Networking wierdness

[PC Doctor]

I am having issues with a couple of machines seeing a file server, nothing complicated just a windows 10 box with a 1tb drive on it and a number of shared folders.

The file server is sat in the workgroup 'workgroup' and the folders are shared with everyone.

There are around 20 machines on the network all can see the file server other that 2 Windows 10 machines, 1 is a desktop, the other a laptop, both can see other shares on the network.

One of the machines is my own laptop so to try and diagnose I got a spare switch, plugged the router, laptop and filer server into it. The laptop could not see the file server, plugged my nas into the switch and laptop picked it up straight away. Unplugged the Ethernet from the laptop and connected to the router wirelessly, the laptop can then see the file server.

Decided it may be a problem with the networking components on the laptop so to be certain put a blank drive in and reinstalled the latest version of Windows 10, on ethernet it can't see the file server however on wireless it can.

Tried a different laptop just to make sure it wasn't the switch or cables, all works fine.

My head is mashed, thought another pair of eyes might help.

 

[PC Doctor]

Also just to add to this, when the machine is back on the full network it behaves in exactly the same way.

If I go through network explorer, it only shows 4 machines on the network however if I put the network name of the machine in I can access any shares on them but they still don't show in network explorer though that's the same for all machines on the network.

 

[LordIntruder]

First check if the notebook and the desktop are getting an iP address from the same dhcpd as the rest of the network. Ah, and check also the subnet mask.

one more edit:

maybe this might help:
https://social.technet.microsoft.co...ter-it-did-earlier?forum=win10itpronetworking

 

[PC Doctor]

Subnet mask and DHCP exactly the same.

Will work through the other link when I have time, however, I have to question needing to do any of that with a clean install that can see all other shares and can even see this one when connected wirelessly but not on Ethernet. Could it be the ethernet port on the machine?

 

[HCHTech]

What OS is the "file server" running? If it's Win10, is it Pro or Home, and if it's Win10, are you using Homegroup or not? When you say that "all but 2 Win 10 machines" are working, what OS are the working computers running, and finally, what OS is your laptop running?

If machine names are not working, check your DNS settings and how the machines' "Netbios over TCP" is set.

If, for example, you have Win7-Home machines trying to use a Win10-Home machine as a file server, you probably are in for a struggle. Can you just map the drives using IP address and the server machine's admin credentials? You could also create the user accounts on the server with the same passwords they have on their own machines.... Turn off the server machine's firewall as a test...

 

[PC Doctor]

Firewall is turned off

All machines are running Windows 10 Home

Not using a home group, maybe using a homegroup would solve the problem?

Working computers are a mixture of 10 home, 7 home and one XP (Used for running an old Printer / Cutter) all of these can see the machine and read from / write too the shared folders

DNS and NetBIOS is default as the laptop has a clean install on it now.

It works on wireless but not on Ethernet, all other machines are connecting via ethernet

 

[LordIntruder]

Another possible mantrap is the not so funny thing that some wintendo 10 machines automatically went to "public network" even if it should be "private network" (or whatever you'll find instead of public network in your language... my wintendo's language is german). if it's public, you struggle to see shares.

edit:
Remember that wireless and ethernet connection are two seperate networks with separate configurations.

 

[LedHed]

I agree with LordIntruder, it could be a public/private network issue. I had a similar problem a few years back.

 

[PC Doctor]

The network is set to private.

What i have found is that if I reboot the machine if I am quick it can see the share before it becomes unavailable again.

 

[seedubya]

So, I have to say that this is a very, very poor setup. I hope this is a charity\school etc. Some place that has some excuse for this crap.

• Windows 10 Home is limited to 10 concurrent connections - that's a major issue straight away since you have 20 clients
  
• The Microsoft SMB browser is, at best, unreliable and should not be used to manage connections to network resources
• Use IP addressing to access the "file server" as DNS hosted on what I assume is some kind of home gateway or router won't be very dependable either for LAN connections. Stick with Layer3 i.e. IP addressing, it's more reliable in the absence of a proper DNS server for the LAN.
• Next you'll have issues with sharing and access permissions - you will need to connect to the "server" using local credentials from the "server" as there is no AD or other directory service in place. Ideally you would write a script to map a drive on each machine to the share, with the credentials included.
• Ensure that Network Discovery and File & Priner Sharing is turned on on the "server" and that Network Discovery is turned on all the clients
• Ensure that all clients are on the same workgroup - forget about the HomeGroup
• Ensure that none of the machines are set to Network-Public

 

[NETWizz]

The problem most likely is that you need to enable SMB1 on Windows 10 to see really old shares.

 

[YeOldeStonecat]

I"ll "bump" what SeeDubya's saying.....
When you have peer to peer networks..workgroups (no domain controller thus no DNS to manage host names), name resolution across a bunch of workstation operating systems has to go to "master browser" election..which is horrible. There's a process to that..and "if" all computers agree on which one to elect...it often doesn't last long. You can Google which registry key to "lock" that to.
But...here's the thing. Most routers will simply pass along the DNS servers that the ISP hands out to their WAN interface. Those DNS servers don't know about your internal network (nor should they!). So the workstations cannot use that DNS setup for internal name resolution. Hence..falling back to broadcasts, master browsers, etc. A horrible setup at best. And a hundred times worse when you have different vintage operation systems!

Tis best to either use a router that has a local DNS table..and hands out its internal/LAN IP for DNS for workstations so they can use it for internal resolution, or...take the cumbersome "poor mans WINS" approach with those lmhosts files and static IPs.

 

[jack-ant]

I had a similar issue a few years back on a workgroup with a mixture of Windows 7 and Windows 10 machines. I effectively elected a 'browser master' by disabling the computer browser service on all other computers. The browser master I chose was a Windows 10 machine. Although this solved the issue for me I think it can point to a deeper network issue like packet loss, auto negotiation issues or an unreliable router.

As well as @YeOldeStonecat 's recommendations, assigning static IP's locally and via DHCP reservations can help a dodgy network though it's not always scalable or manageable .

More of a hack than a solution and if I remember correctly a router upgrade in the end brought the network up to gigabit speeds and it just worked better overall.

 

[Markverhyden]

To follow along with some of the above. I never use network browsing (machine name) on peer to peer (workgroup) networks. Everything is strictly via IP address.