four computers on same unmanaged switch can't copy files between them - GEEK squad couldn't fix after 3 hours of attempts

BobOmb · Jul 13, 2025

@flhthemi Did you re-enable smbv1 or no? (just curious)

glasskuter · Jul 13, 2025

flhthemi said:
Since 24H2 I'm in sort of the same boat. Can't see one of my NAS devices, some of my PCs aren't there and worst of all the 24H2 PC doesn't see itself in the network!! Now that's just insane to me and this alone has kept me from updating any of my other PCs to 24H2.

Insane, I agree. But it is what we got.. The solution to most issues for folks with mixed OSes is to create credentials on every machine for access
to every other machine. It does not matter if you use the same MS account for every one of them, you still have to build credentials in credentials manager.

I worked for days trying everything I could find until I gave up. I managed alright using RDP. (all my machines are PRO).
Fast forward about 6 months and I upgraded my last system from 10 to 11. Every system saw all the others, all my credentials worked. But I still couldn't access a NAS. I got it worked out using Chatgpt. First problem I ever used AI to solve.

gunrunnerjohn · Jul 13, 2025

glasskuter said:
Fast forward about 6 months and I upgraded my last system from 10 to 11. Every system saw all the others, all my credentials worked. But I still couldn't access a NAS. I got it worked out using Chatgpt. First problem I ever used AI to solve.

The NAS seems to always be the one that is the stickler. All our networked machines are now Win11 Pro, and I do use RDP for a couple of them that are headless. My NAS is a somewhat aging Netgear ReadyNAS, and it always takes the full suite of changes to allow full access when I do a new install.

pseymour · Jul 13, 2025

ReadyNAS OS has supported SMB 3 for a while now. Is your NAS upgradable?

gunrunnerjohn · Jul 13, 2025

pseymour said:
ReadyNAS OS has supported SMB 3 for a while now. Is your NAS upgradable?

Mine is pretty ancient, it's next on the replacement list. I enabled everything I could, which is not much on this model. Mine is the ReadyNAS 102 from 2013, so it's twelve years old. To give you and idea of the age, it still has an eSATA port if you want to put an external disk on it! I have a USB 3 disk on it to do automated backups of the data. The firmware is 6.10.10, the last release and it's listed as end of life. I don't think I'll be getting any updates to the firmware.

It really is time to replace it, just another thing on the list.

dmac486 · Jul 13, 2025

Tester said:
Do you have you main setup as Public network of private network?

all four computers are on private network and have file and printer sharing on and have password protected sharing turned off

pseymour · Jul 13, 2025

You've already done some of this, but this is what you need in order to see other computers in the network node of Explorer.

Set network profile to private. (not strictly needed, but using Public is not a good idea)
Enable Network Discovery for private networks.
Make sure the services "Function Discovery Provider Host" and "Function Discovery Resource Publication" are set to Manual start, and the services they depend on are enabled.
Make sure the firewall rules for function discovery are enabled.

For items 3 and 4, you can run the attached PowerShell script to get a report. No need to run it with admin rights; it's just showing you the state of things. Rename it to a .ps1 extension before trying to run it. You should get something like this; I edited mine to make it shorter.

Code:

The following services should be set to a start type of Automatic or Manual:

Name         DisplayName                              Status StartType
----         -----------                              ------ ---------
DcomLaunch   DCOM Server Process Launcher            Running Automatic
http         HTTP Service                            Running    Manual
fdphost      Function Discovery Provider Host        Running    Manual
FDResPub     Function Discovery Resource Publication Running    Manual


The network category for your connection should be Private:

Name    InterfaceAlias    NetworkCategory
----    --------------    ---------------
Banana  Pineapple         Private


The following rules should be enabled and set to allow traffic.

DisplayName                              Direction Enabled Action
-----------                              --------- ------- ------
Network Discovery (SSDP-Out)              Outbound    True  Allow
Network Discovery (WSD Events-In)          Inbound    True  Allow
Network Discovery (UPnP-Out)              Outbound    True  Allow

flhthemi · Tuesday at 8:41 AM

BobOmb said:
@flhthemi Did you re-enable smbv1 or no? (just curious)

I never disabled it from 23H2. When I updated to 24H2 I checked and it was still enabled.
I have 2 PCs (out of 6) that have 24H2 installed. The rest are locked down to 23H2. Neither of those 2 work properly as far as networking goes. I had to create shortcuts to the devices they don't see on the network. I put those shortcuts into a folder named "Network 2". If I wasn't so old and set in my ways and if I didn't have so much audio/video related software I would switch to Linux. MS should have just left us at Windows 10.

MisterEd · Tuesday at 9:15 PM

I have a mix of computers with Windows 10 22H2 and Windows 11 24H2. I normally don't see the computers on my home network. However, shortcuts to each networked computers have always worked. Note I have "password protected shared" enabled. That works fine for me because I have the same username/password on each computer.

A few years ago I think in tenforums someone came up with a script called FDResPub.bat

net stop FDResPub
net start FDResPub

If I run it on each of the four computer then each one shows up in Network (at least for a time).

dmac486 · Friday at 12:03 PM

BobOmb said:
@flhthemi Did you re-enable smbv1 or no? (just curious)

huh?? what is smbv1 and where do I change setting/re-enable??

pseymour · Friday at 12:08 PM

It's in the "turn Windows features on/off," but you only need SMBv1 if you're using Windows older than Vista, or some device that doesn't support newer versions, like a USB drive connected to a home router or an ancient NAS.

dmac486 · Friday at 1:09 PM

OK .. not sure if I did everything that everyone suggested .. but at this point ALL four computers can see the other three computers that are on the network in File Explorer. I think this behavior is hard to explain so maybe descriptions are needed : WHITETOWER = my main W11 computer, SILVERTOWER = my old W11 tower, LENOVO = wife's W10 laptop, ACER = wife's new W11 laptop. If WHITETOWER clicks on ACER, I can look directly at the shared folders, no password required, but need login credentials for the other two. The geek squad guy renamed the workgroup the same on all four computers and made a credential for each computer. I CAN use the login credentials he gave me for each computer to see the shared files on the last two computers. But I can't do it from the other end to my computer. SILVERTOWER, ACER, and LENOVO all require login credentials for each other and WHITETOWER. SILVERTOWER and LENOVO need login credentials to look at shared files. ACER cannot log into any of the other three computers.

It seems that I am getting closer but not sure where to go next ... do I have to click the box for remember credentials when logging in? Will that automatically allow access to File Explorer? Why can't ACER log in to the other computers?

pseymour · Friday at 1:35 PM

Okay, so now they're able to discover (see) each other; we just need to deal with permissions. Run this in an elevated PowerShell session on each computer.

Set-SmbClientConfiguration -EnableInsecureGuestLogons $true

dmac486 · Friday at 5:24 PM

pseymour said:
It's in the "turn Windows features on/off," but you only need SMBv1 if you're using Windows older than Vista, or some device that doesn't support newer versions, like a USB drive connected to a home router or an ancient NAS.

ok... so i don't have any device other than computers on my LAN ... 1 windows 10 and three windows 11 so i don't need to mess with SMBv1 right?

pseymour · Friday at 5:35 PM

Right, Windows has supported SMBv2 since Vista, and SMBv3 since Windows 8 probably.

dmac486 · Friday at 6:20 PM

pseymour said:
Okay, so now they're able to discover (see) each other; we just need to deal with permissions. Run this in an elevated PowerShell session on each computer.

Set-SmbClientConfiguration -EnableInsecureGuestLogons $true

I tried it but this is the response i get:
'Set-SmbClientConfiguration' is not recognized as an internal or external command,
operable program or batch file.

pseymour · Friday at 6:22 PM

Sounds like you're running it in Command Prompt, not PowerShell.

dmac486 · 2025-07-19T10:58:51-0400

pseymour said:
For items 3 and 4, you can run the attached PowerShell script to get a report. No need to run it with admin rights; it's just showing you the state of things. Rename it to a .ps1 extension before trying to run it. You should get something like this; I edited mine to make it shorter

pseymour said:
Sounds like you're running it in Command Prompt, not PowerShell.

I tried to run this in a PowerShell by typing it at the prompt but got a message that loading scripts is disabled on this system. This is the first time I have EVER used PowerShell so I have no idea what to do.

gunrunnerjohn · 2025-07-19T11:30:53-0400

You need to enable scripts. In PowerShell, run the following command.

Set-ExecutionPolicy -ExecutionPolicy Unrestricted -Scope CurrentUser
When you're done, you might want to disable them again unless you need to run scripts.

Set-ExecutionPolicy Restricted

BobOmb · 2025-07-19T11:39:07-0400

gunrunnerjohn said:
You need to enable scripts. In PowerShell, run the following command.

Set-ExecutionPolicy -ExecutionPolicy Unrestricted -Scope CurrentUser
When you're done, you might want to disable them again unless you need to run scripts.

Set-ExecutionPolicy Restricted

instead of messing with executionpolicy he could just run it as a command

From a normal admin command prompt:

Code:

POWERSHELL -nop -c "Set-SmbClientConfiguration -EnableInsecureGuestLogons $true"

four computers on same unmanaged switch can't copy files between them - GEEK squad couldn't fix after 3 hours of attempts

Well-known member

My Computer

aka Mama Glass

My Computers

Well-known member

My Computers

who wants pizza?

My Computer

Well-known member

My Computers

Member

My Computer

who wants pizza?

Attachments

My Computer

Well-known member

My Computer

Well-known member

My Computers

Member

My Computer

who wants pizza?

My Computer

Member

My Computer

who wants pizza?

My Computer

Member

My Computer

who wants pizza?

My Computer

Member

My Computer

who wants pizza?

My Computer

Member

My Computer

Well-known member

My Computers

Well-known member

My Computer