Win 11 not seeing network PCs

[Marauder2003]

New Win 11 install. I have put the PC into the common workgroup. I have shared what I want to share on it. 3 PCs.

A is Win 10
B is Win 10
C is Win 11

1. A can see B and C
2. B can see C but not A
3. C cannot see A or B

Don?t care about situation 2. I need situation 3 to work. At least so C can see A.

What needs to be enabled on C so it see the others? All are wired to the same router.

[Cowboy T]

Probably need to open up your Windows Firewall so the others can see the other boxes.

[Marauder2003]

Disabled Firewall for Private networks on all machines.

Ran CMD prompt and did NET VIEW on B and C. Get error saying service has not been started. Says type NET HELPMSG 2184

Type that and get Service has not been started,

[Mute]

You're opening up a can of worms. Microsoft disabled some of the workgroup browsing services in various Windows builds and what you're seeing is a result of that. Unfortunately, the answer to your problem is rather long and involved and may not have an easy fix or a "fix" at all.

[Marauder2003]

OK, let?s try a different approach. How do I get 3 PCs on a home LAN to see each others drives safely? I have no problem with setting up the shares to require credentials to access.

Originally Posted by Mute

You're opening up a can of worms. Microsoft disabled some of the workgroup browsing services in various Windows builds and what you're seeing is a result of that. Unfortunately, the answer to your problem is rather long and involved and may not have an easy fix or a "fix" at all.

[Mute]

Originally Posted by Marauder2003

OK, let?s try a different approach. How do I get 3 PCs on a home LAN to see each others drives safely? I have no problem with setting up the shares to require credentials to access.

Best bet will probably be to give each PC a static IP address and using Windows file sharing, set up your permissions and then map each of the drives and assign it a drive letter. One thing to keep in mind. In your network settings make sure you set things up as a private network. If you set it up as a public network it will prevent discovery.

[Cowboy T]

Originally Posted by Mute

You're opening up a can of worms. Microsoft disabled some of the workgroup browsing services in various Windows builds and what you're seeing is a result of that. Unfortunately, the answer to your problem is rather long and involved and may not have an easy fix or a "fix" at all.

And that is one of several reasons why I continue to use Free/Open Source Software platforms instead of Microsoft. This is somewhat ironic, because I used to really like MS-DOS and Windows NT (didn't care for Windows 3.1x or Windows 9x). There were simply two versions of Windows NT, Workstation and Server, and in either case, NT was something that made a lot of sense to me and simply did what I asked it to do. It wasn't over-complicated, and it didn't get in my way. It just worked.

That has changed. Microsoft made it way too complicated. They made change simply for the sake of change and "looking different", not because said change was necessarily beneficial.

By contrast, GNU/Linux does what Windows NT used to do for me. It simply works and doesn't get in my way. It does what I ask it to do. If I want to share something on the network, it simply does that. No "special versions" that I've got to purchase simply to get proper network functionality. And I haven't needed to look back.

[Marauder2003]

Well, progress. A and B see C and themselves. C sees A and B but not itself.

But can?t access any shares on any other machine. The asking machine says it can?t reach the destination. I have disabled ESET on A and B. Disabled the firewall on C.

[high_revs]

i had the same problem Mute stated above. i just started sharing folders. was a pita losing that so i just did sharing and just put a shortcut on the other machines.


this was on win10 eons ago though. been a while MS removed that thing/feature.

[riprap]

Tagged. Having the same problem with 11 and 8.

[nate76239]

Check the network connections type computer C is probably set to public network and the others on private. The public option makes the firewall more strict.

[arrix]

The proper way to do this is to have a central NAS on the network that the all of the PCs can access, not open up each PC to attack.

[Marauder2003]

Got it working. Seems when you share a drive or folders there is more to do than just the Sharing tab in the Properties window. You have to click on the Security tab and add Everyone to the allowed users. After that the new machine can see the shares on the old machine.

[SactoDoug]

If you are going to allow the everyone group then limit it to read only.

On my network I create a new account on machines that share folders. That account is a limited account. I give that account read/write permission on a single folder and read permission on a separate folder. That allows me a lot of flexibility while still having some security. When I browse to the shared folders on my other machines I am prompted for security credentials. I enter the limited account's credentials which lets me do the file shares I need.