Question New Win 11 does not see other PCs

[IBMJunkman]

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

All in same Workgroup. All have firewall disabled on the private network. All wired to same router. All can access the internet.

A sees B and C
B and C see nothing. Doing a NET VIEW returns an error saying service not started with a suggestion to try NET HELPMSG 2184. That also says service not started.

Ideas?

 

[JackMDS]

May be this can help.

Windows Networking: Sharing Files and Resources

This Geek School class will teach you everything you need to know about sharing files and resources like printers in a Windows-based network.

www.howtogeek.com

 

[mxnerd]

Windows desktop computer browsing (computer name broadcasting) never work properly since Windows 9x/XP/NT. That's why MS implement WINS server and later add DNS. In a home environment, you don't have either.

Computer Browser service in The Network Encyclopedia

Computer Browser is a service in Microsoft Windows responsible for enabling the browsing of network resources using Network Neighborhood and Windows Explorer.

www.thenetworkencyclopedia.com

It's best just use (fixed) IP address if you don't have a server.

The computer name will disappear from Network explorer even just seconds after I close it after I type computer name \\CompA in the address bar to make it appear earlier.

I also will get error 6118 when I run Net View command across all 3 VMs simulating your setup. The computer list is different PC from PC and different from time to time.

System error 6118 has occurred.

The list of servers for this workgroup is not currently available

https://www.minitool.com/news/net-view-error-6118.htm

Computer Browser service has been replaced by Function Discovery Services but it doesn't help.

==

Enabling SMB 1.0 feature (which includes Computer Browser) in Win10/Win11 does seem to solve the problem.

 

[IBMJunkman]

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.

 

[Tech Junky]

If you do \\Ip\share can you connect?

If you can then just drag it down as a shortcut in explorer.

 

[IBMJunkman]

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.