Please help newbie- Win 8 and Win 7 won't connect

I recently bought 4 computers, thinking that the latest technology would let me connect those by a wire in a minutes. Big wrong. ( I was trying to make a small office setting where I could store photo data in one computer and retrieve them by other three smaller computers after the wired connection and installing a commercial database program. ) My plan just wrecked in the first step.


I am an average joe and not a computer savvy guy, but I tried every possible way that I learned from internet and basic Windows 7 and Windows 8 manual.

Window 8 is the main computer with a lot of memory reserve. Three other computers are based windows 7.

I have reset TCP/IPv4 for each computers with the same IP address,
192.168.0.11
192.168.0.12
192.168.0.13
192.168.0.14
respectively.

and
subnet mask all the same as 255.255.255.0

I physically connected all the computers with 10/100/100 auto switch in the middle.

Then, I switched off the firewalls for the private network (not the public one) for all the computers.
Then, I set up a homegroup.

Then.....nothing happens.

If I open up a home group on Window 8 first, Window 7 won't recognize it and it let me open another homegroup on its own. not recognizing, not connecting each other.


If I open up a homegroup on Window 7 first, Window 8 won't recognize as if nothing happened, and let me open another homegroup on its own.

I have read most of the microsoft tutorial forum sites but they all describe the connection as if it is a piece of cake........maybe it is for IT guys.....sob.

After spending frustration week, I came through anger stage, and nervous stage, and finally dumb stage. I don't know why microsoft makes things more complicated with their new product, not simpler.


Would you please give me some guidance ? At least, I ordered some books about networking in Amazon.




Thanks.

I think you may be over thinking this a bit. It's easier than you think.

You do not want to mess with the firewall here at all, there is no need too, in fact the less settings you mess with the better.

You will need to turn on Network Discovery and File and Printer sharing for the Private network in the Advanced Sharing settings, via the Network and Sharing Center.

Besides that, creating and joining the Homegroup is about the easiest thing you can do.

Don't be confused by all the warning and pictures in the link below, it's nearly impossible not to create a Homegroup as Windows does this nearly automatically. I would go with Option 2 and create and join the Homegroup from the Control Panel.

http://www.eightforums.com/tutorials/15824-homegroup-create-windows-8-a.html

http://www.eightforums.com/tutorials/15831-homegroup-join-windows-8-a.html

The following link has a Homegroup trouble shooter that might help. Any questions let me know.
Ultimate Troubleshooting Guide for Windows 7 HomeGroup Connection Issues - Help Desk Geek

did you make sure all of the pc's have the same time and date? And are you signing in to the windows 8 machine with a microsoft live account? I had sharing on between 3 pc's and I couldnt access anything shared... I had all my settings correct and all my permissions correct in my microsoft live account and as soon as I signed in with a local account on the 8 machine I had no problems...