HomeGroup Problem

DSL modem feeding a LinkSys router; one computer using Windows 7 Home Premium 32-bit, the other 64-bit.

A few days ago, I enabled wireless on the router, and both computers can access the Internet.

I then started working on setting up a HomeGroup, to share files, printers, etc, and that is where I've encountered problems, namely that the two computers won't talk to each other.

I followed the fine step-by-step HomegGoup setup instructions I found under the rubric of "Ultimate Troubleshooting Guide for Windows 7 Homegroup." In addition, based on information on the Comodo forums, I created a Trusted Network at 192.168.1.1 and 255.255.255.0, the first set being the LinkSys Router.

The last test I conducted was to disable Comodo in the Windows startup group on both computers, rebooted, and tried HomeGroup again. Both computers show that they are members of a HomeGroup, using the same password, but even with Comodo disabled--or so I thought--the two computers won't talk to each other.

With Comdo supposedly disabled, however, the Windows Action Center on both computers shows that both the Windows Fire Wall and Comodo Firewall are active.

I thought that the Comodo Trusted Network I had set up would allow inter-computer communications, and I also thought that disabling Comodo and restarting would allow HomeGroup to work.

Alas, so far, no luck; assistance gladly accepted.

Lots of views, no replies, so I'm going to post one: Am I correct that the router has to support IPv6 in order for Homegroups to work? If so, an on-line search a few minutes ago would indicate that a Linksys WRT54GL does not do so.

Just to close this thread: Yesterday, I stumbled across the solution to the problem: The two computers had the same name, which is not permissible. I added a 1 to one of the two computer's names, and now HomeGroup works.

Yes, it was that simple, and, no, I never found such information in any of the various MS documents I read, nor anywhere in all the other documents read. Windows is supposed to present an error message when networking encounters same-named computers, but apparently does not bother to do so for HomeGroups.

I found the solution by Googling "HomeGroup Problems"; the very first link had been posted by someone who had encountered the same problem that I had, found the solution, and even mentioned the failure of HomeGroups to post an error message.

This was rather frustrating, yet eventually easily resolved.