SOLVED Cannot join a Homegroup

[TrainableMan]

I'm glad you posted it; it may help someone else in the future.

 

[pmshah]

You mean you ASSUMED that anyone trying to create it ..... Thats why I pointed out in the beginning that I was a rookie, in case it was something simple. But as other people also are not experts, I posted my solution to help others. Good luck, thanks.

Pardon me if I offended you in any way. I guess I assumed too much . But I still stand by my statement that joining Home group is a Hit or Miss kind of situation. Although my 2nd PC could see the Homegroup created on 1st PC and offered to join, it failed miserably even after several attempts and rebooting cycles. However The change in the advanced sharing properties made everything available, even from an XP laptop thru wifi and that too without joining any home group.