Windows 10: unable to access network device

when trying to access another computer on home network i recieve network error "windows cannot access \\ desktop" that need permission from network administrator (I thought I am the administrator)

:)

 

Unable to access network storage

Hi Pravin,

Network permission is one of the possible reasons why you can't access a drive within a network. To better assist you, we the answers to the following questions:

• Are you working with computers connected to a domain?
• Did you make any changes on your computer prior to the issue?

In the meantime, we suggest following the steps below to troubleshoot Shared Folders in Windows 10:

• On the Cortana search box, type Troubleshoot
  and select the first result.
• Scroll down and click on Shared Folders.
• Click the Run the troubleshooter button.

We are looking forward to your response.

 

What is this network device?


This is a weird problem I've been seeing in windows for years now (not just windows 10). I've been unable to figure out what it is, but we're not alone in this, I did some research a while back and a lot of other people were seeing it as well.

Some suggest it's a bug in the network stack. Some suggest it's neighbors who are connecting somehow, but not able to use the network. Regardless, it's not an uncommon problem and doesn't seem to be anything worry about. Here's some examples:

Solved Strange phones in network - Windows 10 Forums
Strange phones listed on Network heading

 

Small business Wifi Network for 20-30 Devices?

I have been looking at this exact problem myself with the same range of numbers. I've found there are a wide range of choices and performance of the network very much depends on how much money you're willing to put into it.

Our wifi consisted of a single modem/router and the devices were only requesting internet access, the problem we were getting was either devices getting dropped off the network or just very little internet access at all when it was connected. From doing some studying I concluded that i could improve the performance by separating the roles, having a modem dealing with the connection to the outside world and DHCP and having a more powerful router handle the wireless devices (the router I was looking at was the model down from your suggested one, the Asus RT-N66U), you could probably go one further and add a low spec'd server box dealing with DHCP, DNS, etc. This was the cheapest option but left no real room for scaling up devices.

The other was as has been suggested, getting a wireless controller/gateway with multiple access points, obviously the cost scales higher but you also increase the overall capacity of the network with good performance, and usually with a good controller you can further add more access points to increase range/devices.

I think in this case it's very much you get what you pay for.