Home PC Network sees, but can\'t connect to other network pcs.

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I have 2 Windows 10 Pro 64bit machines, both running Windows v1909 Build 18363.628  At some point last week, I began getting a ‘permissions error’ on each machine when trying to connect to the other.  I’m hoping someone on the forum can see something I’m missing and walk me through the ‘fix’ required to get things operational again.

First, I’ve not made any changes (knowingly) to either machine.  No new software, AV, or configuration changes.  I’ve enabled the sharing for both public and private networks (my home network is private, but I tried moving both to public to see if that would help to no avail), and I’ve disabled password protected sharing.  I’ve insured that SMB sharing is enabled on both machines in the windows features.  I’ve insured that the following services are all set to automatically start (delayed) on both machines.

• Function Discovery Provider Host (FDPHost)
• Function Discovery Resource Publication (FDResPub)
• Network Connections (NetMan)
• UPnP Device Host (UPnPHost)
• Peer Name Resolution Protocol (PNRPSvc)
• Peer Networking Grouping (P2PSvc)
• Peer Networking Identity Manager (P2PIMSvc)

Yet, I now get this error whether I’m attempting to connect to machine 2 from machine 1 or vice versa;

Network Error

Windows cannot access \\Machine Name\drive

You do not have permission to access \\Machine Name\drive.  Contact your network administrator to request access.

I am an admin on both machines.

If anyone has any ideas, I’m all ears.  I won’t say anything disparaging about my good friends at Microsoft, but it appears that I’m not the only person having frustrations simply trying to get 2 machines at home to actually be used as a home network.  Again, I appreciate any constructive suggestions.

regards,

d

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I’m not a networking Guru but it sounds like the permissions on whatever drives or folders you are trying to share got the permissions changed. You may want to go to each drive/folder you shared and see what permissions are granted. I usually make sure that “everyone” has full permissions on each drive/folder that I share between my 4 computers.

Hope this helps

Don't take yourself so seriously, no one else does 🙂
All W10 Pro at 22H2,(2 Desktops, 1 Laptop).

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Thanks for the assistance, however, both the C, E and F drives (E & F on both machines are USB drives) have been shared, and the everyone has ‘full’ permissions.  Sorry if I hadn’t make that clear earlier.  I do appreciate the input.  Thanks.  D

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How are they networked – WiFi? Hard-wired ethernet? What brand/model of router?

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Thank you for asking.

The machines are connected via Ethernet Cat 5 (hardwired) to my Cisco Linksys EA3500 router.

I have rebooted both the cable modem AND the router (in that order) and that had no affect on the connection issues.

regards,

d

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The router could have been hacked. I had that happen. I had to reset my router back to factory defaults. I then configured a much stronger password, and I disabled all router functions which I don’t need.

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Thanks, but not sure that was possible.  I use a 24 character password, and it’s randomly generated with special characters.  Plus, I did reboot the router to see if something had gotten hung as a matter of course.  At any rate, I do appreciate you taking the time to make the suggestion.

Regards,

d

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1-Have you tried the “Troubleshoot” option in Settings>Update & Security?

2- Have you tried (Admin cmd) DISM /Online /Cleanup-Image /RestoreHealth and after running that run sfc /scannow ?

3- Have you tried (Admin cmd) chkdsk /f ?

Note: preferably run #3 first and then #2, after Troubleshooting, if it doesn’t find anything.

Don't take yourself so seriously, no one else does 🙂
All W10 Pro at 22H2,(2 Desktops, 1 Laptop).

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Hi again.  Thank you.

Yes, I’ve run the troubleshooter, and it says it can find nothing wrong.

I also have run both System File Checker / Scannow on both machines and both come up clean.  Just for giggles, I did run DISM with proper switches, and it said operation completed successfully on both devices.

I’ve not yet run chkdsk /f, but doubt there is corruption on either machine.  I’ll be happy to do so however, so no stone is unturned.

 

Regards,

d

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Can you RDP to one machine from the other? If not by name, can you RDP by IP address?

Can you access file shares by IP address – something like \\192.168.1.125\c$ for example?

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When I try to access directly via IP address, I get a ‘enter network credentials’ prompt.  Regardless of the combination of user name/password I enter, nothing works.

regards,

d

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Use computer_name\account_name & password of the machine you’re connecting TO.

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MrJimPhelps

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dwallace115 wrote:

When I try to access directly via IP address, I get a ‘enter network credentials’ prompt.  Regardless of the combination of user name/password I enter, nothing works.

regards,

d

A quick note: the fact that you’re being prompted for credentials means that the computer you’re working from “sees” the other computer when you use its IP address.

Do you have network discovery enabled on both machines?

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Good morning.  Yes, in my initial description, I indicated that I have network discovery turned on in both advanced sharing (public and private), and all related services (on both machines).  Here is a complete list of all the services that I’ve insured are activated;

• Function Discovery Provider Host (FDPHost)
• Function Discovery Resource Publication (FDResPub)
• Network Connections (NetMan)
• UPnP Device Host (UPnPHost)
• Peer Name Resolution Protocol (PNRPSvc)
• Peer Networking Grouping (P2PSvc)
• Peer Networking Identity Manager (P2PIMSvc)

Again, thank you for your assistance.

d

1 user thanked author for this post.

jabeattyauditor

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this gave an interesting reply.  something about multiple connections with the same user not being allowed.  And is the account name the Microsoft account and Microsoft password, or the local name and password?

regards,

d

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Well, no joy with either combo.  I tried the computer name\user account then on the password line I tried both the local password and the microsoft password.  Neither made the network happy.  Again, thanks for the added suggestions.

regards,

d

 

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Look in Event Viewer, under Security, to see what is being reported.

cheers, Paul

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thank you Paul.  I’m in new territory here.  it appears to be about a 20mb file, and when I look at security, I see a very long list of ‘audit’ functions.  There are a few logons mentioned, but no failures or ‘failed attempts’ at logon.  Is there something specific I can search for to identify the issue?  Thank you again,

Regards,

d

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Audit is the right thing, but you haven’t found any failed logins, which implies there was no attempt – machine not found?
Any errors in the System log?

cheers, Paul

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Hi Paul,

When I filter the security log on ‘critical, warning, or error’, nothing comes up.  That is what is confusing to me.  I’ve tried multiple times with different combinations of credentials to reach my other machine, so there should be a least an error of some sort showing it didn’t connect, shouldn’t there?

regards,

d

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I assume you can ping by IP but not by name – is that correct?

Is your DNS client service running? If you hard-code entries in your hosts files, can you see your shares?

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Try this in a Command Prompt.
net view

You should see all machines on the network.

cheers, Paul

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KP

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Thanks Paul,

When I enter net view from a command prompt, I do see (as expected) the Cisco router, machine 1 and machine 2.  And, as I’ve mentioned, the machines are both listed in the network view in explorer. (from either machine).

Again, the thing that is puzzling is that this all worked fine prior to the last MS Windows update in January.  Something that MS did ‘broke’ the connectivity between my 2 machines, but getting them to admit that, let alone fix it is a far stretch.

I do appreciate and am grateful for the assistance.

regards,

d

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I have had problems with network connectivity after installing a Microsoft update.

The problem was a 3rd party Anti-Virus program.

Check out at my original post https://www.askwoody.com/forums/topic/losing-internet-connectivity/#post-1913883 .

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Thanks for the suggestion.  I have ‘reset’ all my adapters and reset the network on both machines to no avail.  I don’t have any 3rd party AV running on either machine.  I use Windows defender (real time) and once a day run Malwarebytes stand alone to check for malicious software.  No Norton or McAfee or any other 3rd party AV software running on either device.  (too many issues in the past).  Thank you though for your suggestion.

Reaching the end of my rope here.  It simply shouldn’t be this difficult for an OS (same version and build) on 2 machines to talk to each other.  It’s frustrating and infuriating that Microsoft can be so belligerent regarding breaking something and then not making it a priority to fix it.  I’ve read countless reports of others in blogs where essentially the same thing has happened, and it’s taken literally years to fix.

regards,

d

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You said in your first post that you disabled password protected sharing.

I’ve found that always has to be on, and the same username account has to be installed on both computers, with the same password.

Then I connect using the UNC path on a shortcut I create   looks like this

\\DESKTOP-D8DDHS5

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Thank you Vincenzo.  If I understand your post correctly, you are suggesting that I add a user account to one of the machines so it’s duplicated on both.  (could be the user from machine 1 put on machine 2 or vice versa.  At least that way the same account appears on both.  Then enable password protected sharing and log on to the ‘remote’ machine via UNC which has machine name-username?

 

regards,

d

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I’ve always found “Password protected sharing” had to be on as well.

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Me too

Don't take yourself so seriously, no one else does 🙂
All W10 Pro at 22H2,(2 Desktops, 1 Laptop).

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dwallace115 wrote:

could be the user from machine 1 put on machine 2 or vice vers

Any valid local user will work given the correct permissions. No need to add the same account on both machines.

cheers, Paul

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Paul (et al),

Thank you for your comments and kind suggestions, however, I’m no closer to getting the 2 machines (which had been working perfectly fine prior to January’s ‘patch Tuesday update), to actually connect again.

It seems to me that as long as you have the appropriate shares named, and appropriate sharing functionality enabled, it shouldn’t be any more complex than that.  For some reason, the fine folks at Microsoft have created a monster in the OS that even their own staff can’t locate and kill.

At this point, I give up, and will simply use TeamViewer or some other remote product to connect and share files between the 2 machines.  Perhaps a future patch Tuesday will untangle the web created last month.

Again, thanks to all that took the trouble to respond.

Regards,

d

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dwallace115 wrote:

Thank you Vincenzo.  If I understand your post correctly, you are suggesting that I add a user account to one of the machines so it’s duplicated on both.  (could be the user from machine 1 put on machine 2 or vice versa.  At least that way the same account appears on both.  Then enable password protected sharing and log on to the ‘remote’ machine via UNC which has machine name-username?

 

regards,

d

Yes

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I’ve tried installing my user on my wife’s machine and then her user on my machine.  Neither option seems to work.  I still get the same permissions notification.

 

regards,

d

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dwallace115 wrote:

Again, the thing that is puzzling is that this all worked fine prior to the last MS Windows update in January.

You could try uninstalling the January patches.

Win 10 home - 22H2
Attitude is a choice...Choose wisely

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[CalixtoWVR1]

dwallace115 wrote:

I’ve tried installing my user on my wife’s machine and then her user on my machine.  Neither option seems to work.  I still get the same permissions notification.

 

regards,

d

I don’t know if it is too late or your issue has already been resolved, but after reading all the suggestions made in the different posts, one very important thing seems to have been left unnoticed. If you go to CP (Control Panel) > Windows Defender Firewall > Allow an app or feature through WD Firewall > Change Settings > Scroll down to “Remote Desktop” and ma ke sure there is a tick before it, and then click on OK at the bottom of the screen. Restart your machine and try again the remote connection.

I have been through this before with just a small network of two machines just like in your case, and that tick in front of Remote Desktop and “File and Printer sharing” in Change  advanced sharing Settings for private network being “On” have saved my bacon. The same thing has to be done for both machines.

• This reply was modified 3 years, 3 months ago by CalixtoWVR1.

1 user thanked author for this post.

jabeattyauditor

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Thanks.  I’ll verify, but to answer your question, MS actually spent 2.5 hours on the phone with me (no charge), because they told me I had done everything right, but manually had to go into each subdirectory and insure that it was shared with ‘everyone’ to do what I wanted to do.  So I’m up and running, but it’s a hobbled solution.

Again, thanks.  I’ll confirm and let you know how the settings are set.

regards,

d

1 user thanked author for this post.

Elly

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Hello dwallace, don’t know if you ever got this sorted, but was having the same issue. I knew I was putting in my username and password correctly. I used several combinations of paths to login, Home-PC\username  \\Home-PC\username  and only entering username and other attempts. Finally, I thought I would try my IP address, that didn’t work either. However, after opening Command Prompt on  the computer I was attempting to access, I noticed that it opened to C:\Users\Home and NOT TO MY USERNAME. So, I tried by using Home as my user name and my normal password … Voila! It worked.

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I’ve spent a day and half trying troubleshooting this and your solution worked for me instantly. I opened the Command Prompt (NOT as an Administrator) on the laptop I could not access. “C:\Users\User” was displayed. I activated the password requirement in the Advanced Sharing Settings under the All Networks section. I then attempted to access laptop from a desktop on my local network. I used “User” as the username and entered the password I used to access the laptop. Abra-ka-fricken-dabra!!! Thanks so much for posting your solution here!

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Microsoft doesn’t make easy these days regarding Network Discovery.

I have not try with a whole drive, but I shared a Desktop adding «NETWORK» (in French RESEAU) with full control, with «Everyone» (which doesn’t seem to work).

I reach the latter computer directly with his IP address, something like 192.168.0.xxx with the correct name/password of that machine.

Works for me.

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I also was having network problems after the Jan update and was at a wits end when I came across a network tool that just seemed to work , I am in no way affiliated with this company just an end user. Its not free but there are so many confusing settings in win 10 networking I just gave up trying to do it on my own .Anyway I bought this tool and ran it and after the reboot all was good in the network again .

The best thing about it is the time it saves with having to chase down and configure settings that I didnt really understand .  Might be worth a go.

https://www.d7xtech.com/uncle-careys-windows-10-netfix/

 

 

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That utility is $20. There does not appear to be a free / trial version.

cheers, Paul

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satjulien wrote:

Microsoft doesn’t make easy these days regarding Network Discovery

I gave up any attempt of sharing after switching to Windows 10 1803 from Windows 7.
Homegroup is gone and some other features.
To access drives on my network I assign fix IP to devices and use the IP address for direct access.

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I think I’m in a similar situation, so maybe I can help here. For my home network, I have a mix of Linux, Win 7 and Win 10 (Pro 1909/Enterprise) computers. Since this is a small number of computers behind a natted router, I don’t use/need ADS, so I set up a private workgroup with all computers having the same workgroup name.

Now what I did next is frowned upon by Microsoft for security reasons (they’re right):

“For computers running Windows Vista (and newer) that are members of a workgroup, these administrative shares exist but are blocked for network access for security reasons. You can create your own shares to share your drives from the root of the drive, but Microsoft highly recommends that you share only the folders that you need to, rather than the entire drive.”

I understand Microsoft’s reasoning. Allowing whole disk shares (e.g. admin shares) could be disastrous in the case of ransomware, for example. It could traverse the network with ease. However, many users (like me) believe that we should be able to do stupid things if we choose to.

When setting up a new Win 10 Pro computer that I built, I wanted to robocopy multiple drive contents from a Win 7 Ultimate computer to the new build. To do this, I needed whole disk access to three drives (shares). Here’s what I did:

1) Made sure that computers had the same workgroup name for the private network.
2) Created the same local account admin user (me) on both computers.
3) On the new computer, I created pseudo whole disk admin shares.

By “pseudo”, I mean “\\Amd-3800x\c” and not “\\Amd-3800x\c$”. This is done through the disk properties “Sharing” (tab) interface (right click the drive/volume you want to share):

1) Click “Advanced Sharing” and then check “Share this folder”.
2) For the “Share name”, use the appropriate drive letter (C, D, E, etc)
3) Click the “Permissions” button and then “Add”.
4) From there, work through the confusing GUI to add the users, group(s) or whatever you use and give “Full Control”.
5) For the “Everyone” group, make sure you give no more than read permissions.
6) Reboot the Win 10 computer.

On the 2nd computer, Network discovery should now display the computer name (e.g AMD-3800x) and the shares you created (c, d, e, f, etc) on the Win 10 computer. Just please be cognizant of the security ramifications of whole disk shares.

As a final note, you may have to have to check your Anti-virus software. I use Norton Internet Security which doesn’t interfere with this configuration. If you can’t get shares to work, you may have to do some registry tweaks.

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Elly

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Forgot to mention that you should enable “File and Printer Sharing for Microsoft Networks” on the Win 10 computer.

You can also create hidden shares if you choose (better for security) or enable access to built-in admin shares through GPO (Pro+ only), command line, or registry tweak (although I don’t know for certain if this still works).

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Carl,

Thank you very much for the thorough and clear explanation.  I’ll give that a try tomorrow and circle back with you and let you know if I succeeded.

I was able to get ‘limping’ along by insuring that ‘everyone’ had full rights in every sub-directory on each machine.  This was tedious and time consuming and certainly shouldn’t have been necessary.  (Just another ‘undocumented feature’ from our friends at MS).  Simply using the advanced sharing via the OS file explorer tabs along with sharing from each machine should have done the trick.  It always used to.

Again, thank you very much.

regards,

d

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Elly

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Guys, I have tried everything that has been posted – including the $20 fix – nothing has worked.  I have several NAS devices, video servers, four networked computers, and two DROBO devices.  I can SEE everything on my network (sometimes goes away, and have to adjust network sharing after Microsoft Update resets it), but for the past few weeks I can no longer access the DROBO’s from Explorer.  I see the last recommendation is to adjust the shares, but if you cannot access them, cannot play with the shares either.  The DROBO software can see them, and if I map a share through Drobo I can sometimes access, but I don’t want all these drive letters when I really just want to browse the whole drive.

I have attached a picture where you can see that Explorer knows that the DROBO’s are there, and then the error message when I try to open one of them.

Would greatly appreciate a new idea, as I said, have tried everything previously posted.

 

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twplunkett wrote:

Guys, I have tried everything that has been posted

Is SMB 1 ON ?

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Get the IP of the Drobo box and try browsing to that, e.g. \\192.168.0.41

cheers, Paul

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Yes, SMB1 is on

 

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I wonder if it’s corruption of previously-stored credentials, hence the ‘permissions’ errors?

The easiest way to check is to retype the access password or – if that fails to resolve the issue – remove the stored credentials completely and re-do them.

1. On both devices, press the WIN key+e together to open File Explorer then copy/paste the following into the address line and click OK:

explorer shell:::{1206F5F1-0569-412C-8FEC-3204630DFB70}

(For screenshot purposes it’s just easier to do it this way due to the truncated text entry box in the Run dialog. Both methods work exactly the same.)

2. When Credential Manager opens, click on the icon for Windows Credentials:

Your stored credentials (the username/password combos) will show against the computername.

3. Click on the dropdown to display the editing area and select Edit to retype just the access password or Remove for the credential to be deleted (so you can input the username/password combo again when you next try to access the other device and its resources).

4. Once you have made any changes, exit Credential Manager on both devices and try accessing each other’s resources again.

PS – I have a mixed environment so have had to reduce the complexity of the password used for file sharing from the default 128-bit.:

Hope this helps…

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Elly

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Thank you for the suggestion about credentials, but neither of the two Drobo’s nor their IP addresses are stored in the list… so I don’t think it is possible to have a password mismatch.

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Rick Corbett wrote:

1. On both devices, press the WIN key+e together to open File Explorer then copy/paste the following into the address line and click OK: explorer shell:::{1206F5F1-0569-412C-8FEC-3204630DFB70}

I don’t get credential manager – it runs a shortcut on my Desktop. (W8.1)

cheers, Paul

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Thank you all for the suggestions… as I replied above SMB1 was on.  Using Explorer to get to the IP address, and then saving it in quick access, seems to be the the solution I needed!  I will test the other options suggested and report back, but for now I have something that works.

Appreciate the help, especially the quick responses 🙂

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Elly

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Paul T wrote:

I don’t get credential manager – it runs a shortcut on my Desktop. (W8.1)

Unfortunately it’s a Win 10-only CLSID.

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Elly

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This is more for people like me that have been stuck trying to resolve the “Enter Network Credentials” pop up box rather than the OP who seems to have a workaround. It’s probably been mentioned above already but my head hurts so I’ll just post what worked for me. The last two things I did was to tick the server box in the SMB 1.0 (which was the only one unticked) in the host PC (already ticked in the destination PC) and then in the Enter Network Credentials pop up window enter the name of the PC/Username (MyPC/hotblack) as the Username and then enter the password of the PC I’m trying to connect to. I had previously resolved network connection issues by changing both PC’s to Microsoft account logons but this was no longer working so changed both PC’s back to local user accounts. Somewhere in there I did something right and I was able to get access the the shared folders on the destination PC. That’s 6 hours I won’t get back. 🙁

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