Windows 7 Fixing Homegroup Connection Issues with Acer and Dell Laptops Using Linksys Extender on Windows 7

[John N]

I have a Acer Extensa 4620Z laptop running Win 7 Home Premium that connects to a Linksys wireless extender. I also have a Dell net book with Win 7 Starter that connects to the same Linksys network without the extender.I have trouble connecting to the Win 7 Homegroup. If I remove the extender and have both computers connecting to the basic Linksys wireless connection, Homegroup works. The extender has the same network name as the Linksys wireless conection.

Does any one know how to fix this problem?

 

[Trouble]

First take a look at the IP addressing scheme that you get on the Acer Extensa when it's connected to the Linksys wireless connection and then compare that to the same information you get when you're connected to the Linksys wireless extender and see if there is any unusual differences. The problem may be that because, Homegroups require IPv6, and perhaps the extender is having problems with that, you may check and see if there is a firmware upgrade for the extender, might help?

 

[John N]

If both Acer and Dell computers are in range of the Extender, Homegroup works.

JN

 

[Trouble]

OK., that certainly would indicate that the extender supports IPv6, so we are back to the original point of making sure that the ip addressing scheme is consistent, no matter which device you're connected to. When one is connected to the wireless router and the other to the extender, can you ping in both directions, one to the other and back, by ipaddress and by name?

 

[John N]

The Ip address of the extender is : IP4 192.168.1.101
IP6 fe80::4446

The Ip address of the netbook connecting to the basic Linksys is:IP4 192.168.1.100
:IP6 fe80::194

I am not sure how to ping my computers.

JN

 

[John N]

I could ping from my Acer on the Linksys extender to the Dell Netbook on the basic Linksys wireless router but not from the basic router to the extender.

 

[Trouble]

Wow, it sounds like perhaps the extender may be doing some inbound mac or ip filtering. Go into the web interface on the extender and make sure that if it's capable of handing out DHCP that it is not handing out DHCP information that is conflicting with the information that I assume is being given out by the Linksys router.... as a matter of testing, you could try and hard coding the ip address into both the Acer and Dell for the time being, thereby eliminating any potential conflicts, assuming private reserved something like 192.168.1.nnn, subnet mask 255.255.255.0 default gateway the inside edge of the linksys, something like 192.168.1.1 and DNS servers 8.8.8.8 and 8.8.4.4 try it and keep us posted.

 

[John N]

When I go to the Network Connections, It shows all of my computers. I am able to access the Acer computer on the extender. This must be a problem with Homegroups.

 

[Trouble]

From your first post, I understood that if both computers were using the Linksys, that home groups were ok...from your second post, acutally the third in this thread I understood that if both computers were using the extender, that home groups were ok... from your 4th post #6 in this thread, I understood that you could ping from the device on the extender, to the device on the Linksys router but not the other way around. This made me believe that perhaps the extender was blocking either ports, protocols, ip address, or mac addresses. Since some access points which I assume is what we've been calling an extender can have almost as many setting as a router and can often be set not to forward certain protocols, etc. I thought that that might actually be the case and was causing your homegroups issues. I actually still think it's something like that, since there is actually no real problems inherent in homegroups per se, except they can be generally annoying and I've actually written a couple of posts, that bordered on a rant making my general distaste for homegroups evident. If you're interested, you can read one of them here Link Removed