How do I connect multiple computers on a home LAN network in Windows 11?

Question

I have a desktop Win11 and laptop Win10 both 64 bit, connected with CAT cables through a router on my home LAN. I want to sync the files so that changes are kept up to date.

I have opened the Network folder on both.

Desktop shows: the router; the laserjet printer.

Laptop shows: the desktop, but with access only to the Users folder; the router; the laserjet printer.

Over the years, I have adjusted the network settings on both, hopefully to solve problems which they rarely did. It is also likely that the permissions are different between the two have been fiddled with.

How can I (re-)set the settings so that both computers can see the whole contents of the other?

PS. What are the "product and service tags" options? Nothing seems to work.

Answer 1

On my home network my wifi router provides DHCP and DNS services. When any pc boots up, it gets an IP address from the router and its name is registered. I can then use NSLOOKUP by either IP or PC name and find all of the machines on my network. I do have a desktop that is wired to the router, but it too uses DHCP.

Some routers may not register local names. Some users like to use Google's 8.8.8.8 DNS servers which can't resolve local IPs/names. In that case you can enable network discovery.

This is kind of a long thread, but it shows troubleshooting steps that you can do to analyze your network.

You can run the Powershell script on your pc's to enable network discovery.

https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/answers/questions/302088/how-to-switch-from-a-call-by-ip-address-to-a-call

I log on to my machines with my Microsoft account. That allows me to authenticate to any other pc and see the shared folders. Before I used a MS account, I defined a local user with the same name and password on every machine.

I do not recommend using the guest account. I feel that it exposes my files to any machine that might happen to find a way on to my network.

Answer 2

Hello,

You can try the following steps to better achieve seamless connection and file sharing:

1. Configure the Private network:

Configuring Private makes it easy to allow network discovery while eliminating the impact of access authorization.

2. Check firewall ports:

Internet firewalls may prevent file sharing. Check the following port configurations:

I hope this helps.

Best regards

Jacen

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Answer 3

Thank you - but.

Both the Win10 and Win11 computers had and have their Private networks settings as you state above.

But neither can see or access the other computer's discs of data.

I may in the past have incorrectly set their access permissions. I have no idea what those should be, or how to set them correctly.

Any suggestions?