Software:
Microsoft Windows 10*
*After the famous April 2018 1803 update
An account of the extra ordinary measures that have to be taken in order to persuade Windows 10 (post 1803 update) to let PC’s see each other on the network.
The basics:
These are the basic steps I knew should be done, but to my surprise they weren’t enough to get the PC’s to see each other on the network.
- Connect the PC’s to the Ethernet switch via their Ethernet connection.
*I don’t know if it makes a difference for the next steps, but it should be noted that I’m using automatically obtained IP addresses. - RMB Click the network tray icon and click Open Network & Sharing Settings.
Click Change connection properties and make sure Network Profile is set to Private. - RMB Click the network tray icon and click Open Network & Sharing Settings.
*Or navigate to Control Panel\Network and Internet\Network and Sharing Center\Advanced sharing settings,
Click Sharing Options and under Private (current profile),
Activate Turn on network discovery. - Not sure if that’s essential but..
RMB Click the This PC Icon, or navigate to Control Panel\System and Security\System,
And in Computer name, Domain, and workgroup settings click the Change settings button on the right to open the System Properties window.
Click the Change button to open the Computer Name/Domain Changes window,
Set the computer to be member of a Workgroup and name it, and do the same for other PC’s (using the same Workgroup name).
* If I remember correctly, this will require to restart the PC. - Set shared folders and files (not detailed here..)
The steps I didn’t know:
- Click the Windows (start) or the Search button on the task bar, start typing “services”, and open the Services window.
Scroll sown in the services list and locate the following 4 services,
Make sure they are in Running status, if not, right click them and choose Start.
> Computer Browser (Running) (Automatic)
> Function Discovery Provider Host (Running) (Automatic (delayed))
> Function Discovery Resource Publication (Running) (Automatic (delayed))
> SSDP Discovery (Running) ( Automatic (delayed))
> UPnP Device Host service (Running) ( Automatic (delayed))
* I’m not sure whether those services should be set to startup type ‘Manual’ or ‘Automatic (delayed)’. I saw those properties set differently on different articles. - Click the Windows (start) or the Search button on the task bar, start typing “windows feature”, and open the Turn Windows features ON or Off window.
Scroll down the list to SMB and activate everything that’s SMB.
That’s it.
Hope you find this useful.
Comments are very welcome!
