Windows server 2008 cannot see other computers on network

However, right after Halloween, it just stopped talking to the server and I haven't been able to get it to do so. What changed in that timeframe is that I came back from a road trip. However, the notebook did back up successfully once after that trip. Then it failed. Specifically, here's what I see: - In the Network section of Explorer, the server shows up as a media device and under "Other devices," but not as a computer.

The server has a fixed IP address to enable remote access. I've considered reinstalling network stuff generally, but can't quite figure out what that means and what I should do. While I haven't rebooted the router recently, as noted, this is actually a different router than when the problem began. That is, the problem has persisted for 5 months across 2 different routers; during that time, the router certainly was rebooted.

Other than the server, all the machines are getting IP addresses automatically, so I'm not setting the subnet. I actually just changed it to a fixed IP address last week because I needed to, so that remote access to the server would work. I'm really at the edges of my understanding of network stuff here, so if I haven't answered the right question, please ask again.

All sounds good - what I don't understand is, given all that, that the fundamental networking activity of Pinging does not work. Try temporarily switching off the firewall on the Server and suspect notebook and trying again.

If that doesn't work, check your Hosts file to ensure the entries are still correct after changing your router, which is likely to be allocating different IP addresses to the original. The only things in the hosts file on the notebook are a localhost entry and a name for a server on a client site.

At the moment, my desktop machine which has no trouble talking to the server is The notebook through a wired connection is And something with no name shown and a wireless connection is Someone on another forum suggested putting the server address into the hosts file. That's allowed me to re-install the connector and presumably I'll now get backup for this machine.

But since I've now asked in several places and nobody seems to have a better answer, I figure the pragmatic one is the way to go. Phil, that implies an answer to my question, but doesn't actually supply one, since a machine may not respond to a ping for any number of reasons even if the lookup for the machine was successful.

The answer is that no IP address is reported. Please check the name and try again. Sign in. United States English. In a past life, Ben was a college lecturer in the UK, training teens and adults. Since leaving the classroom, Ben has taken his teaching experience and applied it to writing tech how-to guides and tutorials, specialising in Linux, Windows, and Android. He has a degree in History and a postgraduate qualification in Computing. Read Ben's Full Bio. We hate spam too, unsubscribe at any time.

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Select the checkbox of SMB 1. It is relatively easy to operate. Here you would better to disable it temporarily. Open the Run dialog box, and then type ncpa. So, you should disable it temporarily. Type network in the search box and select Network status from the best match.

After disabling all VPN connection, restart your computer to execute these changes. Function Discovery Provider Host service is very important for connecting the network to other computers. It is reported that restarting this service can help you connect to the homegroup and see other computers on the network. Open the Run dialog box, and then type services. Go to the Startup type section and change it to Automatic.