Network shares

I have 3 machines, a desktop named AUX which runs on XP, a desktop named DESKTOP which runs on Win 10 1903 and a laptop named LAPTOP which runs on Win 10 1809. DESKTOP only recently updated itself to 1903 and now it will not access my LAPTOP shared folders. AUX sees and has access to DESKTOP and LAPTOP folders and files. LAPTOP sees and has access to DESKTOP and AUX folders and files. In DESKTOP, I can click on the Network icon in the left pane of file explorer and I see AUX, DESKTOP and LAPTOP. When I click on AUX I see and can access the shared folders and files. When I click DESKTOP I can see and access the shared folders and files. When I click LAPTOP I get the message "Windows cannot access \\LAPTOP" with the usual (useless) advice and the diagnose and cancel buttons. It will be no surprise to anyone that clicking diagnose is totally useless. I have searched the web as much as I can for a solution and have failed every time. Does anybody have any ideas? And would I be breaking the rules of this forum to express the fervent hope that the Chinese develop and mass market a Windows knock-off that actually works and wipes MS of the face of the earth?

Welcome to the forum. If PC's update it becomes a new network can you access the pc via IP instead of name ie \\192.168.1.5\share name

Thank you Samuria. In File Explorer's path bar text box (if that's the correct term) I overwrote the words "Quick Access" with \\192.168.1.5\laptop and got the same "Windows cannot access..." message. However I got the same message if I entered aux instead of laptop although clicking aux in the left pane under network still revealed all the shares. Perhaps I'm doing something wrong.

I only gave the ip as an example you have to use the correct ip and what is the sharename your connecting to thats the name after the \ to use

Thank you for your reply Samuria. In DESKTOP and LAPTOP I opened settings, Network and Internet and clicked View your network properties. After some playing, it seemed to be the IPv4 address that was the address I needed. In LAPTOP I entered the DESKTOP address in the aforementioned path bar text box. As soon as I entered the last backslash before entering the name DESKTOP, a box opened up with all the shares on DESKTOP. I went to DESKTOP and entered the LAPTOP IPv4 address, but got only the usual "Windows cannot access..." message

- - - Updated - - -

After more playing around (and that's what it is because I can't claim to know what I'm doing) I found I had kept a link to a much earlier post on this issue. You may be astonished to hear it has happened before. Anyway on 21 December 2015 user Sage posted the following in reply to someone else's query:

The fall update broke the SMB (Server Message Block) component of the OS. Below is a work around that will fix your issue until such time as Microsoft patches this issue.
1. Open an administrator cmd prompt.
2. type the following: (press Enter after each line)

sc.exe config lanmanworkstation depend= bowser/mrxsmb10/nsi
sc.exe config mrxsmb20 start= disabled

then Restart the computer

To reverse this change and re-enable SMBv3 run the following commands at at the elevated command prompt

sc.exe config lanmanworkstation depend= bowser/mrxsmb10/mrxsmb20/nsi
sc.exe config mrxsmb20 start= auto

then Restart the computer
end of post

I tried this and it worked! I now have access to LAPTOP shares from DESKTOP! Will it last??
Anyway now I need to thank Sage but I don't know how to do that for such an old post, so...

Thank you Samuria for your welcome and advice.
Thank you Sage for your suggestion.

Alli said:

I have 3 machines, a desktop named AUX which runs on XP, a desktop named DESKTOP which runs on Win 10 1903 and a laptop named LAPTOP which runs on Win 10 1809. DESKTOP only recently updated itself to 1903 and now it will not access my LAPTOP shared folders. AUX sees and has access to DESKTOP and LAPTOP folders and files. LAPTOP sees and has access to DESKTOP and AUX folders and files. In DESKTOP, I can click on the Network icon in the left pane of file explorer and I see AUX, DESKTOP and LAPTOP. When I click on AUX I see and can access the shared folders and files. When I click DESKTOP I can see and access the shared folders and files. When I click LAPTOP I get the message "Windows cannot access \\LAPTOP" with the usual (useless) advice and the diagnose and cancel buttons. It will be no surprise to anyone that clicking diagnose is totally useless. I have searched the web as much as I can for a solution and have failed every time. Does anybody have any ideas? And would I be breaking the rules of this forum to express the fervent hope that the Chinese develop and mass market a Windows knock-off that actually works and wipes MS of the face of the earth?

Hi there

@Alli

Actually there is a decent FREE alternative to Windows -- called Linux !!! -- at least its networking doesn't generally fail.

However back to your point:

I've often found though stupid things like Fire TV sticks and the like which are normally left in standby mode often have their IP addresses changed after so many hours by the router which can hose up the rest of the network.

My suggestion -- I've no technical explanation for this but it just seems to do the trick is to do the following :

1) at the ROUTER level ensure in the setup / network parameters the "lease time" is set to a long value or not to expire. This gives devices connected to your LAN a fixed IP address which won't expire or change while that device is switched on.

2) On all Windows 10 Machines enable SMB1 and disable the automatic SMB1 removal checkbox. You can find these easily in the control panel (yes it's still there) under programs and features -- add / enable features to windows.

3) On all Windows machines check that remote access to the computer is allowed - major updates to Windows change this so look again.

4) now switch off every possible device that uses the Internet -- smart TV's, tablets, phones etc (to anybody under 25 -- yes surprising perhaps but phones actually do have an OFF switch !!!), laptops etc etc.

5) now re-boot / switch on devices again. This will ensure that the IP address assigned by the router won't get changed while that device is connected.

I have to say though I have absolutely no idea how you could access via the network an XP machine (or the other way around fom XP to Windows 10) via SMBV3 -- XP only supports SMBV1 protocol.

Cheers
jimbo

Thank you Jimbo45 for your reply. I'm new at help forums so I don't know how they work yet, but did you see my last reply to Samurai? It referred to a much earlier post by Sage. I have no idea what his suggestion does but it seems to refer to SMB and it worked. I haven't tried the router method you suggested but I had earlier done as you suggest in item 2, without effect. I too am surprised to see the XP machine on the network and vice versa, but it's there. I don't know if it's significant but perhaps I should have included in my original post that AUX and DESKTOP are connected directly to the modem router by cable and LAPTOP is connected by Wifi. Also, DESKTOP has no added software on it whatsoever, just the raw freshly installed Win 10 1903 OS. I did this in desperation after failing to get DESKTOP to access LAPTOP.

As for Linux I would like to give it a go but I'll have to get another machine to install it on and I'll have to find some space to put it.

Thanks for your help