Windows 7 introduces HomeGroups to make it easier for end-users to securely network two or more computers, however homegroups are not without their problems.
I am trying to share BCM within a homegroup. I have gone through the wizard multiple times to set up the sharing of the database but the when I try to access on the remote computer I keep getting the error that no shared databases can be found. I tried the instructions/troubleshooting steps several times but still cannot access it. I tried to create a dummy database on the remote PC and try to access with database on the main PC but got the same error again.
The problem is the homegroup. You'll need to disable it if you want to share the BCM database over a network.
Open the Network and Sharing Center, click the Homegroup link and click the button to disable the homegroup.
If you receive an error that the homegroup can't be deleted because Peer Networking Grouping service isn't running, you need to delete the idstore.sst file that is located at
%SystemRoot%\serviceProfiles\LocalService\AppData\Roaming\PeerNetworking
Paste the line in the Start search field or address bar of Windows Explorer. If you receive an Access Denied error, paste only %SystemRoot%\serviceProfiles\ then browse down the folder list to the PeerNetworking folder and delete the contents of the folder.
After deleting the folder contents, open Administrator Tools, Services and stop the HomeGroupProvider service then restart it.
More Information
In my own experience, homegroups will prevent you from connecting to network folders unless the server is also in the homegroup. They may also prevent you from using Remote Desktop Connections to access another computer on your network. For these reasons, I do not use Homegroups.
Bill says
Not helpful…symptoms changed slightly …then the search puts me in a loop saying the passwords don’t match or asks if I want to change the local or remote passwords.. to logon to the host. Then finally returning to “no shared BCM Database exists on the host” .