Networking PCs

[KannikaP]

I have two W11 Pro PCs, one in my office for business/music production and a NUC in my lounge connected to my big telly for media. They are both on my Microsoft account. But if I click on Network, they do not always see each other, even after Network Reset, and starting Function Discovery in Services on both PCs, in fact today the Business PC does not even see itself on the network. Been on countless sites to try to solve the problem. Also I noticed that the desktop backgrounds are not syncing as they used to do.

I want to access the videos on my Business PC on my Media PC via One Drive without having to download from the Cloud every time. Can anyone give advice please.

[KhunHeineken]

Have you considered setting up the Business PC as a Plex Server? 

 

You can then watch your content on any device on your local area network, including phones and tablets, and if you buy a Plex Pass, anywhere in the world.

 

https://www.plex.tv

[recom273]

Im not too clued up with W11, but can you manually enter the PC you are trying to access?

 

In W10, there is a box in top of windows explorer, next to the search box. Enter \\<name of business machine> or \\<IP address of business machine> and return.

 

 

 

[Thaijack2014]

If it is only about your media, then I would suggest to install Plex (look for Plex.tv). This is one of the best servers and it is free. Though there are paid subscriptions, for home use it is not necessary.

For Datatransfer there is teamviewer.

And for remotely control of your pc's visa versa, there is remote desktop...

This is how I work and it works better than any other way for me. 

I use onedrive only for some shared documents, but for pictures I use mostly google drive.

[GrandPapillon]

15 hours ago, KannikaP said:

Can anyone give advice please.

first question, how do you logon? using a Microsoft ID, or as a local account?

 

next question, are those 2 PCs on the same "domain" or "workgroup"? make sure your network is in "private" mode and discovery is activated. Takes a few minutes for PCs to sniff each other on a WIFI network.

 

If in "private" mode you can temporarily "disable" the firewall, and see what happens. Should work.

[KannikaP]

2 hours ago, GrandPapillon said:

first question, how do you logon? using a Microsoft ID, or as a local account?

 

next question, are those 2 PCs on the same "domain" or "workgroup"? make sure your network is in "private" mode and discovery is activated. Takes a few minutes for PCs to sniff each other on a WIFI network.

 

If in "private" mode you can temporarily "disable" the firewall, and see what happens. Should work.

Log in with MS account, same one on both. Same Workgroup and in Private mode with discovery activated via services Function Discovery. They are both connected with cables to the router, no wi-fi involved. Still no luck. Will try the firewall thing later. Thanks for hep.

[chrisinth]

On 1/21/2022 at 7:58 AM, KannikaP said:

Log in with MS account, same one on both. Same Workgroup and in Private mode with discovery activated via services Function Discovery. They are both connected with cables to the router, no wi-fi involved. Still no luck. Will try the firewall thing later. Thanks for hep.

OP, have you changed the defaults in Function Discovery Provider Host & Function Discovery Resource Publication to Automatic? This may help. Stop function discovery provider host and restart. Don't forget to restart function discovery resource publication as well.

 

Are your two computers connected to wi-fi, both on either 2.4 or 5G?

 

Can you ping each computer from the other?

 

Have you tried sharing a folder and mapping that folder to the network?

 

Might be an idea to change the Workgroup name for both computers to a unique one instead of the default.

[KannikaP]

57 minutes ago, chrisinth said:

OP, have you changed the defaults in Function Discovery Provider Host & Function Discovery Resource Publication to Automatic? This may help. Stop function discovery provider host and restart. Don't forget to restart function discovery resource publication as well.

 

Are your two computers connected to wi-fi, both on either 2.4 or 5G?

 

Can you ping each computer from the other?

 

Have you tried sharing a folder and mapping that folder to the network?

 

Might be an idea to change the Workgroup name for both computers to a unique one instead of the default.

Thanks. Done all of those except the Ping.

I cannot always see the PCs on the Network icon even on the same PC. 

Function Discovery makes no difference. 

Connected via CAT6 cables directly from the router (3BB 1Gb/s)

It did work a while back but not any more. Windows 11 causing it?

[chrisinth]

10 hours ago, KannikaP said:

Thanks. Done all of those except the Ping.

I cannot always see the PCs on the Network icon even on the same PC. 

Function Discovery makes no difference. 

Connected via CAT6 cables directly from the router (3BB 1Gb/s)

It did work a while back but not any more. Windows 11 causing it?

If both your computers are connected by LAN cable to the router (or a switch coming off the router) you should be good to go. I doubt it has anything to do with W11; my W11 computers are at another site and only have W10 machines on this network so can't check. That said, it certainly could be possibly there are bugs in this relatively new release.

 

I was going to add a couple more things to check, but the video below (even though it is a year or so old) covers what I was about to say. Setting in W11 might be in different locations, but should be the same. It is important that the settings on all devices you want visible on the network are the same for file sharing to work properly.

 

 

[KannikaP]

12 hours ago, chrisinth said:

If both your computers are connected by LAN cable to the router (or a switch coming off the router) you should be good to go. I doubt it has anything to do with W11; my W11 computers are at another site and only have W10 machines on this network so can't check. That said, it certainly could be possibly there are bugs in this relatively new release.

 

I was going to add a couple more things to check, but the video below (even though it is a year or so old) covers what I was about to say. Setting in W11 might be in different locations, but should be the same. It is important that the settings on all devices you want visible on the network are the same for file sharing to work properly.

 

 

Thanks for this. Done all he says, and can see my business PC on the network now. But when I try to open shared folder, I get message that I do not have permission to do so, contact my Network Administrator. So I asked myself...............

[chrisinth]

1 hour ago, KannikaP said:

Thanks for this. Done all he says, and can see my business PC on the network now. But when I try to open shared folder, I get message that I do not have permission to do so, contact my Network Administrator. So I asked myself...............

OK, good that the computers can see themselves. Not sure if this will work, but worth trying. I'm using "Network Test" as an example, and again, this is a W10 machine. You probably know all this, but just in case.............

 

On the folder you want to share, right-click on this and select Properties. 

Select the Sharing tab to check the folder is shared. When we know it is shared, click on advanced Sharing.

 

 

Click the Share this folder box, and then click Permissions.

 

 

For the Everyone Group, Click on Full Control, Apply and OK. Back out of all open windows.

 

 

To be sure, right-click again on the folder you are going to share, Properties and click Security tab. Click on Edit. If you can't see the Group Everyone, click on Add.

 

 

 

In the Enter the object names field, type Everyone and then Check Names and OK.

 

 

Select Everyone from the Group or user names field, click Full Control in the Permissions field, click Apply and OK.

 

 

Try to connect to the share again from your computer B.
 

[chrisinth]

In addition (or as an alternative) to the above, as your computers can see themselves on the network, you could map your shared folder(s) so the share appears in your file explorer as an additional drive. This is how I normally display shared drives/folders/files. These snapshots were taken from a W11 OS.

 

Open File Explorer and right-click on This PC in the left column and Map Network Drive from the dropdown.

 

 

In the next window, select the drive letter you want from the dropdown. In the Folder field, type in the name of the host computer as you see it in Network, preceded with two back slashes (\\) and ending with a single back slash (\) and click Browse.

 

This should open the Network window. Double click on your 'host computer'; this will ask for your permission which will be the user name and password on the 'host computer'. Type this in and check remember this (to save you inserting the username & password everytime you access the share) and OK.

This will show a list of shared folders/files on the host computer. Select the folder/file you want associated with the drive letter you picked earlier and click OK. This should now display in file explorer\This PC under Network Locations, all contents accessible.