Quick troubleshooting process:
- Open an elevated Command Prompt window.
- Type Net view and hit Enter.
- The list of all the machines in the network must appear. If the following information is shown:
C:\Windows\system32>net view
System error 6118 has occurred.
The list of servers for this workgroup is not currently available.
This means the Network Discovery is not enabled.
Another quick troubleshooting process:
- Open a File Explorer.
- Click Network in the left panel.
- The list of all the machines in the network must appear in the right panel. If only the same machine appears, this means the Network Discovery is not enabled.
To Enable Network Discovery on the computers that are not visible.
- Go to Start | Control Panel | Network and Sharing Center.
- Click the “Change advanced sharing settings” link.
- Go to the Network Discovery section and select “Turn on network discovery”.
- Click “Save Changes”.
- Click the “Change advanced sharing settings” link again to verify the Network Discovery is still On.
If the Network Discovery does not still Turn On:
- Open a Run window, type in Services. msc and click the Ok button.
- In Services Window check if the following services are set to "Started" and "Automatic".
- IMPORTANT!!! Verify the Computer Browser service is installed “Started” and on “Automatic”. (If the service is not installed, follow the below procedure to install it)
- DNS Client service “Started” and on “Automatic”
- Function Discovery Provider Host. Set this one to Automatic Delayed.
- Function Discovery Resource Publication service “Started” and on “Automatic”
- SSDP Discovery service “Started” and on “Automatic”
- UPnP Device Host service “Started” and on “Automatic”
- TCP/IP NetBIOS Helper service “Started” and on “Automatic”
Then try to turn on the Network Discovery and check if it stays on.
Restarting the Computer Browser service is a good idea.
Steps to install the Computer Browser service if it's not present (Computer Browser service is not present in Windows 2019 by default):
- Open the Server Manager.
- Click Manage.
- Click Add and Remove Features.
- In the pop-up window, click Next.
- Select the server from the server pool and click Next.
- In the Left Panel, click Features.
- Look for the SMB 1.0/CFIS File Sharing Support and expand the option.
- Check the SMB 1.0/CIFS Client option.
- Click Next.
- Click Install. (If there is a Yellow warning at the top saying: "Do you need to specify an alternate source path? One or more installation selections are missing on the destination..." ) Mount the Operating System ISO on the machine and click "Specify an alternate source path" at the bottom of the Confirm installation selections window. Then type the Path by entering the drive letter for the ISO just mounted: example: E:\Sources\SxS\
As the SMBV1 is a known Vulnerability, the protocol must be disabled. But the Computer Browser service will still run.
To disable SMBv1 run the following cmdlet from an elevated Powershell window:
Set-SmbServerConfiguration -EnableSMB1Protocol $false
To verify if it's disabled: Get-SmbServerConfiguration | select enableSMB1Protocol