Home networking

[dlandiss]

Not exactly router-related, but the folks here know way more about home LANs than any other group I have seen (including the Microsoft help forum), and I trust your advice.

Has anyone found a method that allows Windows 11 PCs to communicate with each other on a LAN? I was able to transfer files between Win 10 PCs because each of them was reachable in the "Network" section of File Explorer. I have enabled "PC Discovery" for all of the machines (1 Win 10 and 2 Win 11), and also marked the hard drives as "shared" -- but only the Win 10 PC appears in "Network", neither Win 11 device.

I have also tried adding the by using the File Explorer "Search" option with the syntax "\\PCNAME." no go.

Thanks!

 

[ColinTaylor]

Strange. I haven't had any problems like that between Windows 10 and 11 PCs. One thing that comes to mind is that the Windows 11 PCs have their network profile set as public rather than private.

 

[cptnoblivious]

I was going to suggest looking at firewall settings, as @ColinTaylor mentioned, if the network profile is public all inbound connects will be blocked and the machines won't advertise any 'shares'.

 

[dlandiss]

One thing that comes to mind is that the Windows 11 PCs have their network profile set as public rather than private.

Thank you, I will try that.
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Nope, both set to Private. And:

 

[ColinTaylor]

How about using the PC's IP address instead of its name. So Windows-R to bring up the Run box and then \\192.168.1.44 or whatever your IP address is.

 

[Maverickcdn]

Would be worth ensuring Network Discovery is on as well

 

[Keenan]

Does your router have a Master Browser setting? If so, turn that on and then reboot all the machines, and see what happens. It might be worth finding out which machine is currently operating as the MB as well.

How to Determine the Master Browser in a Windows Workgroup | Scottie's Tech.Info

Here's a little problem that drove me crazy: How do you determine the Master Browser in a Windows Workgroup? First of all, lemme explain a bit about how a workgroup works. When you have a LAN set up running Windows machines, each machine can see all the others in Network Neighborhood (or just...

scottiestech.info

 

[coxhaus]

Does your router have a Master Browser setting? If so, turn that on and then reboot all the machines, and see what happens. It might be worth finding out which machine is currently operating as the MB as well.

How to Determine the Master Browser in a Windows Workgroup | Scottie's Tech.Info

Here's a little problem that drove me crazy: How do you determine the Master Browser in a Windows Workgroup? First of all, lemme explain a bit about how a workgroup works. When you have a LAN set up running Windows machines, each machine can see all the others in Network Neighborhood (or just...

scottiestech.info

This is what I mean when I say Windows PCs are chatty. This happens in domains also. But Microsoft server wins the election over workstations. And this happens on all networks with Windows PCs.

 

[ColinTaylor]

Does your router have a Master Browser setting? If so, turn that on and then reboot all the machines, and see what happens. It might be worth finding out which machine is currently operating as the MB as well.

How to Determine the Master Browser in a Windows Workgroup | Scottie's Tech.Info

Here's a little problem that drove me crazy: How do you determine the Master Browser in a Windows Workgroup? First of all, lemme explain a bit about how a workgroup works. When you have a LAN set up running Windows machines, each machine can see all the others in Network Neighborhood (or just...

scottiestech.info

This has been depreciated since Windows 7 and disabled by default in Windows 10 and 11. While it can't hurt to try reenabling support on the PC's it shouldn't really be necessary to discover other Windows computers.

 

[RMerlin]

This has been depreciated since Windows 7 and disabled by default in Windows 10 and 11. While it can't hurt to try reenabling support on the PC's it shouldn't really be necessary to discover other Windows computers.

And it was scheduled for complete removal I believe this year in a future Windows 11 update.

 

[Keenan]

This has been depreciated since Windows 7 and disabled by default in Windows 10 and 11. While it can't hurt to try reenabling support on the PC's it shouldn't really be necessary to discover other Windows computers.

I agree, but this is Windows networking which in my experience is a bit of a black art requiring a live chicken and some candles.

 

[dlandiss]

I have stumbled across a possible solution. Digging deeper into the menus I found that there are at least 4 more screens that affect sharing (see attachments) besides the common "make this private and discoverable." Appropriate entries into all 4 seems to have done the job.

There is one anomaly -- "vaclav2_C" in screen #1 is actually an earlier name for that drive. Later I renamed it dropping the 2 but the sharing still seems to work. I didn't have a live chicken handy but the candles helped.

Thanks again for all of the ideas.

 

[coxhaus]

I have stumbled across a possible solution. Digging deeper into the menus I found that there are at least 4 more screens that affect sharing (see attachments) besides the common "make this private and discoverable." Appropriate entries into all 4 seems to have done the job.

There is one anomaly -- "vaclav2_C" in screen #1 is actually an earlier name for that drive. Later I renamed it dropping the 2 but the sharing still seems to work. I didn't have a live chicken handy but the candles helped.

Thanks again for all of the ideas.

View attachment 55753View attachment 55754

View attachment 55755View attachment 55756

I am not sure everyone should have full control, maybe just read write, and change. It seems safer to me, especially if it is the C: drive.