Windows 7 / Networking

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How to Troubleshoot Network Discovery

With Network Discovery, users can browse shared network resources from the Network window. On private networks, this is convenient because users can connect to resources without knowing the names of other computers on the network. On public networks, however, Network Discovery is a security concern because it will announce the presence of the computer on the public network and users might use it to connect to a potentially malicious computer.

For these reasons, Network Discovery is enabled on private networks but disabled on public networks by default. When connected to an AD DS domain, Network Discovery is controlled by Group Policy settings but is disabled by default. Therefore, if the Network window does not display shared resources on the local network, it is almost certainly because Network Discovery is disabled. To remedy this, follow these steps (all of which require administrator privileges and can increase your computer's exposure to security attacks):

1. Verify that the Function Discovery Provider Host service is running.
2. Verify that Windows Firewall has exceptions enabled for Network Discovery.
3. Change the type of network from public to private. Alternatively, you can manually enable Network Discovery by opening the Network And Sharing Center window and enabling Network Discovery.