Windows 7: Win7 unable to see 2008 R2 server on network.

Hopefully someone here has some ideas on what's going on with this. Here's the setup......

I just upgraded my fileserver to 2008 R2 (clean install) and also upgraded my home PC to Windows 7 (also a clean install). Both are connected together using a linksys 8-port gigabit switch and each machine has 2 NICs which are bridged. The server has a static IP and the workstation currently has a static IP as well (although I've had it set for DHCP and the problem still occurs). Network Discovery is enabled on both and they are both in the same workgroup.

Now with that being said, here's the issue.....

Periodically, the workstation no longer can "see" the server if I try to browse the network. However I can still ping the server by IP as well as name, browse fileshares and even RDP into it. The only thing that is affected is if I'm using a program on my PC and need to access files that are on a network share, then the server isn't listed under network to allow me to browse to the share.

When this happens, I can usually reboot the server and then it will show up, but there seems to be no set pattern as to when it will disappear. If both machines are left on and not rebooted, the server sometimes will just show up under Network for awhile and then disappear again. One final note, on the server, the workstation does show up when browsing the network.

Any help would be appreciated. Let me know if any further info is needed.

?? Those two statements seem to conflict with one another. Or are you talking about connecting manually? Like \\server\share ?

Are you running the RTM versions of those operating systems or the RC versions?

Your problem is such a random occurring one that I'm not sure what you can do to solve it. Possibly some network services are getting stopped.

Does it have anything to do with your bridged connections? You might try configuring the 2008 server into a DNS server or even Active Directory services. It might help to keep it in the network list. I have a similar setup and I haven't run into this problem yet.

Just to clarify, if I click on "Network" on my workstation, only itself shows up in the list. If I do the same on the server, both the server and the workstation shows up. On the workstation, I'm able to access shares by \\server\<sharename> and can ping the server by IP and name.

Both systems are running the RTM versions of of the OS.

I thought about running DNS and AD on the server, just seemed like a little overkill for just a fileserver on the home network.

Anyway, thanks for the input.

1. Have you checked your work groups? That is a common mistake I make.
2. If you are running DNS make sure that your first DNS choice is that of your server.

Actually it turned out to be a driver issue on the server. Seems to be working now. Thanks.

Network driver on the Workstation?

Glad to see you got it working. I wish my vpn problems would just be a driver issue :P