Unable to see Win 10 PCs in the network

JackHughs said:

I experienced exactly the same condition you described in your last post. After trying everything, I assumed that something was broken in the OS and resigned myself to typing \\laptopname\Users in the desktop's file explorer to access the laptop shares.

After about a week, the error message went away and all has been good since.

Windows networking is crazy-making sometimes.

JackHughs

Windows networking had been very solid for me for a long time. This is driving me crazy. Having to manually sync.. very prone to error. I hope it fixes itself sooner rather than later. I've done everything I can think of and that has been suggested here afaik.

I even found this link and went through my settings and services and windows features and tried to tweak to match.
https://answers.microsoft.com/en-us/...7-1ef360e9ffdf

The wired PC remains stubborn. And now the laptop has joined the wired PC not connecting to the share unless I \\IP it.

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Tried it again today (3/31) and the wired PC still cannot connect normally to the laptop via Windows Explorer unless I use the IP address in the search bar. I was hoping after a day or two it might fix itself.. but no joy yet.

However, the laptop can see the wired PC files from Windows Explorer without having to \\IP in. Right now.

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Update 4/1: looking at another post about a similar issue, I discovered the reset network function from the status page of Network and Internet (windows key - I). I reset the network on both the wired PC and the laptop and re-enabled private networks with discovery and file/printer sharing.

Neither computer shows up in Windows Explorer of the other computer. But both computers show up when I enter \\IP address in WE search bar and files are accessible over the network.

I'm not sure what I learned, but that should have reset the adapters back to ground zero and let me start fresh. Still the same results, but it's early. I'll let them sit and try again tomorrow.

After reset, both machines once again initiated negotiations as to which one will be the master browser.

JackHughs

JackHughs said:

After reset, both machines once again initiated negotiations as to which one will be the master browser.

JackHughs

Well so far, they're still fighting over the honor! (I can only wonder why this has never been a problem in the past and is a recent affliction).

FWIW, I fixed my app syncing issue by replacing \\laptop name\drive\filespec with \\IP address\drive\filespec. For whatever reason, the laptop name could not be resolved/located. I even tried renaming the laptop using all caps... to no avail. I didn't think the computer name was case sensitive, but felt it worth a try.

The laptop is able to see the shares on the wired PC without issue. But whenever I try to view the shares on the laptop from the wired PC, WExplorer says it can't access the laptop and says the network path was not found. Perhaps that's a clue that someone more knowledgeable than me will recognize.

I'd still like to figure out my network issue even though I have a viable work-around. And perhaps it has something to do with my network controller configuration. I think there was an update to it recently as well (currently on 5.12.66.0).

I'm going to try the shutdown/reset option from the power button (shift + shutdown) and see if that makes a difference.

Hi,

You know the computername for your laptop and you know the correct ip address for your laptop.

Try this. Go to your desktop. Bring up the cmd prompt and type nbtstat -a <laptopname>.

This command should return the correct ip address for your laptop.

If it returns an incorrect ip address, that will explain the error message you receive when trying to access your laptop by computername.

JackHUghs

I renamed the laptop from Dell-<service tag> to Dell7577, just in case there was an issue with spaces or hyphens in the name. Rebooted the laptop. When I Iooked at WE on the PC, it had updated the laptop name but still exhibited the same problem, it cannot find the laptop even though it shows in the WE window. From an elevated command prompt, I tried the nbtstat command as per above. Here are the results:


The laptop was able to view the PC shared files right after I rebooted it. (and was good before rebooting too). The PC remains the problem child.

From the PC:


The PC view from WE using the UNC path:

From your screenshots, the actual ip address of your laptop is 192.168.1.28

NBTstat is telling you that your PC is resolving the name"DELL7577" to an ip address of 192.168.1.10. Your PC then tries to contact a non-existent machine at that ip address. Therefore, the error message.

So, what you have is a name resolution problem on your PC.

I've never had to fix this type of problem but you may be able to fix it using NBTstat's "RR" command.

JackHughs

JackHughs said:

From your screenshots, the actual ip address of your laptop is 192.168.1.28

NBTstat is telling you that your PC is resolving the name"DELL7577" to an ip address of 192.168.1.10. Your PC then tries to contact a non-existent machine at that ip address. Therefore, the error message.

So, what you have is a name resolution problem on your PC.

I've never had to fix this type of problem but you may be able to fix it using NBTstat's "RR" command.

JackHughs

Jack, 192.168.1.10 is the IP address of my PC... which is also the controller for the Unifi network. 192.168.1.28 is the DHCP reservation I established for the laptop from within the Unifi controller.

I just flushed the DNS cache from an elevated cmd prompt and rebooted the PC. It took 10 minutes or so before the PC could see the laptop shares, even using the \\IP address of the laptop. It seems like I have to ping the PC from the laptop... or see the file shares of the PC from the laptop to establish initial communications. THEN, I can finally get the PC to see the laptop shares via \\ipaddress.

I'll see if I can find out anything about NBTstat RR command.

Thanks for the help.

The local subnet doesnt use DNS it uses netbios

I missed the Unifi controller part in your first post.

Ubiquiti Unify is an enterprise quality network manager. I've never used any Ubiquiti equipment because the instruction manuals make my brain hurt. Nonetheless, I believe that Unifi is intended to replace Windows networking rather than support Windows networking.

I can't help with this.

JackHughs