Two Windows 11 cannot be seen on private network.

Question

Two Windows 11 cannot be seen on private network.

William I Warren 20

I have two windows 11 pc's that I have done everything I can find to enable share and discovery on private network. Interfaces are set to private network and all are in the default workgroup. I check the registry to ensure services recommended are on and set to automatic. Both can see other devices including a laptop with windows 11 and surface with windows 10. They see both of my NAS and other devices. Everything I search on internet gives me the same information with no results. One machine was updated from 10 to 11 over a year ago. The second was update last month (had to buy a new motherboard). Network sharing strangely worked before the second machine was upgraded although I don't see how that would affect the first machine.

I've gone through several recommendation for command line fixes in PowerShell and nothing changes. Today I was on chat with MS help remoting in the recently updated pc and they did a repair install that finished an hour ago. No change

Any suggestions that is not a repeat of what I found over and over on the internet would be greatly appreciated.

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William I Warren 20 Reputation points

2026-09-05T23:23:42.28+00:00

I forgot to mention I have Norton 360 and I disabled VPN and Virus protection with no change.

Answer accepted by question author

AI answer

Since Private profile, network discovery, file sharing, service startup, PowerShell fixes, and even a repair install were already tried, the next checks should focus on discovery and SMB behavior rather than repeating the same sharing settings.

Verify the required discovery services are actually running on both Windows 11 PCs, not just set to Automatic:
- Press Win + R → type services.msc → press Enter.
- Check these services:
  - Function Discovery Provider Host
  - Function Discovery Resource Publication
  - SSDP Discovery
  - UPnP Device Host
- If any are not running, start them and keep Startup type set to Automatic.
Confirm both PCs are still on a Private network profile:
- Go to Start > Settings > Network & internet.
- Open the active Wi‑Fi or Ethernet connection.
- Under Network profile type, confirm Private network is selected.
- This matters because Windows uses Private profile for device discoverability and sharing.
Test whether this is only a network discovery problem or an SMB access problem:
- On one PC, try opening the other directly by name or IP from File Explorer.
- If direct access works but the PC does not appear under Network, the issue is discovery-related.
- If direct access fails, check SMB client state on the PC that is trying to connect.
On the PC that cannot access the other, run these commands in PowerShell to identify the SMB condition:
```
   net use
   Get-SmbConnection
   Get-SmbClientConfiguration
```
Then review:
- Event Viewer > Applications and Services Logs > Microsoft > Windows > SMBClient
- Check both Connectivity and Security logs. The event ID and message help identify whether the block is due to guest access, signing, NTLM restrictions, or another SMB security condition.
If the issue is only that the PCs do not appear in File Explorer > Network, but other devices are visible, recheck the four discovery services above on both affected PCs first. That is the accepted fix pattern in similar Windows 11 cases where only certain PCs are missing from the network view.
As a last step, use Network reset on the affected PCs.
- Windows 11: Start > Settings > Network & internet > Advanced network settings > Network reset > Reset now
- Risk: this removes and reinstalls network adapters and resets networking settings to defaults.
- After restart, Windows may set connections back to Public, so recheck and change the network back to Private if needed.
- VPN clients, Hyper-V virtual switches, or other networking software may need to be reconfigured afterward.

The most useful next path here is:

verify the four discovery services are running on both affected PCs,
test direct access by name/IP to separate discovery from SMB,
if direct access fails, inspect SMBClient logs and the PowerShell SMB output.

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1 additional answer

Your answer

William I Warren 20 Reputation points

2026-09-05T23:23:42.28+00:00

I forgot to mention I have Norton 360 and I disabled VPN and Virus protection with no change.

Answer 1

So, all the services were running. I ended up doing the reset on one machine. When it came back on after rebooting I browsed the network in explorer and of course it said network discovery wasn't on. Instead of going to the advance setting I decided to click on the option provided at the top of explorer. It worked for that machine to see itself and other to see it. So I went into advance settings on the other machine and set it to public then used explorer to navigate network and of course I received the same notice, clicked on it and walah...it works now. I'm not sure what it does different that advance settings but as long as it works I'm happy.

I had to post what I did. Thank you for the response. The reset was the one thing no one else provided suggestion for and it led me to the fix on both machines.