Network in explorer does not display other computers on the network.

Hi Good people,
All my PC's talk to each other, even the newbie,

MeLE Quieter3Q Fanless Mini PC Windows 11 Pro Celeron N5105 Small Desktop Computer 8G LPDDR4 128G ROM Micro Form Factor PC Support WiFi 6,BT 5.2,Gigabit Ethernet,Dual 4K HDMI for Office/Home/Business​

however it refuses to show them in explorer. I have gone over the settings and they appear OK and the Network is set to private.
The trouble shooter tells me that there is an issue with the firewall (Defender) however disabling the firewall makes no difference and no amount of restarting helps.

I am able to swap files with it from the other machines in the network, however this is often inconvenient because they are spread throughout the premises. The other computers have a mixture of O S's from XP Pro, Windows 7, Windows 10 and Linux and are all visible to each other. The little box, however, doesn't see any of the other 6 computer though it does see the NAS via Qfinder Pro. Just wondering if anyone has any idea what might be wrong.

The OS is Windows 11 Pro and updated as far as Windows can to 21H2 I think, because the damn thing is downstairs and I am not going downstairs to find out definitively.

Any assistance would be appreciated.

Hi again,
The plot thickens. It appears that there is some kind of communication problem between WIFI and the Cable Networking in the Windows 11 Pro Machine. If I turn on a PC in the Wifi Network also shared by the Windows 11 Pro box then Miraculously a Network tree appears in explorer however if I am trying for a connection to a Machine on an ethernet cable Windows 11 Pro will not display the tree. The attached file shows the appearance of the tree with just a few changes to names etc for the sake of privacy. Can anyone explain this to me since all the network names are the same and all the equipment is on allow lists with permissions across the network being the same. One more curious thing, Only The Windows 11 Pro Box has a D drive but the tree shows both have a D Drive. Haven't had time to check inside yet to see if it has grown one....Just kidding.

If your computers are talking to each other correctly then I suggest you just put up with the fact that File explorer's Network section does not always display them.
File explorer has had this problem for years.

Like many other people, I use shortcuts to network computers & ignore that File explorer's Network section.
\\COMPUTERNAME\SHARENAME
And do note that you do not need to set up a separate ShareName if you want to create a shortcut to a subfolder of a share. You'd just use, for example,
\\COMPUTERNAME\SHARENAME\SomeSubFolderOrOther

All the best,
Denis

@Try3 is spot on. This problem has been going on for years and usually there's no rhyme or reason why for some people some computers show up on the tree and some do not.

I've fought the issue on 2 out of 5 of my machines for years, resorting to using Denis solution of using a shortcut to access by computer name. With my 2 main computers, one of them being one of the problem machines, I've use Remote Desktop as both run Pro and I constantly access files between them. It makes doing maintenance tasks much easier, too.

I've gotten sidetracked from my project of setting up one large NAS drive which I intend to attach to my router. It's a tedious project as I'm housecleaning and organizing years of files as I go. My goal is to do away with simple file sharing altogether and use a poor-man's server.

I don't Map a computer as I usually need just file storage to which end I have a NAS drive connected by cable to my Wireless Router, can access from any computer I use to Map the Public folder on the drive, not the drive itself. Command is \\WDMYCLOUD\PUBLIC. The drive has the Volume label WDMYCLOUD

Berton said:

I don't Map a computer a

Click to expand...

I'm didn't have to map it. All the mapping is done automatically within the router. I connected an old powered 3.0 external drive to the usb port on the TP Link Archer router and it showed up as TP-Share. If I wanted to use a non-powered 2.5 drive I could but I had this one that wasn't being used. I haven't tried it yet, but I'm supposed to be able access my media on my ipad.