Windows 10: Network devices not visible

I've searched the internet over and taken heed of all advice given, implemented most of the most common fixes and I can't find a solution.


I have 2 desktops, a laptop all Win 10 with latest updates AFAIK, a Buffalo NAS box and an HP laser printer on my home network. The laptop and printer are Wi-Fi, the others wired. My issue is that on one desktop called LAB, certain of the network devices only intermittently and randomly show up in the Network explorer window, depending on God knows what. LAB and the printer are always visible. The other desktop, laptop and NAS box disappear. They'll be visible one day and gone for the next 2 days to a week, then magically reappear after I've pulled my hair out.


Understand that I have no connection issues; all machines can print, all mapped drives remain connected, all machines can see all other devices, except LAB.


What governs this erratic behavior? Rebooting LAB and the router does not fix it.


The strangest explanation I found was that it's an erratic signal from my ISP, but if that's true, it seems like all machines would be affected.


I'm stumped. Any one else experience this?


Thanks,


Rip

:)

 

How do i ensure my devices on our home network are not visible to others' devices on the same network?

Hello Kathy,

Welcome to the Microsoft Community.

You can turn off the network discovery so that your computer won’t be visible with other network computers.

Follow the below steps to turn off the network discovery.

• 
  Type Network and sharing center in the search bar and press enter
  
• 
  Click on change advanced sharing options
  
• 
  Check Turn off Network discovery
  
• 
  And click apply
  

Hope this information is helpful. Please reply in case you have any further issues. I will be glad to help you.

Thank you.

 

Wifi no longer visible to some but not all devices...

Hi folks

my pc - windows 10 - my home wifi network visible and connects fine
my work pc - windows 10 - my home wifi network visible and connects fine
girlfriends pc - windows 10 - my home wifi network is not visible from the wifi list so cannot connect to my home wifi network
girlfriends phone - android - my home wifi network visible and connects fine
my phone - android - my home wifi network is not visible from the wifi list so cannot connect to my home wifi network


all of the above were working fine with visibility to my home network until about 2 days ago... just to be clear this is one single network...

any ideas on the likely cause and solution would be appreciated...

 

What is this network device?


I woke my desktop PC from sleep this morning, clicked on Network and immediately spotted a Phone in the device list that doesn't belong to anyone here (a Blu brand phone which is unusual enough that I would know about it).

I clicked on the device and was able to view the MAC address, but nothing else useful. A couple minutes later it disappeared from the network list.

Then a few minutes later I went and looked at another PC on the same home network and saw the same phone in its Network list. It also disappeared a couple minutes after I clicked open 'Network'.

Scanned both PCs with various anti-malware programs including Malwarebytes - they look clean.

Any suggestions on what I was seeing, and if it's malicious how to deal with it?


UPDATE: It popped back up again. I checked my router's connection list and don't see it there. For now I blocked the MAC address in my router but would still like to know where this is coming from.