Windows 7 RC does not scan and see one PC

I have am Optiplex 745 setup with windows 7 Ultimate RC as my File server and 2 other Physical PC's with windows 7 Ultimate RTM. I also have 3 virtual machines XP pro SP3, Vista Ultimate, and Windows 7 Ultimate RC. I do not use the Home group that is turned off.

The problem is that the 2 physical PC's will not scan for and see the server most of the time. That is when you click on the network link in a folder window. The 3 VM's will see the server (however they do run on the server). To get around the 2 Physical PC's not seeing the server I use the "\\pcname" or I added the server to my favorites. For the most part I am ok with this but it gets annoying when I am trying to access it frequently. I must be missing something in the network file sharing settings . . . .

How do I get the server to always show up when I click the network link in the folder window?

Map by ip rather than computer name. This alleviates any kind of potential dns issue possibilities.

To map by ip addresses, you have to set up static ip addresses for each nic/wireless adapter on the network. If you do that, disable DHCP server on the router.

The plus side is that machines will boot slightly faster too since they don't have to worry about pulling an address. This benefit may be very minimal, however.

There has to be a normal way for the computer names show up properly. I can not use static IP's as I use multiple networks on most PC's. The question I guess is, How does the Windows 7 look for PC's on the network? How do you adjust those settings?

I was having the same problem but discovered that the discovery option was turned off for the one computer. I also went and did a diagnose and repair for the local network for that computer and problem is solved.

myoriah said:

I was having the same problem but discovered that the discovery option was turned off for the one computer. I also went and did a diagnose and repair for the local network for that computer and problem is solved.

Thank you! Unfortunatly Discovery is turned on all vista and Win 7 OS's. In addition a diagnose and repair changes nothing.

There will be times that the other Win7 physical PC's will show the server in the network but reboot the server or the physical machines it goes away. hoping to find an answer to this network issue.

eyarea51 said:

I can not use static IP's as I use multiple networks on most PC's.

How does this prevent you from assigning static ips? If anything, this is more of a reason to do so.

Do you mean A) multiple network cards or B) you connect a machine to different networks at different times?