Can you "refresh" your LAN?

[TVeblen]

I have a 4 puter LAN through a router, one W7, one Vista, two XP. Often, my W7 computer cannot "see" my XP computer when I turn it on (often from standby). I have to reboot to get the W7 puter to "see" the XP puter. It would be great if there was a way to "refresh" the network discovery process at the click of a mouse. Possible?
Any ideas on what causes this symptom? User error?
​

 

[Jonathan_King]

You may see if Displaying the full network map helps.



Other than that, have you tried updating your network drivers?

 

[CommonTater]

I have a 4 puter LAN through a router, one W7, one Vista, two XP. Often, my W7 computer cannot "see" my XP computer when I turn it on (often from standby). I have to reboot to get the W7 puter to "see" the XP puter. It would be great if there was a way to "refresh" the network discovery process at the click of a mouse. Possible?

Any ideas on what causes this symptom? User error?​

Do you have the Computer Browser and Network Location Awareness services running on all your computers?

If so then just open your network folder and click the "refresh" icon to the right of the address bar.

 

[TVeblen]

Do you have the Computer Browser and Network Location Awareness services running on all your computers?

If so then just open your network folder and click the "refresh" icon to the right of the address bar.

And there it is! Thanks for pointing that out to me - I was being quite dense.

And I do need to check the Computer Browser services on the XP machines. I may have disabled them a while back when I was trying to eliminated the Master Browser war from the Event Viewer and never switched them back. That would explain some things.

Thanks for the brain poke!

 

[CommonTater]

And there it is! Thanks for pointing that out to me -

My pleasure.

 

[TVeblen]

Arrgghh. I spoke too soon! It took this long for the situation to come up again and the "Refresh Network and Sharing Center" button did not solve the behavior.

Neither did "Show Full Map" - I get a "no other computers found" message.

I am running the most current LAN driver for the "Realtek PCIe GBE Family Controller" - 7.12.1218.2009 dated 12/18/2009.

Everything works. This seems to be a sort of GUI issue (the computer is there, I just can't see it).
This is exactly what I am doing: I use an old P4-XP machine as a DVR. I transfer the videos to the i7-W7 machine to use the faster hard drive and more space for playback.
The W7 is on when I start and then I hit a key to bring the XP machine out of standby, then go to Windows Explorer to cut and paste the files. On the W7 machine In Explorer, under Network, only the W7 computer is showing. If I switch to the XP machine, go to and expand the Network, only the XP machine is showing. But the XP machine has a network shortcut to the VIDEOS folder on W7. I can move the files from XP to W7 using the shortcut even though W7 does not show. Once a file is being transfered, if I switch back to the W7 machine, the XP machine is now showing under Network in WE.

The Computer Browser service and Network Awareness service are started on both computers.

If I reboot either computer they can see each other. It would be cool if I could refresh the Network Discovery process without rebooting. Possible? or is that a suggestion for Windows 8?

 

[CommonTater]

If I reboot either computer they can see each other. It would be cool if I could refresh the Network Discovery process without rebooting. Possible? or is that a suggestion for Windows 8?

Does the XP machine spend a lot of time in standby?
If so your router might ben removing it from the DNS list.

If you type it's name into the address bar of the network folder will it pick up the maching and show you it's shares?
That means the system is there, it's just not being indexed in network enumeration.

Make sure you have "Register with DNS" checked in all network adaptors.
The Network folder won't show any machine that's not known to your Router's DNS.

It sucks but sometimes it can take up to 10 minutes for a machine to show up in the Network folder... Don't know why... it just does.

Finally... is your win7 machine using HomeGroup or Workgroup sharing... HomeGroups don't work wirth soggy dirt with mixed OSs on the network. I have XP and Ubuntu machines on my LAN and couldn't connect to any of them until I switched back to conventional XP style Workgroup sharing and disabled IPV6 in my network adaptors.

 

[Packet]

this is a dumb question - but doesnt 'register with dns' require a dns server that accepts dynamic client updates?

else it'll just throw registration failure attempts in the event viewer.

of course, for a small home network, one can just 'cheat' by having static IP's and stuffing the host ip mapping in the hosts file.

ps: guessing the network folder uses browser adverts and broadcasts (think 15 mins used to be the old number for cache updates and refreshes)

 

[TVeblen]

Does the XP machine spend a lot of time in standby?
If so your router might ben removing it from the DNS list.

If you type it's name into the address bar of the network folder will it pick up the maching and show you it's shares?
That means the system is there, it's just not being indexed in network enumeration.

Make sure you have "Register with DNS" checked in all network adaptors.
The Network folder won't show any machine that's not known to your Router's DNS.

It sucks but sometimes it can take up to 10 minutes for a machine to show up in the Network folder... Don't know why... it just does.

Finally... is your win7 machine using HomeGroup or Workgroup sharing... HomeGroups don't work wirth soggy dirt with mixed OSs on the network. I have XP and Ubuntu machines on my LAN and couldn't connect to any of them until I switched back to conventional XP style Workgroup sharing and disabled IPV6 in my network adaptors.

Yes- stays in standby most of the time.
I'll try the address bar. I'm betting it will work fine.
I'll time it!
I'm using workgroups and sharing is fine.
Thanks for the info!

 

[TVeblen]

this is a dumb question - but doesnt 'register with dns' require a dns server that accepts dynamic client updates?

else it'll just throw registration failure attempts in the event viewer.

of course, for a small home network, one can just 'cheat' by having static IP's and stuffing the host ip mapping in the hosts file.

ps: guessing the network folder uses browser adverts and broadcasts (think 15 mins used to be the old number for cache updates and refreshes)

I've toyed with the idea of static addresses. Now it's just a matter of deciding if the annoyance is worth the trouble.

So if I wait 15m the network may refresh by itself?
Thanks

 

[Product FRED]

Here are commands to refresh your LAN connection. Use these in the command prompt (doesn't need to be elevated):

- ipconfig /release - will release your internet connection

- ipconfig /renew - will refresh your internet connection by reacquiring an IP address from your router. You don't need to run ipconfig /release before using this command.

- flushdns - will reacquire DNS information

 

[Packet]

I've toyed with the idea of static addresses. Now it's just a matter of deciding if the annoyance is worth the trouble.

So if I wait 15m the network may refresh by itself?
Thanks

my bad - seems to be 12 mins as per Description of the Microsoft Computer Browser Service

 

[TVeblen]

Here are commands to refresh your LAN connection. Use these in the command prompt (doesn't need to be elevated):

- ipconfig /release - will release your internet connection

- ipconfig /renew - will refresh your internet connection by reacquiring an IP address from your router. You don't need to run ipconfig /release before using this command.

- flushdns - will reacquire DNS information

Yes that does work, as does resetting the router, but rebooting is then the faster choice, plus you can refill your coffee while you do it!
I'm just checking to see if I'm missing something obvious and simple.

 

[CommonTater]

this is a dumb question - but doesnt 'register with dns' require a dns server that accepts dynamic client updates?

else it'll just throw registration failure attempts in the event viewer.

of course, for a small home network, one can just 'cheat' by having static IP's and stuffing the host ip mapping in the hosts file.

ps: guessing the network folder uses browser adverts and broadcasts (think 15 mins used to be the old number for cache updates and refreshes)

Most routers have DNS servers in them, these days.

My solution to the problem was to simply make my own network shortcuts right in my home folder... One for each computer. The shortcuts have the added advantage that clicking them will actually wake the computer from standby...

 

[TVeblen]

my bad - seems to be 12 mins as per Description of the Microsoft Computer Browser Service

It's been 20 min and XP still has not shown up. But the D-Link Media Server on XP does, and right away.

 

[TVeblen]

Most routers have DNS servers in them, these days.

My solution to the problem was to simply make my own network shortcuts right in my home folder... One for each computer. The shortcuts have the added advantage that clicking them will actually wake the computer from standby...

That sounds like a practical solution. I'll give it a go.

 

[chev65]

This is a typical problem which is easily fixed.

Solution is really easy just modify one key in registry:
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Policies\System
create or modify 32-bit DWORD: LocalAccountTokenFilterPolicy
set the value to: 1

The link below shows you how it works and will answer any other questions you might have.

http://www.sevenforums.com/network-sharing/62116-networking-7-xp-issue.html

 

[TVeblen]

Hey Chev - Thanks for the reply.

I've just finished reading some stuff about LocalAccountTokenFilterPolicy and it seems that what this does is disable the UAC Remote Restrictions, allowing unlimited network access to administrative shares.

Do you think that this fix creates a potential security vulnerability?

 

[Barman58]

One thing to check with the XP machines is that they are running SP3 - there are some additional components included to allow the later OS to poll the XP machines using the new networking methods (link Layer topology)

It is still available as a separate download for non SP3 systems

Download details: Link Layer Topology Discovery (LLTD) Responder (KB922120)

 

[TVeblen]

I have XP-SP3 on all with all updates.