Networked Windows 10 computers cannot see each other.

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I have a desktop computer (Bert) and a laptop (Ernie).  They both use Windows 10 Pro with all the updates.  I want the ability to freely transfer files between them like I used to be able to do.  They are connected through a switch which also connects to a half-dozen network hard drives.  Each computer can see all the hard drives–they just can’t see each other.

I have literally spent hours on the internet, jumping through all kinds of hoops and changing all kinds of settings, even re-installing Windows 10 on the laptop.  Whatever I do they steadfastly refuse to acknowledge the other’s existence with the exception that Ernie can see Bert as a media device but cannot read any of the media on it.

I have been fighting with this on and off for weeks and I’m getting so frustrated.  It used to work!

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[doriel]

hello and wellcome! I suggest you do this:
1) Put both computers into same Workgroup (This PC -> Properities -> Put same Workgroup name on both computers). This will join them together.
2) Create shared folders, or you can share whole partition too
(Rightclick the folder/partition you want to share, go to tab “Sharing” and check the box “Share this folder”)

After this is done, you should see the shared folders on your network.
Lets start with this, then we can move on. This initial setup should help you, then you can decide, if you want just read or read and write from shared folders. But one step at a time.

Let us know, if it went OK. Here is Youtube Video to help enable the function.

Dell Latitude 3420, Intel Core i7 @ 2.8 GHz, 16GB RAM, W10 22H2 Enterprise

HAL3000, AMD Athlon 200GE @ 3,4 GHz, 8GB RAM, Fedora 29

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• This reply was modified 2 years, 2 months ago by doriel. Reason: pictures added
• This reply was modified 2 years, 2 months ago by doriel.

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anonymous wrote:

They both use Windows 10 Pro with all the updates.

what version and OS Build are Bert and Ernie running?

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Thank you for your input.  All that you suggested has been done.  And undone.  And done again!  As I said, this used to work well.  I’m hardly an expert but nor am I new at this.  My various computers on my own network have been sharing stuff for years.  I guess it’s one of the more recent Windows updates that has wrecked it.

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Well, I just kicked myself.  I could have sworn they were both using Windows 10 Pro but laptop Ernie is Windows 10 Home.  Not sure if this would make a difference.  As I said, this used to work!

 

Bert:     Windows 10 Pro      21H1 19043.1110

Ernie:   Windows 10 Home 21H1 19043.1110

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I know what you’re going through. It hasn’t worked for me since ver 1909.

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My uncle’s in-home network has a Windows 10 Pro PC and 3 Windows 10 Home PCs and they can all see/share files between them. Here’s his network settings.

Note: the following needs to be done for each PC and you’ll need to restart them for the changes to take effect.

Open the Services control panel (services.msc) and ensure the status for these services are as follows

• DHCP Client is running and set for Automatic
• DNS Client is running and set for Automatic (Trigger Start)
• Function Discovery Provider Host is running and set for Manual
• Function Discovery Resource Publication is running and set for Manual (Trigger Start)
• SSDP Discovery is running and set for Manual
• UPnP Device Host is set for Manual (it may or may not be running)

Open Settings > Network & Internet and verify the Network status shown at the top of the right-hand panel shows it’s a Private network.

• If it’s not, click the Properties button and change the Network Profile to Private

Scroll down and select Network and Sharing Center in the right-hand panel and then select Change advanced sharing settings in the left-hand panel of the window that pops up.

Expand the Private (current profile) item and set the following:

• Select Turn on network discovery and check the Turn on automatic setup of network connected devices box.
• Select Turn on File and printer sharing

Expand the All networks item and set the following

• Select Turn off password protected sharing

Note, if you do want to use password sharing, you’ll need to set up user accounts on each PC for the other PC so they can login to each other.

Good luck!

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Alejr,

There is no such setting for:
Function Discovery Resource Publication is running and set for Manual (Trigger Start)

Just set it to: Automatic (Delayed Start) and things work fine.

Note: the computers will still NOT show up in File Explorer, unless you enable SMBv1, until you search for them on the Address bar, e.g. \\ComputerName\ShareName once this is done they will show up under network.

I’ve been fighting this for what seems like eons. I’ve just learned to live with File Explorer the way it is.

HTH 😎

May the Forces of good computing be with you!

RG

PowerShell & VBA Rule!
Computer Specs

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You’re right, there’s no option for Manual (Trigger Start) in the properties dropdown for any service.

But when this particular service is set for Manual, it actually displays a Startup Type of Manual (Trigger Start) in the main services window.

So a startup type of Manual doesn’t always really mean Manual.

Strange?!?!

 

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Thank you.  I will go over all these settings on both computers although, scanning them, the steps all look familiar.  After all, I’ve been fighting this for weeks.

I did dust off an old computer, did a fresh install of Windows 10 Pro, then did all the updates.  Both Bert and Ernie can see “CookieMonster”.  They still can’t see each other, nor can CookieMonster see them.

Thanks again!  It might be a couple of days before I can get back here to report.

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anonymous wrote:

I have a desktop computer (Bert) and a laptop (Ernie).  They both use Windows 10 Pro with all the updates.  I want the ability to freely transfer files between them like I used to be able to do.  They are connected through a switch which also connects to a half-dozen network hard drives.  Each computer can see all the hard drives–they just can’t see each other. I have literally spent hours on the internet, jumping through all kinds of hoops and changing all kinds of settings, even re-installing Windows 10 on the laptop.  Whatever I do they steadfastly refuse to acknowledge the other’s existence with the exception that Ernie can see Bert as a media device but cannot read any of the media on it. I have been fighting with this on and off for weeks and I’m getting so frustrated.  It used to work!

Are you by any chance running one or both machines without a logon password (i.e. “blank” password)?  If so, I will post a procedure that has solved this issue for me.

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All 3 machines have identical user and password login.

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Set a fix IP address for the PCs and add to quick access.

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Fixed IP is not required for any computer unless it’s a server.

Once the PC is viewable on the network you can add a folder to Quick Access (drag n drop) as Alex suggests.

cheers, Paul

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RetiredGeek wrote:

Note: the computers will still NOT show up in File Explorer, unless you enable SMBv1,

what are the implications of doing this? Does it increase security risks?

The following is copied from a 2017 How To Geek.

SMBv1 is an old version of the Server Message Block protocol Windows uses for file sharing on a local network. It’s been replaced by SMBv2 and SMBv3. You can leave versions 2 and 3 enabled—they’re secure.

The older SMBv1 protocol is only enabled because there are some older applications that haven’t been updated to use SMBv2 or SMBv3. Microsoft maintains a list of applications that still require SMBv1 here.

If you’re not using any of these applications—and you probably aren’t—you should disable SMBv1 on your Windows PC to help protect it from any future attacks on the vulnerable SMBv1 protocol. Even Microsoft recommends disabling this protocol unless you need it.

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OK!  I’ve gone over all the steps listed by Alejr and, as I suspected, they had already been done.  I’ve also, as suggested somewhere on “the net”, tried re-naming both computers.  It hasn’t made any difference.

To repeat:  I fired up an old computer (CookieMonster), did a clean install of Windows 10 Pro and installed all the updates.  It is otherwise virginal.  It can see both Bert and Ernie on the network and they can both see it.  They still can’t see each other.

Thanks to all those who are helping!!

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Hello:

For what it is worth, I have had similar problems on my local 1 Gb Ethernet network for the last few years – pretty much since I migrated from Windows 7.  I have 2 to 8 computers on the network, most set up with Windows 10 Pro, with more or less the latest version worth installing, following Susan’s guidelines/recommendations.

Occasionally I will connect a Windows 7 computer for a short time.  When all of the machines were Windows 7, I never had this kind of issue.  Then, with Windows 10, I ended up experiencing this sort of issue all of the time.  I could usually get things working OK with some effort, for 2 or 3 machines, until the next update, or some other change.

Now, if I spend some effort, I can get all of the running machines to see each other, and each machine can see all the files in the shared folders on all of the other machines.  I do this by setting all machines up with similar settings to those noted earlier in this thread, AND, by going to each machine and doing a “network reset” function, under the Network section of Windows “Settings”.  After a 5 minute wait, the “network reset” shuts down each machine, then restarts it, and after doing that to each machine, one at the time, they can all see and use all of the others, and all of the shared folders on the others.  Typically, I am logged into some of the machines, and my significant other the other machines.  We are both set up to have access to all of data/work product folders on each machine, and we can access and use any folders on any machine.  Yea!  They keep seeing each other and each other’s files, etc., until “something” happens.  I’m not sure what the “something” is – I think it is MS Windows Update of some kind.  I thought it might be the larger quarterly/halfly updates, like from 20H2 to 21H1, but it happens more frequently than that.  Then they stop seeing each other’s files until I go around and do the “network reset” effort on each machine in use at the time again.

I’d really like to set up the machines so they can consistently see and share each other’s resources, without this fussing, but like anonymous, I haven’t been able to get there.  I just have never had enough time to continue to attack the issue until it was solved.  There must be a simple solution – anyone really trying to get work done couldn’t be fussing around like I do.  Sadly, a good solution has eluded me for a long time.

I will go through all of the above details, if I get a chance, and make sure I have implemented all of the suggested/appropriate settings, but they all sound familiar – so I don’t expect that will solve the issue.

Any additional thoughts or suggestions would be appreciated, especially with the knowledge that a “network reset” temporarily resolves the issue, at least for me.

Thanks for this thread and all of the above input.

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PFC

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BobC wrote:

Now, if I spend some effort, I can get all of the running machines to see each other, and each machine can see all the files in the shared folders on all of the other machines. I do this by setting all machines up with similar settings to those noted earlier in this thread, AND, by going to each machine and doing a “network reset” function, under the Network section of Windows “Settings”.

Does this effort include turning/having SMBv1 “ON” or “NOT”?

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This is probably a silly suggestion (I’m not hot on networking..) but are the PCs connected via a router or hub, or are they connected with a “crossed” network cable in the style used way back with Windows 98/xp?

My thinking is that as Microsoft have had to improve security they might have closed off ports or information which let the crossed cable work, in which case you might have to temporarily intercede a router (which can be old unit, as it doesn’t need to connect to the Internet) to get the PCs to connect to each other (as the router will use ARP to negotiate the networking settings if you set everything networking on the PCs back to “defaults” as you have previously, and maybe a netsh interface tcp reset to kick it some more).

If that works, note the settings and remove the router so you have settings to try if it stops working.. might work, I haven’t needed to do this in several years.

SMB1 will likely help but MS don’t recommend it as SMB3 has been the replacement since Windows 8 so if it’s stopped working on Windows 10, SMB seems unlikely to be the issue. (I checked – They altered SMB1’s presentation in windows 10 components way back at version 1709). If you use SMB1, you might feel the need to get to nailing down the router to keep that protocol local for anything other than printers (which often use it) depending in your security stance.

 

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Switches and routers can isolate PC’s at the link layer.

I ran into a case of two Windows PC’s unable to see each other on the same LAN. Pings by IP address would always fail. I lost too much time trying to get the two PC’s to see each other, trying all sorts of standard network reconfiguration steps.

So I finally modified the ARP table to get Pings working on the Wi-Fi network. The MAC address was associated with the IP address in the sequence below. If pings are already working, then do NOT use the procedure below, it does not apply in your case.

Example commands:
netsh>interface ipv4 delete neighbors name=”Wi-Fi” address=”192.168.1.6″
netsh>interface ipv4 show interfaces
netsh>interface ipv4 add neighbors interface=18 address=”192.168.1.6″ “49-54-b3-c8-35-9e”
arp -a
Then the pings would work and the hosts would learn of each other: ping 192.168.1.6

Once this was done, file shares worked between the two Windows PC’s. The physical or MAC address was obtained from ipconfig /all. Run ping from a cmd.exe shell as well. The commands above associate an IP address to a MAC address on a permanent basis.

What I did is a major hack. You will need to remember what you did if your configuration changes. Normally the network discovery process is suppose to work automatically and adjust automatically when the network configuration changes.

I have also seen Windows networking forgetting its neighboring hosts and unable to reestablish connectivity, unless your reset/reboot with specific timing.  This was part of the same problem above and solved as above. The root cause remained a mystery. But I was in no mood at the time to replace/substitute my hardware and retest, or investigate further.

Windows 10 22H2 desktops & laptops on Dell, HP, ASUS; No servers, no domain.

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Thank you, BobC!

Apologies for not replying sooner but after the initial replies petered out in July I stopped checking here.

The Network Reset on all computers worked and I can now freely transfer files between all three computers.

Thanks again!

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