Tag Archives: network issues

Cannot browse network neighborhood under Windows 10 Fall Creators update 1709 and newer

Once again, Microsoft has thrown a monkey wrench into the operation of how your network neighborhood (or “Network”) item under Windows 10 works.

I had previously created this blog post which addressed the initial issues with Windows 10 not allowing the Network to show a list of all your local computers.

Well, due to the Fall Creators update and versions 1709 and later, Microsoft has moved even further to stop the use (and functionality) of the Network icon inside windows explorer.

Microsoft has completely disabled (and removed) SMBv1 in Windows 10 (and modern Windows Server 2016) starting with the FALL CREATORS UPDATE build 1709 and later.   This in-effect completely disables the ability for your NETWORK item in Windows Explorer to populate a list of your local network computers.

I manage several small networks and it is EXTREMELY helpful to be able to browse a list of all the local computers.

To fix this issue, go to WINDOWS FEATURES (just use Cortana and type in windows features), expand SMB 1.0/CIFS File Sharing Support

CHECK: SMB 1.0/CIFS CLIENT and SERVER

click OK

it will prompt you to reboot

when you’ve rebooted, go to windows file explorer and click on NETWORK.  you may need to hit the refresh icon, but it should pull the list of all local PC’s and magically your network neighborhood will now work!

 

**Note: if you try this and it still doesn’t work, make sure you do the registry entry on my prior blog post (link at the top of this post).  You will need to add that registry key and reboot.

 

Inconsistent ping / inconsistent network connectivity on Hyper-V virtual machine

I recently came across this issue on one of my virtual server machines, where I just setup a brand new Windows Server W2K12R2 Update 1 virtual machine. It is currently in DHCP status soon to be set as a static IP.

With the client VM machine running (and while multiple other VM’s are running w/o any problems), I was experiencing the following:
1) inconsistent ping of the VM
2) inability to remote desktop into the machine (sometimes I could connect, sometimes I would not be able to)
3) DNS resolution issues with that VM

Here is my setup:
Windows Server 2012 R2, Update 1. Hyper-V 6.3.9600.xxxxx
Client: Windows Server 2012, R2, Update 1. Standard Server. Virtual Machine version 5, generation 2.

Network: High quality CAT6/Gigabit setup.

Here is what it looks like when I do a continuous ping of the virtual machine:

pings

After doing a LOT of troubleshooting / testing / trial & error, here is the fix:

This new VM has a “DYNAMIC” MAC address.  All the other VM clients on that server have STATIC MAC addresses.

I shut down the VM, adjusted the network settings (under ADVANCED) to a STATIC MAC.

Start the VM.

Login (via remote desktop while sitting on the Hyper-V server itself)

Do a continuous ping, and the issue is fixed!

Next, via Remote desktop into the hyper-v server and controlling the machine that way (not remote desktop connecting into the VM itself…) I switched the machine to a static IP, which was different than the DHCP assigned one.

Reboot machine (for the heck of it)

on my desktop, IPCONFIG /FLUSHDNS

(at this point depending on how your network is configured you may need to wait a bit for the DNS changes (IP change) to catch up so that your ping works…)

then try pinging the IP address (not machine name):  Works

try pinging the machine name: Works  (see above, you may need to wait a bit for your network to catch the DNS changes)

=

The above fix (changing to Static IP) alleviates the need to fiddle with the VM’s Hardware Acceleration settings, such as VMQ (Virtual Machine Queue) or the Enable IPsec task offloading.  On my Hyper-V server both of these are “CHECKED/ON”.