Network problem

Rev

B it of a strange network issue, hope someone can help.

I have 4 computers cpnnected to the home network, they all see each other and I can copy files from one on any of the others etc.

Until today, I can't see my desktop on my laptop and vice versa.

Both devices can still see the other two (HTPC and laptop used as plex server), and those two can still see the desktop and laptop. But for some reason I can no longer see the desktop from the laptop or the laptop when on the desktop.

I've not changed any settings or messed with the network at all. I've cchecked control panel and it all looks as it should.

I'm not sure where to start with this so hoping someone can help.

kwikbreaks

I have had similar but a long time ago. what I did then was delete the network adapter let it be rediscovered by scan for changes (device manager I think) and go through the add to network routine again but this was maybe as long ago as XP. Not much to lose by trying it though..

were

Think ms did another update rollout 29/8 for me as mine became faulty beginning of the week too-network stability. On searching others had the same problem, now after a few day, a few manual updates and a few reboots, magically the problem is no more.

Rev

I dont get it, I can see two just fine on both laptop and desktop and the HTPC and ples server can see all devices. But the laptop and desktop can't see each other.

Nilrem

Welcome to the wonderful world of Windows networking (or notworking).

I have 6 machines on my home network* and since one of the early Windows 10 updates it's utterly random which (if any) machines are visible on the network and which combination is visible (machine 1 might be invisible to machine 2 but visible to 4 and able to see 2).
Normally at least 2 of the machines that are on most often will be visible, but which ones are anyone's guess (and they're all able to access the internet and the router's network interface so the network in general is working just not windows machine to machine networking).

This applies to both "simple" file and networking, and Homegroup networking and everything is wired.

At this point I've pretty much given up on trying to fix it, as I can spend all day on it not getting it fixed then the next day it'll work fine (then stop working with another machine a week later).

Sorry if I'm not being much help, but I've been doing networking on my home machine for 20 years (my first setup was thin ethernet with dos), and Windows seems to have got worse in the last few years.

About the only thing I can suggest is turning every machine off, then bringing them up one at a time as that sometimes works for me (or results in which machine is not visible changing).


*plus a few other devices.

Rev

No, it helps, if its a random windows thing then it will probably fix itself at some point.

I'll give your turn them all off suggestion a go.

AndyPix

Can they ping each other ?

onomatopoeia99

If you type in the full computer name and share name of one of the invisible computers, can you access it? i.e.

\\computer\share

SMB / CIFS networking on Windows is fabulously inconsistent in its behaviour, often a computer won't come up in a browse list but is accessible if its name is supplied.

Nilrem

Rev wrote: »

No, it helps, if its a random windows thing then it will probably fix itself at some point.

I'll give your turn them all off suggestion a go.

One thing that I remembered after my previous post is I did find some suggestion that the Homegroup authentication can go wonky at times and it can sometimes be fixed by finding a specific authentication file (that holds the information for the network) and deleting it when the other machines are turned off, then doing the same with each machine in turn before creating a new group.
The thought is that the authentication file in the user settings becomes corrupt, although why that would lead to intermittent issues I don't know (I would have expected it to stop working full stop).

I've not tried that yet because of the way the homegroup starts working again for the affected machine at random and then stops (and I only found it recently).

Thinking about it, it reminds me of an issue I (and a lot of others) had after a big lan party in the XP/2000 days, where our home networks didn't work when we got home.
IIRC that turned out to be a windows registry value for the network type having changed (it had something like 5 values ranging from peer to peer to domain controlled), and had changed without any user input from hybrid to domain or something, I think that one took a few of the network specialists who were at the lan a week or more to narrow down as they hadn't seen it before.


The joys of networking

esuhl

I had a weird problem recently where all my open ports were blocked. It turned out to be Windows Firewall operating incorrectly. Try disabling it, connecting to the PCs, then enabling it again.

Rev

onomatopoeia99 wrote: »

If you type in the full computer name and share name of one of the invisible computers, can you access it? i.e.

\\computer\share

SMB / CIFS networking on Windows is fabulously inconsistent in its behaviour, often a computer won't come up in a browse list but is accessible if its name is supplied.

Just gave that a go and both were still accessable when I manually typed the name of the device in.

And theyre now showing up again in the network.

How utterly bizarre