Win 10/11 NTFS storage

NET VIEW \\host

e.g. (in my case) NET VIEW \\KHAN

shows me the shares on server KHAN. NET VIEW on its own is supposed to show the servers but that seems to hang for a while.

What Bob said, and also just browse the "Network" bit at the bottom of the list in a file explorer window - that should show other machines on the lan. Clicking will then reveal if there are shares, and prompt for credentials (if required - some shares may be visible to "Everyone").

Credentials can be the same as those of the logged in user - it would be common if the network was setup as a domain - but it all depends on how it was setup...

If it's all ad-hoc, best of luck. I wanted to print a document the other day, and the printer is attached to my wife's Win 10 computer. The document is on a network share.

Network couldn't find the server, not with any name or IP address I tried to search on. OK, that's Windows.

What was really irritating is that there are half a dozen shares on the same server mapped to drives, and I can read from or write to them perfectly. On a server that Network can't find...

I haven't had much to do with Windows for several years, so it was quickest just to go back downstairs and just copy the document to one of the shares the stupid machine could see. I hate Windows.

Is the server set to be "discoverable"? If not then it will be accessible with the right IP address (so shares will work), but not found by a simple search of the network.

Yes, I seem to recall that's where I saw it, eventually. Presumably, if the PC is set up to connect at startup (which it seems to be), it will still do that if I click Disconnect and then don't have the right credentials to reconnect.

I'll have to get hold of their IT guy.

Thanks for the feedback, you two.

It's not a Windows machine, it doesn't do 'discoverable'. And I certainly mapped the half-dozen working drives while the server was visible, probably a couple of years ago. Some update since then has made Windows more 'helpful'. Yes, I can find out how to fix it, but I always need to fix Windows when I have something to do in a hurry, and the MS perversion of networking always infuriates me. I'll get round to it...

The example I gave (KHAN) is clearly visible in the list, although it is a FreeBSD machine.

Start : Run : control # If you can't find Control Panels any more

Programs and Features : Windows Features

SMB 1.0/CIFS Client \___ Older NAS boxes, WinXP machines, an old Linux maybe SMB 1.0/CIFS Server /

Why would stuff about Sharing be under 'Windows Features' ? No wonder I can never find anything. Mind you, macOS is going a bit that way too, these days.

One assumes these are working properly if the computer and user can read and write other shares on the server it can't see. There are also two other servers on the network it can't see.

I'm sure it's something simple, but at the moment it's a low priority. It obviously used to work when the visible shares were first mapped to virtual drives.

It's the insanity of implementing 'security' by simply hiding things from the GUI that I find incomprehensible. All that sort of thing does is annoy people who just want to get work done. Someone with malicious intent will be well versed in PowerShell and net commands.

When it comes to networking, since the year dot as far as I recall it is to do with Microsoft then Notworking is the more apt description.

You can get nbtscan.exe from here. The output isn't quite the same format as the Linux version that might be on a Linux distro.

ipconfig # Get the IP address of the machine right now # Likely obtained via DHCP protocol on the strangers network. # Maybe it is 192.168.2.34 . A person who has made a complex # mess of their ipconfig, knows how to interpret it :-)

nbtscan 192.168.2.1/24 # Scan 192.168.2.x for nodes. Total scan 256 or so nodes. # This is good enough for a first try. # Your own machine might not show up. Win7 works OK. # The output in the next example, BLUEWAVE shows itself in the scan.

C:\Users\username\Downloads> nbtscan 192.168.2.1/24

There are two domains on the LAN segment in that fake example of domains.

Windows might typically be set up with workgroup=WORKGROUP

That's a traditional pseudo-domain declaration for a home user without a real Domain server.

On Windows 7, when it had HomeGroups, workgroup=MSHOME and then you'd change it to join the fake WORKGROUP domain of your home LAN setup. (You see this declaration, on modern.ie virtual machines.) sysdm.cpl executable, allows you to edit it (knowing the executable name is suitable for Win11 users who they will try to fool).

In any case, if you're in a foreign environment which is poorly maintained and lacking security (MAC filtering), you might manage to scan it that way. It works on my home environment, because "security is not my middle name". A Linux box might not show up, until you've at least installed the samba package.

Paul

I've long used Angry IP Scanner -

Not sure how old my version is (2.21) but once an IP of interest has been found on the LAN it offers several options including "Open computer".