Windows 10: I will say this for Windows networking. It is terrible!

I can't figure this stuff out. I have 3 home windows 10 computers, all of which have solid internet connections, all of which are in the same workgroup. What kills me is how intermittent my ability to connect to other machines on my network can be. One minute I can, 1 minute I can't. I enabled NetBIOS, no joy. I ensured that all folders are shared with user everyone having full permission. 1 minute I can access the machine, the next I can't. I went out and bought an updated wireless router, but my problem got worse. Only one of these machines is wireless in any case and I can reproduce from all. What is going on I'm Windows networking? How does the avg user possibly make ends meet when an IT professional such as myself can't seem to accomplish the basics?

:)

 

File Download security warning

I've tried everything that has been posted, and the only thing I found that worked, was this update from Microsoft Catalogue. I ran it and all the warnings disappeared.

KB3199375 for Win/7/Pro/64bit.

Hope it works for the rest of you.

 

File Download security warning

This happened to me as well. When I uninstalled the update, the problem went away. KB3185319 was reinstalled during the following update, and the problem didn't return.

But when I installed the new monthly updates from Microsoft, the problem returned, and now I can't get rid of the problem, as the issue is hidden within the new update.

 

There are issues with 10, that are causing various problems. This is one of them. All you can do is to check for updated drivers for the chipset for your network device and hope that one has been rolled out to fix any issues. Otherwise you may be waiting a while for a fix to come out.

As for making ends meet in the IT field. You do not move people over to a new OS with known issues when it comes out of the gate. That is why those of us that are IT people, keep a box for software testing, or have a small network Lab set up to test for problems with Domains.

Companies are just now rolling out Windows 7. 8 & 10 are not even on the horizon for them at this point.

 

This is my home network. Clearly I would not take a step like this where I work. But still, this kind of problem is reproduce able on all 3 of my machines, which run on very different hardware. I suppose it can be driver related. The one where it is the worst has a brand new PCI wireless card. I will do some checking around for driver updates.

 

Are you running upgraded installs of Windows 10, or did you do fresh reinstalls afterwards? How exactly are you connecting from one computer to another? Are you running any 3rd party firewalls or antivirus?

 

I've been working on a similar issue on my home network and I might have finally solved it. Here is what I did.

• Updated my Ethernet card drivers
• Made sure the power management for my Ethernet was disabled as far as turning it off to save power
• Enabled NetBIOS over TCP/IP under the IPv4 settings
• Made sure the following Services were running. (A few of mine were not so I started them and set them to Auto start)
• DHCP Client
• HomeGroup Listener
• HomeGroup Provider
• Link-layer Topology Discovery Mapper
• Network Connections
• Network List Service
• Network Location Awareness
• TCP/IP NetBIOS Helper

 

I re-installed all of my computers and am unhappy to report that I am still in the same situation. Maybe even a worse situation. I have never seen this kind of crap. I run hackintosh computers with beyond generic drivers and never have never experienced problems like this before. I have 2 machines in the same exact workgroup. I have folders shared with user everyone, owned by system, NetBIOS enabled, and I can't see one computer from another on the network. When I access the other machine via L: \\ip_address\H$ to get to share drive, I get prompted for password and when I punch it in I get access denied. This is killing me. How can they frack this up so much? How is the avg user supposed to figure this out? Windows Networking has gone to crap, and I cannot believe they released this stuff on the general public.

 

I see that you've been a member on this forum since Nov. Are you part of the insider program? What were you using before 10 that worked? Did you upgrade all your machines at once? If only 1, did it work with your old setup? Win 10 networks just fine, some 3rd party drivers, not so much.

 

Mine works flawlessly too wirelessly, WiFi 2.4 GHz, WiFi 5 GHz and Ethernet. No drops whatsoever, no lags and always gives me my 300 Mbps internet.

 

I can go on the internet just fine, however, I noticed this morning that I was unable to set a static IP on my downstairs machine. When I set it, I could no longer connect to the internet. Set to auto it works fine. I had these machines working semi OK both on windows 10 not too long ago. After reinstall and update, on both machines I am having problems. I also upgraded upstairs machine with brand new motherboard, CPU, ram etc. So it is not exactly the same machine any more. Still it is more modern, so it stands to reason that it should have more current drivers.

 

I set my static IP on the DHCP router rather than manually configuring it on Windows 10. I don't have experience in running a network by assigning static IPs outside of DHCP range manually. Maybe there's a bug in 10 that it needs to get a new DHCP lease, but then again I'm just speculating.

Another is making sure that your network is private, and that your firewall and secpol is not blocking the SMB ports/transmissions.

 

I never have any problem setting up the Home Network whether with 7, 8 or 10 so if you have a problem with it, you might have missed some of the settings.

Having said that. Homegroup networking only works with Win 7/8/10 so if you have XP, Vista or any other devices then it's better to setup your Home Network using regular Networking.

If you wish, you can try my suggestion:

• Turn the Homegroup off. In each Win 7 & Win 8 or 10:
  
  Control Panel -> Homegroup, Click on Leave Homegroup
  Control Panel->Administrative Tools->Services. Disable Homegroup Listener and Homegroup Provider.
• Make sure the following services are running In all PC’s:
  
  Control Panel->Administrative Tools->Services
  
  COM+ Event System
  Computer Browser
  DHCP Client
  DNS Client
  Network Connections
  Network Location Awareness
  Remote Procedure Call (RPC)
  Server
  TCP/IP Netbios helper
  Wireless Zero Configuration ( XP wireless configurations only)
  WLAN AutoConfig
  Workstation
• In each PC, make sure they have the same Workgroup Name
  For example: WORKGROUP
• Control Panel->Network and Sharing Center->Change Advanced Sharing Settings
  and set as shown in screenshot below:
  
  
  
  
  
  
• Right click on Drives/Folders in each PC -> Advanced Sharing. Click on Advanced Sharing again, click on share this folder, assign a share name then click on permissions. add a user: Everyone if not already existed then set permission to Full for now.
  
  Again, Right click on Drives/Folders -> Properties->Security. If Everyone is not on the user names list then click on Edit and add Everyone to the list and set permission to Full control
• Now open a browser and login into your Netgear router: Router login
  (If you have different brand of router, consult user manual on how to log into yours) click on LAN Setup and assign a local static(Fixed) IP for each of your PC’s starting with 192.168.1.2 since 192.168.1.1 is the IP of your router. NOTE: any other router brands will also have this option
  The reason for doing this so that each time you boot up your PC's, each will have the same local static IP otherwise the router will randomly assigns to an available IP and that might mess up the router DNS Cache.
  
  
  
• Power cycle your Netgear router so that it will refresh DNS Cache.
• Boot up each PC and open the elevated command prompt and type:
  ipconfig /flushdns hit <Enter>
  then type: ipconfig hit <Enter>
  You should see the local static IP assigned for each PC in step 6.
• Click on Network Icon, you should see all the shares
  
  
  
  
  Hope this helps.

 

Well.. this was interesting.. Upon rebooting workstation, it came up with no graphics driver loaded, and screen that was choppy as can be. I reloaded the graphics driver, and now I am at least back to intermittently being able to see the upstairs computer from the down and vice versa. Is very strange. What I have to do essentially, is connect to upstairs computer via vnc which works 100% of the time, take some action on the machine, and then if I try to access the computer from standard windows explorer, it will work. If I try to go to a different share 20 seconds later, I get the same error. I connect via vnc, wiggle the mouse or something, come back to Windows explorer, and it works. It feels like a duct tape solution at best, but this is what we are relegated to in Windows 10 I suppose. I guess I have always encountered strangeness in Windows networking, but this is over the top. Highly frustrating. Another strange anomaly, is that sometimes my upstairs machine will not even be listed as an avail device, despite the fact that I know it is on, in the same workgroup, and ready. Now, my Win7 work laptop, which is joined to my company domain shows up there for some reason, as does my tenet's phone, even though I know he can't possibly be in the same workgroup. So strange.

 

Topgund, I just saw your suggestions. I will give them a try and report back.