Sharing Issues w/o HomeGroup...

Ever since the beginning of this year when MS removed the HomeGroup function, I've had a terrible time with file sharing on my home network. I am running one central Win10 desktop with two Win10 laptops in a home wifi environment that is stable and fast. All machines are always running the latest OS version.

In the past 6-9 months, I've tried a number of different tutorials that endeavor to help set up the new file sharing approach, but with the exception of some spotty success, it basically just doesn't work. I can't reliably see other machines on the network, and sharing is almost always impossible. Sometimes I can get a laptop to see/share from the central desktop machine, but then it just goes away. Printer sharing off of the central desktop is also unreliable.

Questions:
- Should I "reset" all of my machines to some baseline prior to proceeding with any further settings/troubleshooting? If so, how can I accomplish that?

- Is there a truly effective procedure for setting up Win10 to see other machines and to share files? If so, please point me in that direction.

Thanks!
- bk

Thanks bro67.

I will start with those tutorials and report back.
-bk

We need to know the exact problems have you set up shared folders these shouldn't be in the users profile as that has special problems, you must set the share as everyone and you must then set NTFS permission on the shared folder have you done all that?

Samuria,
I am working on it now - thanks for your quick response.
I want to try the tutorial that was suggested.
I'll report back with issues, and more detail, if I am not successful.
-bk

Just walked through the tutorial provided by bro67, restarted and I am good - for the moment.
I'll need to set up my other laptop, and I'll need to try again tomorrow.
I've been in this position before where I get a connection for sharing, but then it mysteriously goes away.
Here's hoping.
So far, I am good.
I'll report back if the issue comes back.
Thanks!

I went to set up the other laptop in my house, I followed the exact same procedure in the tutorial, and no dice.
I am now looking up other posts in this forum to see if I can pick up some ideas from other people.
If anyone wants to chime in here with ideas, that would be great!
My first laptop is still connected to my central desktop. That's a good thing!

Run this scanner on each pc can it see all pcs and note which is master browser. Windows doesnt look for pcs it asks the master browser NetBScanner - NetBIOS scanner

K. So this is what I have in my network:
- HubPC: central desktop with the files to share
- Laptop 1: no files to share
- Laptop 2: no files to share

HubPC can see both Laptops, neither of which have files to share. Ok with this.
Laptop 1 can now see HubPC and can access the shared files there. Great! It can also see Laptop 2.
Laptop 2 can see Laptop 1. It can't see HubPC, which has files to share. This is the outstanding problem at the moment.

I confirmed that HubPC is the Master Browser. Thanks for that app!

What's next??

From lappy 2 can you ping the hub by name by ip and can you map a drive to it? Is the login account the same on both laptops