Work From Home - Networking Question

54and56

Hi all,

I've both a Win 10 PC and a Win 10 laptop at home. The PC is ethernet cable connected to my Asus WiFi Router and my Laptop connects to the network over WiFi.

The PC sees my laptop in the "Network" section of File Explorer but my laptop doesn't see the PC.

One of the hard drives on the PC contains files I want to be able to see and access from the laptop but for the life of me I cannot figure out how to see and access the PC from my laptop.

In "Advanced Sharing Settings" I've turned on both "Network Discovery" and "File and Printer Sharing" on both the PC and laptop.

Would appreciate a steer from someone who actually knows how to do this stuff as I'm flailing around going nowhere fast!!

MarkR

Are you sharing any files on your pc? Whatever your pc name is, type it as \\mycomputername into file explorer, and see does it show anything?

JoyPad

If anyone can point to some useful documentation regarding this, I would be happy to try again.
I have two Windows 10 Home machines plugged into the same 10/100/1000 switch. I have tried all the suggestions on this page.

When I open Network on PC #1, I only see this PC. I can open it and see the shared folders. If I type \\pc2 in the bar, it finds the other PC, and I can browse its folders. It temporarily shows PC2 under the Network (on the left side panel). After reboot, it returns to previous state, so I would have to search again for the other PC.

If I open Network on PC #2, I do not see any PCs! I can find this PC by typing \\PC2 in the File Explorer, and I can browse the shared files. However, typing \\PC1 does not work, and I get an error after a while saying "Windows cannot access \\PC1".

I have a feeling that Microsoft wants me to use OneDrive.

54and56

MarkR wrote: »

Are you sharing any files on your pc? Whatever your pc name is, type it as \\mycomputername into file explorer, and see does it show anything?

Thanks MarkR, I'll give that a go.

smuggler.ie

JoyPad wrote: »

If anyone can point to some useful documentation regarding this, I would be happy to try again.

Probably best tutorial for that purpose...
https://www.tenforums.com/tutorials/111783-share-files-folders-over-network-windows-10-a.html

54and56

MarkR wrote: »

Are you sharing any files on your pc? Whatever your pc name is, type it as \\mycomputername into file explorer, and see does it show anything?

Typed \\myPCname into file explorer on my laptop and up pops the PC with the green network indicator etc. Mapped it as a Network Drive and all is good!!

Thank you very much MarkR. I don't know why File Explorer didn't see the PC but \\myPCname saw it

54and56

smuggler.ie wrote: »

Probably best tutorial for that purpose...
https://www.tenforums.com/tutorials/111783-share-files-folders-over-network-windows-10-a.html

That's a very comprehensive tutorial with lot's of options which I'll bookmark for future use. Thanks smuggler.ie.

smuggler.ie

Not sure if it is mentioned in the article linked above, but disabling "power management" on computers NIC will prevent share "outage" once not in use for a while.

54and56

smuggler.ie wrote: »

Not sure if it is mentioned in the article linked above, but disabling "power management" on computers NIC will prevent share "outage" once not in use for a while.

Thanks Smuggler.ie, is that a setting in Device Manager?

smuggler.ie

54and56 wrote: »

Thanks Smuggler.ie, is that a setting in Device Manager?

Correct