Alternative to homegroup

Windows homegroup has been a bear to work with so Id like to know if theres some device or software you would recommend over the homegroup.
I saw something on amazon that connects to the wireless router, then all of the files can be easily retrieved/edited. I need something fast.

I use Workgroup instead of Homegroup. It's the same sharing setup that was used in XP and works the same way. You pick what you want to share with who and at what level of access, Read, Write, Run.

Workgroup can have any name you want to use. In XP days, it was called MSHOME foe XP Home and WORKGROUP for XP Pro. To share, each computer must have the same workgrou0p name.

is it much more responsive? homegroup on my computer either works sometimes or doesnt... which gets aggravating. And its not only my computer that it is slow on.

I find it very responsive and reliable between a Win 8.1 Pro X64 system with a Gigabyte network card, a Windows 7 Pro X64 system with a Gigabyte network card and a Toshiba Laptop running Win 10 Pro X64 with a wireless N network chip, all connecting through a Netgear WNDR3700v4 router.

Workgroup doesnt workout for me, my associates and I have our own laptops with our own files. In order to make a workgroup, we would all have to make a new account with the same username correct? Then I wont be able to retrieve the files on my main account.

The best thing if you have a group needing to share files, get a NAS or Cloud Share that files can be kept in. Keeping them on a laptop, means that if someone's hard drive goes bad, then away goes important documents.

Thanks Broe this is exactly what I'm looking for! Which NAS do you use if any?
I'm looking into: Amazon.com: WD My Cloud 4TB Personal Cloud Storage - NAS (WDBCTL0040HWT-NESN): Computers & Accessories

chargersrool said:

Workgroup doesnt workout for me, my associates and I have our own laptops with our own files. In order to make a workgroup, we would all have to make a new account with the same username correct? Then I wont be able to retrieve the files on my main account.

Click to expand...

Sort of When you access a computer with a different userid you will be prompted for valid username and password for that computer. You can share userids and passwords around (not a good idea) or setup a special userid on each computer that always has the same password. It can be an Administrator or Standard userid, depending on your needs. No one would login with that userid, it would just be there for sharing purposes. That's the userid and password you would use for sharing.

Hookey but cheaper than a NAS, though a NAS is definitely the way to go.

I would not even touch that one. I use a Lenovo ix1-4, which can be upgraded to 2 TB in Raid 1.

The Western Digital units have just had too many issues.