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RT-AC86U HD not visible on win network

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spokey

Occasional Visitor
New to this forum and not a wireless question but it is a merlin question. Also new to Merlin and ASUS routers (got this about a week ago)

I can't see an attached HD or USB drive on the windows network. That is it does not show up in file explorer.

It is accessible and I can see both in a command line net view \\router-name. I can map it with net use <drive>: \\router\share-name as well.

My main reason for going to Merlin was so I could get rid of SMBv1. This is a home network with a couple win7, 2 win 8.1, and 3 win 10 (2 pro, 1 home). I know others think SMBv1 is OK in a home environment, but I figured it's old, MS says don't use it etc. So I finally got everything working on v2 by auto starting some services etc. on the PCs. Everything that is except the HD on the router visibility. I installed Merlin this afternoon expecting that with SMBv2 support that would put the finishing touch on all this.

Right now I have the protocol on the router set to v1 & v2. I can see it in explorer on a win 7 machine I've switched back to SMBv1 but no where else. The net view & map on the command line cited above is from a win 8.1 machine.
 
It is operating as designed. This is not a router issue, it's an SMB issue. The ability to "browse" network shares is a feature of the SMBv1 protocol. It is inherently insecure which is why Microsoft now disables it. The "browsing" function does not exist in SMBv2 onward which is why you can't see anything.
 
why do I see all the PCs then? Are they doing something I can replicate for the router?
 
why do I see all the PCs then? Are they doing something I can replicate for the router?
Microsoft uses multiple different techniques to discover other Windows PC's on the network. Use the search button in the top right corner of the page and search for SMBv2. All of this has been discussed before many times and at great length (here and on the internet in general).
 
Microsoft uses multiple different techniques to discover other Windows PC's on the network. Use the search button in the top right corner of the page and search for SMBv2. All of this has been discussed before many times and at great length (here and on the internet in general).

thanks

will do the search here. I've spent days in general internet searching and read a lot on this. None have said anything about discovery changing under v2. Most speak about restoring v1 often while at the same time cautioning against that and some saying it should be temporary. That's why I went to Merlin. To get the v2.

But I'm headin' to the forum search as you suggest to see if anything turns up.
 
If you're interested in how Windows discovers other Windows machines investigate:
  1. DNS Client
  2. Function Discovery Resource Publication
  3. SSDP Discovery
  4. UPnP Device Host
https://www.thewindowsclub.com/enable-disable-network-discovery-windows

Of course it didn't help when Microsoft removed HomeGroup support and turned off Function Discovery. :rolleyes:

https://www.snbforums.com/threads/f...lts-releases-v36ea.18914/page-393#post-420492

will look

I had discovered #2. That made my wife's win10 visible. Oddly the other two Win10 machines did have it turned on so I always saw them (I mostly use an 8.1 pro). Both of those were Win7 x64 pro machines upgraded during the free period (did my 8.1 too but hated it enough to do an image restore back to 8.1). So maybe that's why discovery was on for those and not hers (bought with Win 10 home). Had to disable power saving on the nic on hers as well because it was still invisible when it woke up from sleep. If I remember correctly, I could do a service restart on #2 but changing the nic setting was obviously better. Maybe I'll find a better answer to that someday.

But I'll look at the rest. The only issue I have now is not seeing the router but as I think I'm understanding, that's just too bad. I'll never see it under network browse. I have done the "add a network location' as it seems that's the best I'll get at this point.

thx again for your help
 
The only issue I have now is not seeing the router but as I think I'm understanding, that's just too bad. I'll never see it under network browse. I have done the "add a network location' as it seems that's the best I'll get at this point.
That's correct.

Personally I run my Linux servers with SMBv1 and SMBv2 enabled as I regard the convenience of being able to "browse" to my NAS more important than the theoretical security risk of SMBv1. But I wouldn't do that in a corporate/office/SOHO environment.
 

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