I have 2 computer in setup in home network, setup homegroup and it works fine from both computer. On one computer, I changed the windows 7 firewall to block the outbound traffic in the private profile. This cause the homegroup to show "No other homegroup computers are currently available". If I allow the outbound traffic and run the homegroup troubleshooting tool, homegroup shows up correctly again. What rules do I need to add to make homegroup to work? Thanks.

So why are you wanting to block outbound traffic in the private network? What am I missing?MS-MVP Windows Desktop Experience, "When all else fails, read the instructions"

A habbit brought over when I switched from zonealarm to vista/windows7 firewall. I have my own outbound rules to control which applications get access. Is it more secure? maybe. It certainly helps me find out which application needs internet access and helps me learn what's needed for certain processes. I tried going through each of the outbound rules in HomeGroup and Firewall Interaction but could not locate anything. What am I missing?

Hi,Based on my research, I would like to explain that most of Windows Firewall Interactions are necessary to HomeGroup components, such as detection, printer sharing, media streaming and so on. After joining a HomeGroup, the system is already protected by firewall and we need not control Outbound rules again. The detail Firewall Interaction is already listed from your link above.Thanks,Novak

I enabled the outbound firewall protection for some other purposes, not trying to protect homegroup. Using the document, I went through all the outbound rules that apply to either all or private traffics and they are all enabled. That's what puzzling me. Is this just me, or can you reproduce this condition (simply block the outbound traffic in private network and reboot)? I have tried this on both the machines and got the same behavior. Thanks.

Hi DarrickIvy,u can set block rules for only domain and private for example..lets say my interface is set to public network,i want to create secured rules for IE8,what i do is create the IE8 rule based on the application(iexplore.exe) then i start setting restrictions like : i allow only secure connections,only ports 80,443,i used Ip addresses scope for better precision and add the computers allowed only a,d then i choose that rule only for Public interface and click OK...Rule s done!then i create another IE8 rule based on the same application and simply set to block it all any/any/any/any on Domain/Private interfaces...so hope this helps,RR

Ddos_Evader, by default, there are a bunch of outbound rules that have been enabled in windows firewall. I went through them and compare them to the HomeGroup and Firewall Interaction document. All the required outbound rules for all and private traffics are enabled by default. If there is a specific rule that I need to set, please let me know.Can anyone reproduce this? Thank you.

Yes, I can.For what it's worth, I'm having exactly the same problem (enabling the outbound rules for the Private Profile stops Homegroup from working).If you Google "windows 7 homegroup firewall outbound", you will see that other users are having the same experience too...I have enabled firewall logging and see that [SEND]IPV6 TCP packets toour other Win7 PCare being dropped, destination port3587. The "HomeGroup Allow Out 3587" Rule specifies %systemroot%\system32\svchost.exe can communicate to port 3587 on the local subnet.Clearly another Windows component is also trying to usedestination port3587, and is blocked.Unfortunately, the Windows Firewall log does not tell me which component(s) of Windows is (are) trying to talk to this port :-)