Windows 7: Network discovery not mutual

I have 2 machines on a router, one is a desktop the other is a laptop.

The desktop can see itself and the laptop under Network, however, the laptop sees itself but NOT the desktop.

Both have network discovery and file and printer sharing enabled for both home and public networks, both can ping eachother, I can use the laptop to access the desktop's FTP even though it doesn't see it on Network, but all in all I can't get its NAME to appear in the Network, so I always have to use its IP.

Sear

Could we get some more info about your network setup? also what antivirus and firewall on both?

Ken

COMODO firewall on the desktop and Windows Firewall on both. I have disabled both and then ran a portscan on both machines from 1-1023 to confirm that the ports are no longer stealthed. Furthermore, both machines respond to ping from one another.

Desktop 192.168.1.6 ---------------|
Laptop 192.168.1.27 -------- Router 192.168.1.1 -------------- Internet

The IPs are fixed so they do not change.

why have you enabled sharing on the Public profile?

both computers should be using the Home profile, not Public

you should put both computers in the same Workgroup and Homegroup.

Both computers are on WORKGROUP. Both are using the Home profile for their network connection.

open up Windows help and search for Network Discovery. It will tell you what is needed for it to work.

Not helping me. It suggests that either I have network discovery off or am not connected to the network. I do both.

it works for me. I'm not using Comodo

did you check the services?

what ports did you scan?

Try refreshing when your at the "View Network Settings and Devices" and see if the desktop shows up. Usually works for me.

Been network sharing since build 7000 and as long as you have enabled the right settings it works pretty well.

Okay here's what I did. I made a VPN between the laptop and the desktop with hamachi.

The laptop finally sees the desktop on hamachi, however because of the slow speed it's impractical to use. I did a portscan of the desktop on both its hamachi IP and its WAN IP for ports 0-16384 and the only difference there was between them was that port 912 was open over hamachi. But that's the port VMware uses so no surprise.

Why would they see eachother over hamachi fine?

chev65 could you be a bit more specific with what to do?