Phantom computer name on network: clicking on it opens Media Player.

Hello,

This might help you.

You can disable media streaming which probably is why the machine appears on the network as it does. It’s in control panel:

Control Panel\All Control Panel Items\Network and Sharing Centre\Media streaming options

In order to have the two machines see each other, you need to enable network discovery and file and printer sharing. Also in control panel.

Control Panel\All Control Panel Items\Network and Sharing Centre\Advanced sharing settings

I hope that helps. You already have a simple network, is that what you wanted to achieve?

Sean

No problem, @Bert Coules. Did you follow the path in control panel? Network and Sharing Centre\Media streaming options?

I'm not sure what's going on with the computer names. It might be something to do with the Plusnet Hub.

Sean

Hi Sean. The path I followed was indeed Control panel/Network and sharing centre/Media streaming options. There I see this:



You'll notice that it still says All devices are allowed to access your shared media despite also saying HTPC - Device access is blocked. If I double-click on Desktop-PC etc on the HTPC machine, it still opens up Media Player.

@Bert Coules, I have had a look on my machine, media streaming was never enabled, so I did that, I got the same view as your screenshot. To disable it, click block all then OK. When you go back to media steaming options, you should see this, instead.



That should then turn that off. Then, what do you want to do with your network? You can setup shared folders, you can then map those shares to my computer so they can be used like the hard drives can.

Sean

Sean, I followed those steps and now Media streaming is not turned on is reported on both machines.

The network listing on the main Desktop PC looks like this:



Which is great. Unfortunately, the listing on the HTPC machine is this:



No sign of the desktop PC.

I have to take a break from this now but I'll try to get back later and investigate some more. In the meantime, many thanks for your help and your patience.

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Last report for tonight. I'd turned both PCs off while I took a long break and have just turned them back on and checked the Network list on each of them. The main Desktop's listing is unchanged from before, but the HTPC one now looks like this:



Not only is the Desktop machine still missing, but the entry for the HTPC machine has disappeared: seemingly the computer now doesn't even recognise itself.

I'll have another play tomorrow.

Good night,

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Well, as of this morning the situation is unchanged. I'll take another look at all the relevant settings on both machines and hope I find something clearly wrong. Beyond that, I'm running out of ideas.

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Sean, I've now gone through the settings on both computers, checking all the points you raised here. Nothing seems amiss, but the Desktop machine still isn't being detected by the HTPC one. I assume that I'm overlooking something, possibly something blindingly obvious - but what it could be I've no idea.

Hearsepilot, thanks for the thought. I've done as you suggest on both computers but it's made no difference: the situation remains the same, with the HTPC appearing on the Desktop's network list but the Desktop PC not listed on the HTPC.

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As a possible last resort I wondered if deleting/uninstalling the network and then reinstalling it would help. Searching around, the only way I've discovered to do this is by uninstalling the network adapter. But which one? The list of adapters is identical for both machines:



Is the Realtek adapter the one to remove? And if so, how can I reinstall it later? Is it likely to make any difference anyway?

Many thanks.

Bert Coules said:

Hearsepilot, thanks for the thought. I've done as you suggest on both computers but it's made no difference: the situation remains the same, with the HTPC appearing on the Desktop's network list but the Desktop PC not listed on the HTPC.

Hey @Bert Coules, did you turn network discovery on, on both machines and turn on file and printer sharing too?

Note that it is setup by private / guest or public. Make sure your network is setup as a private network too. Don't enable sharing on guest or public, well, I wouldn't.