be a sharing problem. I was fooling myself about it applying only to .exe files. I’m doing fine now. Just in case you are interested in tying up all the loose ends, here’s the end result: · The Win7 machines work perfectly. · The WinXP machine still shows “Workgroups”, but there is nothing in it. That’s a genuine “If it ain’t broke – Don’t fix it.” WinXP now shows all computers under “Sneakers”. · Just in case it matters, it’s Npi… instead of Np1… Npi… surprised me by not being there. When I began this session (and before I renamed the network) I had both the printer and the PS3 off, and Npi… wasn’t there. I turned the printer on, and it still didn’t show up. I turned the PS3 on, and it showed up. I turned the printer off, and it was still there. I turned the PS3 off, and it stayed. With both of them off, I could still see Npi… when I refreshed my network display on all machines. How’s that for confusion? Maybe the PS3 capacitors store voltage to its network card for a long time after shutdown. Anyway, it’s gone now. Thanks LOADS!!!!!

I'm glad it's working properly now. The reason that the PS3 didn't disappear when you shut it off is that one of your machines, probably the XP box, is functioning as something known as the "Browse Master". This machine keeps a table of all available network resources and broadcasts them to the other machines on your network. When you take a resource offline, such as your PS3, it can take up to 45 minutes (usually much less) for the Browse Master to update its tables, so the "missing" resource will still appear as available even though it actually isn't. This is normal behavior.

It's nice to know that. The more I understand, the less time I waste fighting windmills.