Hi Don,

Since you have a mixture of Win7 and Win8, you need to follow this link for sharing files and printers:

http://windows.microsoft.com/en-us/windows/sharing-files-printers-help#sharing-files-and-printers=windows-7&v1h=win81tab1&v2h=win7tab1&v3h=winvistatab1&v4h=winxptab1

Hope it helps.

My home network is similar to yours in ther diagram except that I have a wired TP_Link access point located at the other end of the house to deal with wireless “interference” (a hot water cylinder) in the middle of the house. My preferred configuration is a wired network but I could go completely wireless if I wished. The Internet connection is via telephone line into a VDSL broadband router. Ethernet cables connect directly from it to two laptops and a tablet. An Ethernet cable links to the access point from which another cable links to a laptop at the other end of the house. The access point is also linked by Ethernet cables to a television and BluRay player.

The network options I have are “Homegroup” and “Network” as shown on the left of Windows File Explorer. My difficulty is that I can’t configure either of these options on the network to access all files and printers from each of the PCs even though all four are “visible” in File Explorer on each one. I feel I need to remove the present messy configurations and start again from scratch, avoiding “Homegroup” if possible. In the past I used a programme called Cisco Network Magic which was brilliant but it’s been discontinued and I can’t find a similar replacement.

Apart from one PC (Windows 7), the rest are Windows 8.

Any advice you can offer will be most welcome.

Thank you.

Don Hutton