Windows 10 shares disappear...

I have a small network with wired connection of four Windows 10 Professionals, version 1809. One of W10 workstation is designated for file/folder sharing and it normally shows on a local desktop, just like it does today:


*-Names had been edited

For some unknown reasons, in about every two weeks or so the shares on the "W10_SHARES" disappear. Neither the folders, nor the desktop in itself is visible in the network on any of the desktops. In another word, browsing the network locally on the "W10_SHARES" does not show "W10_SHARES" desktop in itself, but other desktops do show up.

In that case, the shares can be mapped from the "W10_LOCAL" and other desktops, via a know account and password on the "W10_SHARES". This works for couple days or so, after that time the shares show up in the network without changing any settings. Once they show up, the mapped drive throws a red X error:



The non-functional mapped network drive(s) disconnected without any impact to browsing the network and accessing the shared folder. This will go on for another two weeks or so and then, rinse and repeat. The shares and the "W10_LOCAL" desktop disappear from network browsing and requires mapping again to access the shares.

I suspect some Windows 10 update that applied about the same time period, but that's probably not it. Anyone has a better idea what's going on with network sharing?

TIA...

There's no other system connecting to the wired network and all systems have reserved IPs, including the printers. Guess connects to the wireless network, that has no access to the wired network only to the Internet.

Caledon Ken said:

Any chance your network adapter is powering down, that setting that allows machine to shut off adapter to save a millionth of cent.

I didn't realize that the adapter is allowed to power down on all four system, this feature and wake on LAN have been disabled.

I am cautiously optimistic that this change will resolve the issue. That may take some time, since usually the issue reappears within two weeks as stated earlier and browsing the shares just came back yesterday...

Thanks Ken...

The system with the network shares does auto restart in the case of BSOD. The two years old system have not had a BSOD, as of yet, checked for system dump in the "SystemRoot".

Browsing network on the system with the network shares, the network shows other desktop, but not the "W10_SHARES" desktop. On the other hand, the other desktops have no issues currently to show "W10_SHARES" desktop in the network.

This is weird... Why would the local system, that have the network shares, would not show up in the network locally?

There's a third-party AV on the system, but that's always been there and had not been the issue in my view. After all, network sharing works most of the times.

None of the systems are allowed to hibernate and/or go to sleep. All systems have a daily scheduled image backup that shuts down the system on completion.

Caledon Ken said:

Do not key in info in brackets, there for your information.

ipconfig /flushdns (Clear the dns cache)
nbtstat -RR (release and refesh NetBIOS names)
netsh int ip reset (reset ip settings)
netsh winsock reset (Reset Winsock Catalog)
netsh interface ip delete arpcache (Reset Address Resolution Protocol cache)

I did run all of the commands, thanks for the warning about the brackets...

I've also ran the "nbtstat -r" and the "net view" commands, both prior to and after your commands. In both cases, this is what I've got:



The event ID 1231 is probably the source of the issue and my initial search did not turn up much, at least not related to my issue....