Will windows networking EVER work consistently? Or am I the problem?

[Jason Brian Merrill]

Hello, 

I had a netgear nighthawk router I got for free, but it was constantly disconnecting. So I gave it away free for the curse to proceed through humanity. (I informed them of the issues, it's on them now)

As it turns out, my cable company had given me 2 eero devices I could use, so I decided to set them up. They don't have a lot of wired connections, so they told me to put a switch in there. I now have everything wired up. I think it's a netgear GS108

My concern is that my devices won't be as "protected" because typically I know you have to have a router in there with a firewall. It DOES seem the eero has a firewall ,etc - does anyone know if my network will run worse with my current config? Security wise? Connectivity? I really need the pcs to see each other on the network - will this hamper it? The shared laser printer (wirelessly connected tho) works just fine all around the house.

[Jason Brian Merrill]

I'm probably the problem.

Although this might be related to another post I made: 

 

I seem to have had these kind of issues forever. It seems like I can never get my PCs to see each other on the network in windows explorer. Is there any way to diagnose this kind of issue? I have enabled network discovery, file sharing, all of the options I've typically looked at. Is there some other way to make sure pcs see each other? Some kind of tutorials or program to analyze the network and see how things are connected? 

I seem to be able to connect just fine through Remote Desktop Connection and seems fast. But I cannot seem to access it through windows explorer. 

 

[jamester64]

Not sure if this is related but my other computers on my home network never see my PC unless I type backslash backslash in Explorer address bar then my computers name  \\JAMES-PC then the login and password when prompted

Then I see all my shared folders

Hope this helps

[d5aqoëp]

On 13/02/2024 at 08:13, Jason Brian Merrill said:

I seem to have had these kind of issues forever. It seems like I can never get my PCs to see each other on the network in windows explorer. Is there any way to diagnose this kind of issue? I have enabled network discovery, file sharing, all of the options I've typically looked at. Is there some other way to make sure pcs see each other? Some kind of tutorials or program to analyze the network and see how things are connected? 

I seem to be able to connect just fine through Remote Desktop Connection and seems fast. But I cannot seem to access it through windows explorer.

1. For your PCs to be able to see each other, set that particular Wifi or LAN network to Private from regedit.

HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows NT\CurrentVersion\NetworkList\Profiles

Change category of the entry to Private.
public: 0
Private: 1
Domain: 2

Reboot your PCs and they will appear in Network section of Explorer.

2. Alternatively, on Windows 11 atleast, for LAN based connections

go to settings -> Network & Internet -> Ethernet -> Set to Private network

or for Wifi

go to settings -> Network & Internet -> Wifi -> Name of Wifi network -> Set to Private network

Reboot and check.

 

Edited February 13 by d5aqoëp

[Mindovermaster Global Moderator]

On 12/02/2024 at 20:43, Jason Brian Merrill said:

I seem to be able to connect just fine through Remote Desktop Connection and seems fast. But I cannot seem to access it through windows explorer. 

 

That's because when you run RDC, you are running as administrator, not the default user. As @d5aqoëpsaid, you need to apply those settings that he mentioned.

[Jason Brian Merrill]

First off, it looks like my posts were merged. I apologize if it was redundant, I wasn't sure if they were separate topics. Thank you for your patience and understanding mods!!! 

[Jason Brian Merrill]

On 12/02/2024 at 22:17, d5aqoëp said:

1. For your PCs to be able to see each other, set that particular Wifi or LAN network to Private from regedit.

HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows NT\CurrentVersion\NetworkList\Profiles

Change category of the entry to Private.
public: 0
Private: 1
Domain: 2

Reboot your PCs and they will appear in Network section of Explorer.

2. Alternatively, on Windows 11 atleast, for LAN based connections

go to settings -> Network & Internet -> Ethernet -> Set to Private network

or for Wifi

go to settings -> Network & Internet -> Wifi -> Name of Wifi network -> Set to Private network

Reboot and check.

 

On 12/02/2024 at 22:17, d5aqoëp said:

 

This is what I did there, I wasn't aware of this key. But it doesn't seem like a list of networks - interesting. 

I did the other thing you mentioned, with my LAN network entry. I guess I missed that. I typically work with the classic control panel and I don't know how I missed this. 

The laptop showed right up after I did this, and my studio pc showed up on the laptop. Derp. Thank you.l 

 

Edited February 13 by Jason Brian Merrill

[d5aqoëp]

@Jason Brian MerrillAll the alphanumeric strings you see under Profiles in regedit are the various LAN, Wifi, VPN networks. You just have to identify them correctly by clicking on each entry and see what network it is on the right pane.

You can edit Description and Profile Name

You can use this shortcut for network adapters which I use for correctly identifying LAN and Wifi adapters if you have many

https://www.mediafire.com/file/1i6jg2r21rjuny8/Network+Adapter.zip/file

Edited February 14 by d5aqoëp

[Jason Brian Merrill]

Wow I never realized this existed, thank you