Win 10 PC can't see network computers

54and56 · 26-11-2018 6:23pm #1

Hi all,

Really annoying little issue which has me stumped.

I've a home network "Workgroup" with several computers and a NAS attached.

When I look in File Explorer on a WiFi connected laptop I see the NAS included in a "Computer" group of 4 devices and it is also included in a separate "Media Devices" group but on a PC which connected via Ethernet cable File Explorer doesn't show any "Computer" group and only displays the NAS in the "Media Devices" group.

I'm pulling my hair out and have tried everything I can think of to get the PC to show the Computer Group (as it had always done until today) including rebooting everything etc but no joy.

Can someone put me out of my misery please and tell me what I'm doing wrong or not doing at all?

.G. · 26-11-2018 8:31pm

Turn off your software firewall and try it. Mine has been in the habit of blocking access to my NAS recently when it never used to.

Eric Cartman · 26-11-2018 8:37pm

Is the NAS ethernet or Wifi ?

its very possible that the router is doing client isolation or firewalling traffic between the interfaces

(this is only if the pc has file sharing turned on, network discovery turned on and the network connection is set to a 'private' network)

54and56 · 26-11-2018 8:55pm

superg wrote: »

Turn off your software firewall and try it. Mine has been in the habit of blocking access to my NAS recently when it never used to.

Thanks, tried that inc a reboot but no joy

Thanatosgratus · 26-11-2018 8:59pm

Control Panel\Network and Internet\Network and Sharing Centre\Advanced sharing settings check if network discovery is ticked

the_syco · 26-11-2018 9:11pm

It being W10, do all PC's have "Network Discovery" switched on?

blackbox · 26-11-2018 9:48pm

I have a similar issue for years and a workaround.

I never found a reliable working solution on the internet.

Sometimes none and sometimes only some of the computers on the network appear.

I can access each of the computers by typing \\ followed by the computer network name (no spaces).

The computer should now be visible. You can then map drives or folders to different letters with "Reconnect at logon" ticked. The drives on the other computers will now appear as additional drives under This PC in Windows Explorer.

54and56 · 26-11-2018 10:39pm

Thanks for all the help and suggestions guys, really appreciate it.

It'll be tomorrow evening before I can get back to this so will try the various suggestions then and feedback whether positive or negative so it may prove useful if others search for a solution to the same problem in the future.

the_syco · 26-11-2018 10:41pm

Je_suis_Jean wrote: »

I've a home network "Workgroup" with several computers and a NAS attached.

What version of W10 are the PC's? I'm guessing W10 Home Edition?

Ger Roe · 26-11-2018 10:52pm

I had a very similar problem recently. I am using a raspberry pi as a media player and it has a usb drive connected with audio and video files that are network accessible (via samba).

I recently had to re-flash the pi SD card and despite setting up everything identically, the windows 10 machines in the house then couldn't see the usb shared drive. Other devices could, but Win 10 was being awkward. Having tried everything I could think of, I then moved the shared drive to my router and tried there - again every other device could see it, but win 10 couldn't.

I then moved the drive back to the PI and tried again and without changing anything, it worked first time and Win 10 devices could see it again.

This series of events took place over about a week with multiple re-boots of everything during that period. I have no idea why it suddenly decided not to work, or why it simply started again, but the issue was only with Win 10 devices.

Sorry this isn't a solution, but I feel your pain.

54and56 · 27-11-2018 11:18am

Eric Cartman wrote: »

Is the NAS ethernet or Wifi ?

its very possible that the router is doing client isolation or firewalling traffic between the interfaces

(this is only if the pc has file sharing turned on, network discovery turned on and the network connection is set to a 'private' network)

Hi Eric,

Thanks for your feedback.

NAS is Ethernet.

PC does indeed have file sharing turned on, network discovery turned on and the network connection is set to a 'private' network. "turn on automatic setup of network-connected devices" is also set to On.

bennyineire · 27-11-2018 11:21am

could be a DNS issue, can you ping the NAS and can you navigate to it if you use the NAS IP address, for (eg \\192.168.1.10 ? or whatever the IP address is for you NAS)

54and56 · 27-11-2018 11:23am

the_syco wrote: »

What version of W10 are the PC's? I'm guessing W10 Home Edition?

Hi Syco,

Yes indeed, all running W10 home Edition.

54and56 · 27-11-2018 11:25am

bennyineire wrote: »

could be a DNS issue, can you ping the NAS and can you navigate to it if you use the NAS IP address, for (eg \\192.168.1.10 ? or whatever the IP address is for you NAS)

Hi Benny, not sure is the answer. I'll do a bit of research and find out.

54and56 · 28-11-2018 12:25am

No Joy at all I'm afraid. There are 4 "Computers" on the network:-

1. A Win 10 PC which doesn't see any "Computers" on the network at all.
2. An old Win 10 Lenovo X1 laptop which sees 3 "Computers" on the network i.e. the PC, another Win 10 Lenovo T580 laptop and the NAS which is classified and seen as a "Computer".
3. A new Win 10 Lenovo T580 which also sees by all other "Computers" namely the PC, the old Win 10 Lenovo X1 and the NAS.
4. The NAS which is a 2TB Media Server from Zyxel, see https://www.zyxel.com/my/en/products_services/nsa310.shtml?t=p.

The NAS shows up as both a media device and a computer within File Explorer on the laptops but the PC doesn't see either the laptops or the NAS as "Computers" in File Explorer but it does see the NAS as a media device.

Spent a good 4-5 hours trying to fix this as I like to move content from the PC to the NAS (but can't as long as File Explorer can't see the NAS as a "Computer") including doing a Network Reset on the PC but to no avail.

Going to bed with my tail between my legs now

the_syco · 28-11-2018 2:20pm

Je_suis_Jean wrote: »

Hi Syco,

Yes indeed, all running W10 home Edition.

According to this you should be able to see the other computers (but I could never get it working, personally).

Je_suis_Jean wrote: »

Spent a good 4-5 hours trying to fix this as I like to move content from the PC to the NAS (but can't as long as File Explorer can't see the NAS as a "Computer") including doing a Network Reset on the PC but to no avail.

What's the make/model of the NAS box? Can it run an FTP server?

Venom · 28-11-2018 3:38pm

This may be completely off the wall but have you tried sharing the devices/location with yourself?

When I reinstalled Windows 10 2 months ago, I noticed the Groove app wasn't picking up 99% of MP3's on my media drive even tho it was the only location I selected for it to look in. I checked that it was shared and yet once I shared the drive again with my own windows login account, the app suddenly found all the files it should.

54and56 · 28-11-2018 5:12pm

the_syco wrote: »

According to this you should be able to see the other computers (but I could never get it working, personally).

Thanks Syc0, tried that last night and no joy I'm afraid. The PC is already a member of the "WORKGROUP" Workgroup which the other devices are part of so I renamed the PC Workgroup "XXXX", rebooted the PC and then renamed it back to "WORKGROUP" again to see if that would prompt a reconnection but no joy

the_syco wrote: »

What's the make/model of the NAS box? Can it run an FTP server?

This is the NAS https://www.zyxel.com/my/en/products_services/nsa310.shtml?t=p and yes I do believe it can run FTP server but I haven't ever tried that before. What would it do?

54and56 · 28-11-2018 5:13pm

Venom wrote: »

This may be completely off the wall but have you tried sharing the devices/location with yourself?

The problem I'm having is seeing the NAS device in the first place so not sure how I can share it when I can't see it.

Am I misunderstanding what it is you are suggesting?

the_syco · 28-11-2018 11:51pm

Set the NAS box to have a static IP address. For example, if your Default Gateway is 192.168.1.254, set the IP of the NAS box to 192.168.1.99

Then browse to it's website (http://192.168.1.99) and you'll see the FTP server option. You'll then be able to connect to it using the likes of Filezilla FTP client to connect to it, and upload files to it.

With a static IP address, you'll always be able to access it via \\192.168.1.99 but I find FTP clients more stable than copy&paste within Windows Explorer.

Sadly I cannot point to the page in the manual that allows you to do this, as the manual doesn't seem to be on that link.

blackbox · 09-12-2018 5:27pm

Any luck in resolving this?

I'd like to be able to move on from my "workaround".

54and56 · 10-12-2018 1:13pm

blackbox wrote: »

Any luck in resolving this?

I'd like to be able to move on from my "workaround".

Not yet, using a workaround myself at the moment. It might be a week or two before I can dedicate time to it.

Moon54 · 10-12-2018 1:59pm

Network stuff is always a bit flaky for me too in Win 10 with NAS's.

Best solution I found was to "Map Network Drives" to drive letter, works flawlessly after that.
a) Open "This PC"
b) Click on "Computer" tab and then select "Map Network Drive"
c) input the \\ipaddressofserver\sharename to give the path of the share
d) Check "Reconnect at logon"
e) Enter login details & double click on the drive to check.

e.g.
my Lenovo share is \\192.168.0.101\Videos -> mapped to V:
my Synology share is \\192.168.0.102\Video -> mapped to S:

blackbox · 10-12-2018 10:50pm

Moon54 wrote: »

Network stuff is always a bit flaky for me too in Win 10 with NAS's.

Best solution I found was to "Map Network Drives" to drive letter, works flawlessly after that.
a) Open "This PC"
b) Click on "Computer" tab and then select "Map Network Drive"
c) input the \\ipaddressofserver\sharename to give the path of the share
d) Check "Reconnect at logon"
e) Enter login details & double click on the drive to check.

e.g.
my Lenovo share is \\192.168.0.101\Videos -> mapped to V:
my Synology share is \\192.168.0.102\Video -> mapped to S:

Yes - that's the same workaround I suggested and have been using myself pending a proper solution.

54and56 · 13-12-2018 5:17pm

the_syco wrote: »

Set the NAS box to have a static IP address. For example, if your Default Gateway is 192.168.1.254, set the IP of the NAS box to 192.168.1.99

Then browse to it's website (http://192.168.1.99) and you'll see the FTP server option.

Hi,

I have 5 static IP addresses from Virgin as I have a small business broadband package from then.

I currently use one for my Asus Router which as I type has a total of 23 devices connected including the NSA310 NAS which the PC is unable to see via File Explorer but is visible when I log into the Router from the same PC.

Would it be a good idea to give the NAS a fixed IP address? If so would the IP Subnet Mas and Default Gateways remain as they are or would they need to be changed also?

Interestingly the Primary DNS server on the NAS when entered into a browser brings up the Router control panel but it isn't the Routers IP address!!

Win 10 PC can't see network computers

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