{"id":14513,"date":"2020-08-17T06:00:58","date_gmt":"2020-08-17T13:00:58","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.zubairalexander.com\/stage\/?p=14513"},"modified":"2020-08-31T11:13:58","modified_gmt":"2020-08-31T18:13:58","slug":"unable-to-map-a-drive-or-ping-a-computer-thats-connected-to-the-network","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.zubairalexander.com\/blog\/unable-to-map-a-drive-or-ping-a-computer-thats-connected-to-the-network\/","title":{"rendered":"Unable to Map a Drive or Ping a Computer That&#8217;s Connected to the Network"},"content":{"rendered":"<p style=\"margin: 0in; font-family: Calibri; font-size: 12.0pt;\"><button id=\"listenButton1\" class=\"responsivevoice-button\" type=\"button\" value=\"Play\" title=\"ResponsiveVoice Tap to Start\/Stop Speech\"><span>&#128266; Listen to Post<\/span><\/button>\n        <script>\n            listenButton1.onclick = function(){\n                if(responsiveVoice.isPlaying()){\n                    responsiveVoice.cancel();\n                }else{\n                    responsiveVoice.speak(\"Here\u2019s a situation that you may have experienced. You discover that you are suddenly not able to ping a computer that was available before. You are also not able to map a shared drive or access a printer directly attached to that computer. Let\u2019s take a closer look at the problem and a possible solution. Problem Scenario Although the scenario I am using in this article assumes that you\u2019re working on a Windows 10 Professional or Windows 10 Enterprise computer, the situation in this article also applies to Windows Server computers. You discover that ComputerA, which is running Windows 10, can successfully ping all other computers (e.g. ComputerB, ComputerC, ServerA, ServerB, etc.) on the network. You open a web browser and are able to successfully connect to the Internet. You connect to a shared folder located on Windows Server 2019 and it works. Everything seems to work just fine on ComputerA. You sign in to ComputerB, which is also running Windows 10, and ping ComputerA. The ping is unsuccessful. You try to map a drive from ComputerB to ComputerA, first by using the computer name (\\\\ComputerA\\SharedFolder), and then the IP address (\\\\192.168.1.25\\SharedFolder). You are unsuccessful in mapping a drive. You get the following error. Error code 0x80070043. The network name cannot be found. This is unexpected behavior for a couple of reasons. You didn\\'t make any changes to the Windows Firewall on ComputerA that could prevent other computers from connecting to the shared folder and mapping the drive to ComputerA was not a problem earlier in the morning. You restart both ComputerA and ComputerB, but it doesn\u2019t solve the problem. You then try to use Remote Desktop (mstsc.exe) to connect to ComputerA from ComputerB and that works. You can also connect to ComputerA from other computers (servers and workstations) using Remote Desktop Protocol (RDP) successfully. Remote desktop connectivity works as expected. Conclusion: Users are unable to successfully ping or map a drive from their computer to ComputerA. However, a user on ComputerA can not only ping all other computers on the network successfully, but also successfully map a drive to any shared folder on another computer for which the user has permissions. A Common Solution While there are different reasons that you may not be able to ping the remote computer or map a network drive, one of the most common reasons for not being able to ping a computer that\\'s connected to the network (and the Internet) has to do with network discovery. In our scenario, the likely reason could be that the services that rely on the network discovery and file sharing are not working on ComputerA. We need to ensure that these services are available to the users on the network. What is Network Discovery? It is a service running on a Windows computer that allows computers and other devices on the local network to see the computer and communicate with it. In addition, the service allows users to print documents on a network printer or scan a document on a network scanner. There are various reasons why your network discovery service may be turned off. You could have intentionally or unintentionally turned it off while working on your Windows 10 network profile, a Windows Update may have turned it off, a malware could be the culprit; a dependent service, such as Remote Procedure Call (RPC) may not be working, or perhaps some other technical issue may have prevented the service from starting. There are several ways to fix this issue. You can take care of the problem in Windows Advance Firewall, Windows Settings, Windows File Explorer, Control Panel, Function Discovery services in the Services Console (services.msc), use PowerShell, etc. In this article, I will show you how to use the Windows File Explorer to fix the problem because that\\'s my preferred method to quickly fix the problem. First, go to the Control Panel -greater than Network and Sharing Center and look at the status of your active network. You will notice it\u2019s listed as Public network. Leave this window open, you will come back to this in a minute to verify the setting has changed. Now go to the Windows 10 File Explorer and select Network. You will see the following warning message. Network discovery is turned off. Network computers and devices are not visible. Please turn on network discovery in Network and Sharing Center. Go ahead and click OK. When you click OK, you will see a yellow bar with the same notice and an option to change the setting. Click anywhere in the yellow box on the notice and select Turn on network discovery and file sharing. You are provided options to either turn on the network discovery for all public networks, which you should never do, or to make your network private. Select the first option No, make the network that I am connected to a private network. This will secure your computer and turn on network discovery and file sharing. Now you should see computers and other devices on your network. Go back to the Network and Sharing Center (step #1). Your active network should now be a Private network. The name of your network may be different than what you see in the screenshot, but that\u2019s okay. Now try to ping ComputerA. Also try to map a network drive to a shared folder from ComputerB to ComputerA. Ping and drive mapping should be successful. They should also be successful from any other computer on the network. Here are some additional information that you will find useful. I encourage users to customize and tweak their sharing options to enhance security. Customizing Sharing Options For security reasons, it\u2019s a good idea to customize your sharing options for the different network profiles. The options are available under Control Panel -greater than Network and Internet -greater than Network and Sharing Center -greater than Advanced sharing settings. To better understand these network profiles, let me explain what private and domain profiles are in this context. Private vs. Domain Profile It\u2019s important to understand the difference between the Private profile and the Domain profile. If your computer is connected to a Windows domain, which is usually the case in a business environment, you will see a domain profile that will be listed as Domain (current profile). If you are logged in to your local computer profile at home or work, then your current profile will be the Private (current profile). On a Windows Server, and a Windows 10 workstation that\u2019s joined to the domain, there will be four sharing options: Private Guest or public Domain All Networks On Windows 10 computers that are not joined to the domain, such as home computers, or some business computers that are intentionally not connected to the domain, there will be three sharing options, because the domain option won\u2019t be applicable. Network Sharing Recommendations Here\u2019s the simple rule I recommend for configuring network profiles. For security reasons, only enable the network discovery and file and printer sharing options for your current profile. Disable them on all other profiles. Private Profile A Windows 10 Professional or Windows 10 Enterprise computer that\u2019s not joined to the domain, the network sharing options should look like this for the Private (current profile). Network discovery Turn on network discovery: Selected Turn on automatic setup of network connected devices: Box checked (enabled) File and printer sharing Turn on file and printer sharing: Selected Although for general public I recommend leaving network discovery on, I do not enable network discovery on any computer on my network (server or workstation) to enhance security and improve performance. Check out my article How to Switch the Network Profile from Public to Private on Windows 10 for more details. You will find a lot more details on the network profiles, plus information on how to switch between profiles, what to do if you don\\'t see the option to switch profiles, how to change the network name, and why it\\'s best to turn off network discovery on all networked computers, especially in secure environments. Guest or Public Profile Your Guest or Public profile should have the network discovery disabled under all circumstances. The file and printer sharing should also be disabled. This is true whether your computer is domain-joined or not and whether you are working with a Windows Server or a workstation, such as Windows 10. Network discovery Turn off network discovery: Selected File and printer sharing Turn off file and printer sharing: Selected Domain Profile Your Domain (current profile) would usually be controlled by the Domain Administrator. The settings would depend on your network security policies and how your business operates. Workstations are usually not configured to share folders or printers with other users on the network. In fact, most network administrators have policy in place to prevent users from accomplishing these tasks. File sharing roles are typically reserved for file servers. Network discovery is also not encouraged on wireless networks, especially in secure environments. Some organizations may not allow network discovery for domain-joined computers for security and performance reasons. All Networks Profile The All Networks profile should be configured as follows. Notice that Public folder sharing feature is turned off for this profile. Public folder sharing is different than Guest or Public sharing. I don\u2019t recommend using the public folder sharing feature in Windows 10. This feature makes it easier to share files because you simply add the files to a \u201cpublic folder\u201d and other can access it without a password. This feature requires that you turn off the Password protected sharing feature. I am not a fan of public folder sharing and discourage people from using it. I recommend using the Password protected sharing feature to share folders and configure permissions to restrict access to the users. This feature requires a user account and password on this computer to access files and printers attached to this computer. The media streaming option is turned off by default for the All Networks profile. When media streaming is on, your users and their devices will be able to send and receive pictures, music, and videos from and to this computer. Most people do not need this feature. I recommend you leave this feature off. Related Articles The following articles have lots of useful information that\\'s related to this article. The first article has more details on the network profiles, plus information on how to switch between profiles, what to do if you don\\'t see the option to switch profiles, how to change the network name, and why it\\'s best to turn off network discovery on all networked computers, especially in secure environments. The second article has a list of services that need to be running for the network discovery to work. Although the second article is written for Windows 7\/8, you may want to take a look if you are having issues with your network discovery service. How to Switch the Network Profile from Public to Private on Windows 10 Unable to Turn on Network Discovery on Windows 7 or Windows 8 Thanks for reading my article. If you are interested in IT consulting & training services, please reach out to me. Visit ZubairAlexander.com for information on my professional background. Copyright \u00a9 2020 SeattlePro Enterprises, LLC. All rights reserved.\", \"US English Male\");\n                }\n            };\n        <\/script>\n    <\/p>\n<p>Here\u2019s a situation that you may have experienced. You discover that you are suddenly not able to ping a computer that was available before. You are also not able to map a shared drive or access a printer directly attached to that computer. Let\u2019s take a closer look at the problem and a possible solution.<\/p>\n<h4><strong>Problem Scenario<br \/>\n<\/strong><\/h4>\n<p>Although the scenario I am using in this article assumes that you\u2019re working on a Windows 10 Professional or Windows 10 Enterprise computer, the situation in this article also applies to Windows Server computers.<\/p>\n<p>You discover that ComputerA, which is running Windows 10, can successfully ping all other computers (e.g. ComputerB, ComputerC, ServerA, ServerB, etc.) on the network. You open a web browser and are able to successfully connect to the Internet. You connect to a shared folder located on Windows Server 2019 and it works. <em>Everything seems to work just fine on ComputerA.<\/em><\/p>\n<p>You sign in to ComputerB, which is also running Windows 10, and ping ComputerA. <em>The ping is unsuccessful.<\/em><\/p>\n<p>You try to map a drive from ComputerB to ComputerA, first by using the computer name (\\\\ComputerA\\SharedFolder), and then the IP address (\\\\192.168.1.25\\SharedFolder). <em>You are unsuccessful in mapping a drive.<\/em><\/p>\n<p>You get the following error.<\/p>\n<p><em>Error code 0x80070043. The network name cannot be found.<\/em><\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.zubairalexander.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/08\/network-error-0x80070043-1.png\"><img decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignnone wp-image-14514 size-full\" src=\"https:\/\/www.zubairalexander.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/08\/network-error-0x80070043-1.png\" alt=\"Network error 0x80070043 - The network name could not be found.\" width=\"524\" height=\"233\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.zubairalexander.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/08\/network-error-0x80070043-1.png 524w, https:\/\/www.zubairalexander.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/08\/network-error-0x80070043-1-300x133.png 300w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 524px) 100vw, 524px\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<p>This is unexpected behavior for a couple of reasons. You didn&#8217;t make any changes to the Windows Firewall on ComputerA that could prevent other computers from connecting to the shared folder and mapping the drive to ComputerA was not a problem earlier in the morning.<\/p>\n<p>You restart both ComputerA and ComputerB, but it doesn\u2019t solve the problem.<\/p>\n<p>You then try to use Remote Desktop (mstsc.exe) to connect to ComputerA from ComputerB and that works. You can also connect to ComputerA from other computers (servers and workstations) using Remote Desktop Protocol (RDP) successfully. <span style=\"color: #000000;\"><em>Remote desktop connectivity works as expected.<\/em><\/span><\/p>\n<p><strong>Conclusion<\/strong>: Users are unable to successfully ping or map a drive from their computer to ComputerA. However, a user on ComputerA can not only ping all other computers on the network successfully, but also successfully map a drive to any shared folder on another computer for which the user has permissions.<\/p>\n<h4><strong>A Common Solution<\/strong><\/h4>\n<p>While there are different reasons that you may not be able to ping the remote computer or map a network drive, one of the most common reasons for not being able to ping a computer that&#8217;s connected to the network (and the Internet) has to do with network discovery. In our scenario, the likely reason could be that the services that rely on the network discovery and file sharing are not working on ComputerA. We need to ensure that these services are available to the users on the network.<\/p>\n<table>\n<tbody>\n<tr>\n<td style=\"background-color: #fffdbd; text-align: left; vertical-align: top;\"><span style=\"font-size: 14pt;\"><span style=\"color: #ff0000;\"><strong>What is Network Discovery?<\/strong><\/span> It is a service running on a Windows computer that allows computers and other devices on the local network to see the computer and communicate with it. In addition, the service allows users to print documents on a network printer or scan a document on a network scanner.<\/span><\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/tbody>\n<\/table>\n<p>There are various reasons why your network discovery service may be turned off. You could have intentionally or unintentionally turned it off while working on your Windows 10 network profile, a Windows Update may have turned it off, a malware could be the culprit; a dependent service, such as Remote Procedure Call (RPC) may not be working, or perhaps some other technical issue may have prevented the service from starting.<\/p>\n<p>There are several ways to fix this issue. You can take care of the problem in Windows Advance Firewall, Windows Settings, Windows File Explorer, Control Panel, Function Discovery services in the Services Console (services.msc), use PowerShell, etc. In this article, I will show you how to use the Windows File Explorer to fix the problem because that&#8217;s my preferred method to quickly fix the problem.<\/p>\n<ol>\n<li>First, go to the <strong>Control Panel -&gt; Network and Sharing Center<\/strong> and look at the status of your active network. You will notice it\u2019s listed as <strong>Public network<\/strong>. Leave this window open, you will come back to this in a minute to verify the setting has changed.<br \/>\n<a href=\"https:\/\/www.zubairalexander.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/08\/public-network.png\"><img decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignnone wp-image-14516 size-large\" src=\"https:\/\/www.zubairalexander.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/08\/public-network-1024x539.png\" alt=\"Public network\" width=\"1024\" height=\"539\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.zubairalexander.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/08\/public-network-1024x539.png 1024w, https:\/\/www.zubairalexander.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/08\/public-network-300x158.png 300w, https:\/\/www.zubairalexander.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/08\/public-network-768x404.png 768w, https:\/\/www.zubairalexander.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/08\/public-network.png 1126w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 1024px) 100vw, 1024px\" \/><\/a><\/li>\n<li>Now go to the Windows 10 <strong>File Explorer<\/strong> and select <strong>Network<\/strong>. You will see the following warning message.<br \/>\n<em>Network discovery is turned off. Network computers and devices are not visible. Please turn on network discovery in Network and Sharing Center.<\/em> Go ahead and click <strong>OK<\/strong>.<br \/>\n<a href=\"https:\/\/www.zubairalexander.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/08\/network-discovery-is-turned-off.png\"><img decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignnone wp-image-14517 size-full\" src=\"https:\/\/www.zubairalexander.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/08\/network-discovery-is-turned-off.png\" alt=\"Network discovery is turned off. Newtork computers and devices are not visible.\" width=\"562\" height=\"136\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.zubairalexander.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/08\/network-discovery-is-turned-off.png 562w, https:\/\/www.zubairalexander.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/08\/network-discovery-is-turned-off-300x73.png 300w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 562px) 100vw, 562px\" \/><\/a><\/li>\n<li>When you click <strong>OK<\/strong>, you will see a yellow bar with the same notice and an option to change the setting.<br \/>\n<a href=\"https:\/\/www.zubairalexander.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/08\/enable-network-discovery.png\"><img decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignnone wp-image-14515 size-full\" src=\"https:\/\/www.zubairalexander.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/08\/enable-network-discovery.png\" alt=\"Enable network discovery\" width=\"701\" height=\"283\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.zubairalexander.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/08\/enable-network-discovery.png 701w, https:\/\/www.zubairalexander.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/08\/enable-network-discovery-300x121.png 300w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 701px) 100vw, 701px\" \/><\/a><\/li>\n<li>Click anywhere in the yellow box on the notice and select <strong>Turn on network discovery and file sharing<\/strong>.<br \/>\n<a href=\"https:\/\/www.zubairalexander.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/08\/turn-on-network-discovery-and-file-sharing.png\"><img decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignnone wp-image-14518 size-full\" src=\"https:\/\/www.zubairalexander.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/08\/turn-on-network-discovery-and-file-sharing.png\" alt=\"Turn on network discovery and file sharing.\" width=\"592\" height=\"100\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.zubairalexander.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/08\/turn-on-network-discovery-and-file-sharing.png 592w, https:\/\/www.zubairalexander.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/08\/turn-on-network-discovery-and-file-sharing-300x51.png 300w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 592px) 100vw, 592px\" \/><\/a><\/li>\n<li>You are provided options to either turn on the network discovery for all public networks, which you should never do, or to make your network private. Select the first option <strong>No, make the network that I am connected to a private network<\/strong>. This will secure your computer and turn on network discovery and file sharing.<br \/>\n<a href=\"https:\/\/www.zubairalexander.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/08\/make-your-network-private.png\"><img decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignnone wp-image-14519 size-full\" src=\"https:\/\/www.zubairalexander.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/08\/make-your-network-private.png\" alt=\"No, make the network that I am connected to a private network.\" width=\"549\" height=\"307\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.zubairalexander.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/08\/make-your-network-private.png 549w, https:\/\/www.zubairalexander.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/08\/make-your-network-private-300x168.png 300w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 549px) 100vw, 549px\" \/><\/a><\/li>\n<li>Now you should see computers and other devices on your network.<\/li>\n<li>Go back to the <strong>Network and Sharing Center<\/strong> (step #1). Your active network should now be a <strong>Private network<\/strong>. The name of your network may be different than what you see in the screenshot, but that\u2019s okay.<br \/>\n<a href=\"https:\/\/www.zubairalexander.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/08\/private-network.png\"><img decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignnone wp-image-14520 size-large\" src=\"https:\/\/www.zubairalexander.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/08\/private-network-1024x539.png\" alt=\"Private network\" width=\"1024\" height=\"539\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.zubairalexander.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/08\/private-network-1024x539.png 1024w, https:\/\/www.zubairalexander.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/08\/private-network-300x158.png 300w, https:\/\/www.zubairalexander.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/08\/private-network-768x404.png 768w, https:\/\/www.zubairalexander.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/08\/private-network.png 1126w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 1024px) 100vw, 1024px\" \/><\/a><\/li>\n<li>Now try to ping ComputerA. Also try to map a network drive to a shared folder from ComputerB to ComputerA. Ping and drive mapping should be successful. They should also be successful from any other computer on the network.<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n<p>Here are some additional information that you will find useful. I encourage users to customize and tweak their sharing options to enhance security.<\/p>\n<h4><strong>Customizing Sharing Options<\/strong><\/h4>\n<p>For security reasons, it\u2019s a good idea to customize your sharing options for the different network profiles. The options are available under <strong>Control Panel -&gt; Network and Internet -&gt; Network and Sharing Center -&gt; Advanced sharing settings<\/strong>. To better understand these network profiles, let me explain what private and domain profiles are in this context.<\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-size: 16pt;\"><strong>Private vs. Domain Profile<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n<p>It\u2019s important to understand the difference between the Private profile and the Domain profile. If your computer is connected to a Windows domain, which is usually the case in a business environment, you will see a domain profile that will be listed as <strong>Domain (current profile)<\/strong>. If you are logged in to your local computer profile at home or work, then your current profile will be the <strong>Private (current profile)<\/strong>.<\/p>\n<p>On a Windows Server, and a Windows 10 workstation that\u2019s joined to the domain, there will be four sharing options:<\/p>\n<ol>\n<li>Private<\/li>\n<li>Guest or public<\/li>\n<li>Domain<\/li>\n<li>All Networks<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.zubairalexander.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/08\/options-on-domain-joined-computer.png\"><img decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignnone wp-image-14521 size-full\" src=\"https:\/\/www.zubairalexander.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/08\/options-on-domain-joined-computer.png\" alt=\"Sharing options for domain-joined computers\" width=\"1007\" height=\"475\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.zubairalexander.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/08\/options-on-domain-joined-computer.png 1007w, https:\/\/www.zubairalexander.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/08\/options-on-domain-joined-computer-300x142.png 300w, https:\/\/www.zubairalexander.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/08\/options-on-domain-joined-computer-768x362.png 768w, https:\/\/www.zubairalexander.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/08\/options-on-domain-joined-computer-520x245.png 520w, https:\/\/www.zubairalexander.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/08\/options-on-domain-joined-computer-720x340.png 720w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 1007px) 100vw, 1007px\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<p>On Windows 10 computers that are not joined to the domain, such as home computers, or some business computers that are intentionally not connected to the domain, there will be three sharing options, because the domain option won\u2019t be applicable.<\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-size: 16pt;\"><strong>Network Sharing Recommendations<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n<p>Here\u2019s the simple rule I recommend for configuring network profiles. For security reasons, only enable the <strong>network discovery<\/strong> and <strong>file and printer sharing<\/strong> options for your current profile. Disable them on all other profiles.<\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-size: 16pt; color: #339966;\"><strong>Private Profile<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n<p>A Windows 10 Professional or Windows 10 Enterprise computer that\u2019s not joined to the domain, the network sharing options should look like this for the <strong>Private (current profile)<\/strong>.<\/p>\n<p>Network discovery<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>Turn on network discovery: Selected<\/li>\n<li>Turn on automatic setup of network connected devices: Box checked (enabled)<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>File and printer sharing<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>Turn on file and printer sharing: Selected<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.zubairalexander.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/08\/customize-private-profile.png\"><img decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignnone wp-image-14522 size-full\" src=\"https:\/\/www.zubairalexander.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/08\/customize-private-profile.png\" alt=\"Customizing private profile\" width=\"596\" height=\"427\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.zubairalexander.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/08\/customize-private-profile.png 596w, https:\/\/www.zubairalexander.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/08\/customize-private-profile-300x215.png 300w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 596px) 100vw, 596px\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<p>Although for general public I recommend leaving network discovery on, I do not enable network discovery on any computer on my network (server or workstation) to enhance security and improve performance.<\/p>\n<table>\n<tbody>\n<tr>\n<td style=\"background-color: #fffdbd; text-align: left; vertical-align: top;\"><span style=\"font-size: 14pt;\">Check out my article <a href=\"https:\/\/www.zubairalexander.com\/blog\/how-to-switch-the-network-profile-from-public-to-private-on-windows-10\/\">How to Switch the Network Profile from Public to Private on Windows 10<\/a> for more details. You will find a lot more details on the network profiles, plus information on how to switch between profiles, what to do if you don&#8217;t see the option to switch profiles, how to change the network name, and why it&#8217;s best to turn off network discovery on all networked computers, especially in secure environments.<br \/>\n<\/span><\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/tbody>\n<\/table>\n<h4><span style=\"font-size: 16pt; color: #339966;\"><strong>Guest or Public Profile<\/strong><\/span><\/h4>\n<p>Your <strong>Guest or Public<\/strong> profile should have the network discovery disabled under all circumstances. The file and printer sharing should also be disabled. This is true whether your computer is domain-joined or not and whether you are working with a Windows Server or a workstation, such as Windows 10.<\/p>\n<p>Network discovery<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>Turn off network discovery: Selected<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>File and printer sharing<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>Turn off file and printer sharing: Selected<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.zubairalexander.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/08\/customize-guest-or-public-profile.png\"><img decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignnone wp-image-14524 size-full\" src=\"https:\/\/www.zubairalexander.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/08\/customize-guest-or-public-profile.png\" alt=\"Customizing Guest or Public profile\" width=\"603\" height=\"416\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.zubairalexander.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/08\/customize-guest-or-public-profile.png 603w, https:\/\/www.zubairalexander.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/08\/customize-guest-or-public-profile-300x207.png 300w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 603px) 100vw, 603px\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-size: 16pt; color: #339966;\"><strong>Domain Profile<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n<p>Your <strong>Domain (current profile)<\/strong> would usually be controlled by the Domain Administrator. The settings would depend on your network security policies and how your business operates. Workstations are usually not configured to share folders or printers with other users on the network. In fact, most network administrators have policy in place to prevent users from accomplishing these tasks. File sharing roles are typically reserved for file servers. Network discovery is also not encouraged on wireless networks, especially in secure environments. Some organizations may not allow network discovery for domain-joined computers for security and performance reasons.<\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-size: 16pt; color: #339966;\"><strong>All Networks Profile<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n<p>The <strong>All Networks<\/strong> profile should be configured as follows.<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.zubairalexander.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/08\/customize-all-networks-profile.png\"><img decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignnone wp-image-14526 size-full\" src=\"https:\/\/www.zubairalexander.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/08\/customize-all-networks-profile.png\" alt=\"Customizing All Networks profile\" width=\"607\" height=\"687\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.zubairalexander.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/08\/customize-all-networks-profile.png 607w, https:\/\/www.zubairalexander.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/08\/customize-all-networks-profile-265x300.png 265w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 607px) 100vw, 607px\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<p>Notice that <strong>Public folder sharing<\/strong> feature is turned off for this profile. Public folder sharing is different than <strong>Guest or Public<\/strong> sharing. I don\u2019t recommend using the public folder sharing feature in Windows 10. This feature makes it easier to share files because you simply add the files to a \u201cpublic folder\u201d and other can access it without a password. This feature requires that you turn off the <strong>Password protected sharing <\/strong>feature. I am not a fan of public folder sharing and discourage people from using it.<\/p>\n<p>I recommend using the <strong>Password protected sharing <\/strong>feature to share folders and configure permissions to restrict access to the users. This feature requires a user account and password on this computer to access files and printers attached to this computer.<\/p>\n<p>The <strong>media streaming option<\/strong> is turned off by default for the All Networks profile.<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.zubairalexander.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/08\/media-streaming-in-windows-10.png\"><img decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignnone wp-image-14533 size-full\" src=\"https:\/\/www.zubairalexander.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/08\/media-streaming-in-windows-10.png\" alt=\"Media Streaming in Windows 10\" width=\"799\" height=\"503\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.zubairalexander.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/08\/media-streaming-in-windows-10.png 799w, https:\/\/www.zubairalexander.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/08\/media-streaming-in-windows-10-300x189.png 300w, https:\/\/www.zubairalexander.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/08\/media-streaming-in-windows-10-768x483.png 768w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 799px) 100vw, 799px\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<p>When media streaming is on, your users and their devices will be able to send and receive pictures, music, and videos from and to this computer. Most people do not need this feature. I recommend you leave this feature off.<\/p>\n<h4><strong>Related Articles<\/strong><\/h4>\n<p>The following articles have lots of useful information that&#8217;s related to this article. The first article has more details on the network profiles, plus information on how to switch between profiles, what to do if you don&#8217;t see the option to switch profiles, how to change the network name, and why it&#8217;s best to turn off network discovery on all networked computers, especially in secure environments. The second article has a list of services that need to be running for the network discovery to work. Although the second article is written for Windows 7\/8, you may want to take a look if you are having issues with your network discovery service.<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li><a href=\"https:\/\/www.zubairalexander.com\/blog\/how-to-switch-the-network-profile-from-public-to-private-on-windows-10\/\">How to Switch the Network Profile from Public to Private on Windows 10<\/a><\/li>\n<li><a href=\"https:\/\/www.zubairalexander.com\/blog\/unable-to-turn-on-network-discovery-on-windows-7-or-windows-8\/\">Unable to Turn on Network Discovery on Windows 7 or Windows 8<\/a><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<table>\n<tbody>\n<tr>\n<td style=\"background-color: #e3e3e3; text-align: left;\">Thanks for reading my article. If you are interested in IT consulting &amp; training services, please reach out to me. Visit <a href=\"https:\/\/www.zubairalexander.com\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">ZubairAlexander.com<\/a> for information on my professional background.<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/tbody>\n<\/table>\n<hr \/>\n<p><span style=\"font-size: xx-small; font-family: Verdana;\">Copyright \u00a9 2020 <a href=\"https:\/\/www.seattlepro.com\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">SeattlePro Enterprises, LLC<\/a>. All rights reserved.<br \/>\n<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Here\u2019s a situation that you may have experienced. You discover that you are suddenly not able to ping a computer that was available before. You are also not able to map a shared drive or access a printer directly attached to that computer. Let\u2019s take a closer look at the problem and a possible solution. [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":7,"featured_media":8601,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[43,79,33,24,11,66,76],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-14513","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-articles","category-errors","category-remote-desktop","category-security","category-tips-tricks","category-troubleshooting","category-windows-10"],"aioseo_notices":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/www.zubairalexander.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/08\/Security2.jpg","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.zubairalexander.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14513","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.zubairalexander.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.zubairalexander.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.zubairalexander.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/7"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.zubairalexander.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=14513"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.zubairalexander.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14513\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.zubairalexander.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/8601"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.zubairalexander.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=14513"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.zubairalexander.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=14513"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.zubairalexander.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=14513"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}