Unable to see network connections in windows xp

Search related threads. Remove From My Forums. Answered by:. Archived Forums. Windows 10 Networking. Sign in to vote. Saturday, September 17, AM. Tuesday, September 20, AM. Ninety-nine per cent of politicians behave badly and give the rest a bad name! Sunday, September 18, AM. Go figure. Tuesday, November 7, AM. And how does that relate to anything in this thread? Help me out! There are many things to check, but if you've run Network Wizard and checked they're all on the same workgroup, suggest best thing is check firewalls first as they are so often the problem 1.

Unplug from the Internet 2. Turn off computer firewalls on your computers 3. You must wait at least 5 mins or so as firewall changes aren't seen immediately on Microsoft Network 4.

Check to see if problem exists. I know that if there were a firewall problem, it would be in that computer in particular, because all others had no problems from the get go connecting. I disabled all firewalls and tried connecting and still had no luck.

Then turn off all your computers this time i mean all. Once it;s started, start the other. And by rebooting with firewalls turned off should take care of "waiting 5 mins" problem. There is a second issue about only one Master Browser among your computers but verifying below and then only starting the TWO in sequence with others off should spare you the effort of the add'l checking.

Firewalls Turn off firewall on both computers. Click Network Connections. Right-click Local Area Connection, and then click Properties. Click the General tab, and then click Advanced. Click the WINS tab. Close the Network Connections window. I would be more likely to do a network reset. All I can say is that my home network mainly Dell hardware will operate as expected using either model. All of my physical machines are now on Windows 10 version and use network discovery and no SMB 1. I do have Windows 10, 8.

The XP machines will only operate correctly if all other machines in their workgroup use SMB v1 and the computer browser service. How important is it to you to keep your Windows XP machine as part of your workgroup? This will work, but exposes you to security problems which Microsoft specifically warns against. Without XP, all the machines should network properly using the new network discovery method introduced in Windows 7. The reason I ask is that, for best results, the machines should be configured differently, depending on which option you choose.

Microsoft strongly recommends that you do not enable SMB 1. Doing it the other way means that the XP machine drops off the network. As I said above, I have done quite a bit of testing on this and it definitely will work either way if everything is configured correctly. For me the massive Windows update that was performed had intitialised the VPN switches in the network centre.

I have switched the Windows VPN off!!!!!. The invisibilty cloak has been lifted. All is working again. I have a home network of four PC's. Following an early Windows 10 Update, the machines stopped seeing each other as computers, although they were still visible as media devices.

This problem persisted through all subsequent Windows updates, and current Xmas , post-Fall-Update. Like many people, I spent hours trying various suggestions gleaned online, and nothing worked. Finally, I came across a suggestion from a senior IT guy who had nothing good to say about Microsoft, to use a command-line command supposedly long obsolete.

Basically, fire up an Admin Command Prompt, and run "netcfg -d". This appears to delete various network settings, check other network settings, and reset still more.

Finally, reboot your PC. Repeat on all affected PCs. Job done. We have two computers on a network. One PC with Win7, one laptop with Win They've been networked with no problems for 2 years. Well, I did have to remap the network every time I turned the laptop on, but that only took a minute.

But after a 2 week holiday, the laptop and the PC do not see each other. I did nothing, changed nothing, but apparently Windows did an update and I am dead. I have spent the last 2 days not working but instead trying to wrassle these two computers into talking to each other. I am not a computer expert. I use a computer as a tool. Just like I drive my car and can do basic things, like gas it up, take it to the shop, add oil if necessary, but I don't know how to grease the transmission.

Microsoft, I just want to use this stupid machine, I don't want to spend all my time looking for networking solutions and playing around with command prompt. And I don't think I should be expected to be an IT expert to run my small online retailing business. I have two windows 10 computers and two Win XP computers in my home network. They used to be able to see each other and share files. After the last upgrade only the Win 10 computers could see each other and only the Win XP computers could see each other.

Nothing between 10 and XP though. Accidentally I found a workaround. I had mapped a Win XP folder to a Win 10 computer and vice-versa. I then tried manually mapping my various shared folders and drives and, voila, I again had access across the operating systems.

A bit tedious but you only need to do it once. I have several machines that can see each other , but my new laptop on same network initially asked me to "enter credentials" and NOW doesn't even SEE any of the other computers on the network.. I thought MS had figured out how to allow computers to share files on a newtwork..

Now I am emailing myself files just to have them in the right place! Windows 10 upgrade applied to 2 office networked PCs that had previously connected to each other and shared files fine under win 10 After the fix I looked on account.

All the logins were 'unsuccessful' after the upgrade while I couldn't access the network and became 'successful' after I added the name. When I went in and checked all computers on my network, the only one that couldn't see the other computes, did not have SMB 1.

Once that box was checked and the computer restarted, all has been good since. Hope this helps. I first noticed the issue when Quickbooks would not connect and the mapped drive was not connected.

I accidentally deleted the mapped drive and realized I could not browse for the drive as no other PC's were showing up in my network. The above item seems to have fixed it. It seems that this might be the fix for some, but to me it looks like Windows is only having this issue with specific NIC's.

I had the same issue, as the PC saw the laptop, both win 10 machines but the laptop couldn't connect to the PC. Moreover, when I tired sharing folders granularly on homegroup without using "Everyone" I wasn't able to find any other network location and I still can't see any this latter problem applies to both machines. Luckily for me, I have the same accounts on both machines with different product keys so I could use that to bypass the issue. For me, what works as a workaround is to disable to extension NIC and to enable to one on the motherboard.

This way I can at least use the homegroup. They said you could change the way it starts and that may fix it, but have not tried it yet. I don't know how that got turned off, but it did, and as soon as I turned it on, I could see all of the computers on my workgroup. My solution Windows 10 required a combination of different processes depending on whether the particular client was serving QuickBooks Company files to the network.

Computers without any QuickBooks server roles were repaired with the Network Reset previously mentioned:. Right click and open the sub-folder's Preferences and open the Security tab and click "Advanced",. You may need to also do this for the particular user you intend to access the QB company file depending on your set up. After hours of web searching and trying multiple different setting options i came across this website.

I followed the 11 steps and created an limited user account in windows Signed into the new account, then immediately signed back into my account and wallah all my network computers plus my 2 synology servers reappeared. Thanks, Steve. Then why isn't there an approved authoritative fix from the Microsoft Staff, Microsoft Programmers, whatever? Who are we talking to with all these questions and answers?

Just each other? Blind leading the blind? Where there's no distinction between replying to the thread and replying to a particular post? Looks to me like the whole thing is an orphan. Stuck out here by Microsoft as a red herring to distract us and lead us away from troubling them, and then abandoned. There should be a 'checklist', surely, at the very least, for initial setup? After the style of 'If you have this set this way and that set that way and the other set the other way and running this tool says this and running that says that then it should work.

That's the way we work when we troubleshoot issues. Go through our checklist. And if we really know the prog or even wrote it ourselves then we have a checklist that solves the problem every time or discovers a previously unknown bug. And then we turn to checkpoints, debugging - and MS could give us directions to do that, too, or could even have a tool online that does it.

I've got five computers on our home LAN. At the moment. And a couple of wifi routers. And an NVR. And a smartphone gets in there too. Found a great work-around for a workgroup in windows When it is open, pin it to the quick access menu. Repeat the process for all computers in your workgroup and on all of your network computers.

Works like a charm. Whilst searching for a solution to my Win10 networking problem, I came across this post and the various replies. Obviously many people are having exactly the same issue and I find it difficult to understand why Microsoft have not provided an "official" fix after a period of almost 2 years. There appear to be many technical people on here who have devised various workarounds which work for some people but not for others.

It should not be necessary to be a technical expert to achieve a fix. Microsoft should "own" the problem and urgently issue a fix - which is clearly a Win10 problem. I have a small office network with one laptop running Win10 and another running Win7. On the Win7 laptop I can see everything on the lan with no problems and all drives are accessible no matter where they are on the network.

I have tried various fixes suggested in the many replies to this post, but cannot get anything to work. I have not tried some of the more technical fixes suggested as I don't want to get in too deep, beyond my level of knowledge.

If this forum is owned by Microsoft or has Microsoft staff contributing, it would be useful if any replies made by those people are identified as a Microsoft answer, rather than a reply by a contributor who may be trying various workarounds themselves.

This problem with Win10 seems to have been open for a long time without Microsoft proposing a permanent, acceptable solution. Many workarounds have been offered and they seem to work for some people, but not others. I tried a number of them without success, but now I have found one that works for me. Someone suggested that we should ensure that SMB 1. Others suggested that was not a good solution as it has security issues.

However, I decided to try it. This appears to have 3 sub-features The 1st and 3rd option were checked on and the 2nd option client was unchecked off. I changed the 2nd client to checked on and rebooted and it immediately fixed the problem. I can now see all network computers and network-attached storage. So, this suggests to me that the problem was caused by this option being unchecked. Now, I know that I have not switched this option off, so something else has switched it off.

As far as I can see, this must either be caused by changes made by Windows Update or by Virus Protection software attempting to eliminate the potential security problem which many people have mentioned. Therefore, it seems that this feature could be switched off again by a future update Either way, it looks like this is something for which Microsoft need to offer a permanent fix.

I assume that there are Microsoft staff reading this forum, so There are many people waiting for your answer. Both Nas are from Qnap, I believe they run at custom Linux system. My Desktop has no problem finding both Nas as Computers, as Media devices and finds the laptop as a Computer, Alongside showing itself in the Network. The Laptop though, sees both Nas as media servers, does not show them as Computer, and does not see my Desktop nor itself.

It just doesn't see them. I followed these instructions and I can now see all of my network computers, printers and storage devices Thank you so much for supplying an answer I did have connections between them by mapping but could not find by browsing. From all of the machines I can see both W7 machines, and one of the W10 ones, but none of the other two W10 ones. This started to happen about two weeks ago. I have tried to look up some of the answers in this thread, but I am not so technical so I dare to try some of the solutions.

Anyway, I think this is an issue that should be solved by Microsoft, not by some devoted users. Checked their settings and they have SMB enabled. Found a 1min youtube video which showed me how to apply fix. Not sure what can of worms I have opened but system is now working, thank you for help. Caveat - Office politics and exec ego ie they have newer sexier toys than we do will trump KISS sooner or later though so watch your back But being in IT we have many ways to watch - everything - and still hold the moral high ground by strictly limiting the use of our expanded consciousness, well until you get canned, then remember the old saying, revenge is a dish best served cold and with plausible deniability.

If they are not running, right click on them and select start. I am running Windows 10 Spring feature update or whatever it is called on my main PC and on a machine I use as a server. After updating the these 2 PCs to the Spring update all my network shared folders were gone. Well, not gone, just inaccessible. Same difference! I do not know if I needed to start the second one but someone in a later post referenced 2 services starting with the word "Function" so I figured what the heck and started both.

I set them to automatic and then had to start them manually. Double-click on Services. Scroll down until you see the "Function" services. Right-click on the first one and select Properties from the menu. Set Startup type to Automatic. Then Left-click the Start button under Service status. Do the same thing for the other "Function" Service. Do this on every PC on your network if these services are not running.

No promises this will work for you but after fighting with this for more time than I can estimate I was willing to give it a try and it did work for me.

A Windows update should NOT stop critical sharing services that were clearly working before!!!!!! One other annoyance, this update set my server PCs login credentials to my MS account not the local username and password I had it set to.

I can't believe this issue is almost 1 full year old and yet, no official solutions, just tricks and work arounds. Thanks to. This problem arrived on my laptop after the Spring upgrade to Windows 10 suddenly the laptop could not recognize the other computers on my network by name, though it could access them by IP.

The desktop was continuing to access the NAS by name successfully, as it always had. After trying most of the suggestions in this and other forums without success, I have solved it as follows:. It must have been like that for years. Presumably facilities that were removed in the recent Windows upgrades had been bypassing that problem somehow, but now it mattered.

So this is something to check even if everything has been working in the past. Correcting this enabled the laptop to see the names of the other two machines in PC Explorer - Network. However, it still couldn't access them by name. Once that was set to start Automatic Delayed , that machine was detected correctly by the laptop and everything functioned ok between those two machines.

The file turned out to have no mappings in it at all, just a few instructions about how to set them up. Now everything worked correctly. I went back and disabled the SMB1. I still don't fully understand what had happened. It is possible that I used to have a mapping for the NAS in the laptop's hosts file it's a long time since I set the system up, and I may have done that and forgotten about it , and that got overwritten in the upgrade; but then why didn't the desktop have the same problem?

I have checked, and that also has a recent, and null, hosts file. I concur in the general opinion that there's something deeply unsatisfactory about the Windows name discovery process; it just doesn't seem reliable or consistent. I'm posting this here for two reasons: First, to suggest to others who are struggling with this issue that you try putting a mapping in your client machine's hosts file, if the critical thing is for those machines to be able to access a server that has a fixed IP.

Secondly, in the hope that someone can explain why the laptop's behaviour is so different from the desktop's - because I like to understand things. Both machines are running fully updated Windows 10, but the laptop has Home whereas the desktop has Pro.

The desktop was originally supplied with Windows 7 and was upgraded directly to Windows 10; the laptop was originally supplied with Windows 8 and upgraded from there. Any thoughts would be welcome. This helped me in my case: seven Win 10 computers on LAN. Function Discovery Resource Host. Function Discovery Resource Publication. SSDP Discovery.

Once checked, you should be able to see a Connected servers tab in Finder, where your connected PC will be shown for you to access. In the Network settings menu, check your connection type in the left-hand menu—the icon next to your connection should be green.

To check if your PC can see other devices, you can use the arp-scan network scanning tool to scan your network for devices instead. This will list all available devices on your network. A list of available devices on your network will be listed, with IP addresses, MAC addresses, and device types shown. If it fails, it will likely indicate a problem with your overall network configuration or firewall.

You can take the usual steps physical checks and connection tests to try to resolve these. If your WiFi connectivity is causing problems, switching to an all-wired network could resolve the problem over the long term. Ben Stockton is a freelance technology writer based in the United Kingdom.