Cannot enable network discovery on Windows Server 2008 R2

networkingwindows-server-2008-r2

I'm trying to enable the Network Discovery feature on a newly installed Windows Server 2008 R2 instance.

The network connection is in the Home or Work profile (it is not domain joined). These are the steps I've followed:

  • Within the Network and Sharing Center I select Change advanced sharing settings
  • Then I select the Turn on network discovery option for the current network profile (Home or Work)
  • I then click Save changes

If I then go back to the Advanced sharing settings screen the Turn off network discovery option is selected and the machine is not visible to others within the Network node in Windows Explorer.

Things I've checked:

  • I can ping the server and connect to it using the machine name/IP address.
  • The Windows Firewall has exceptions for Network Discovery for both Private and Public networks.
  • File and Printer sharing is enabled and I can transfer files to/from the server by connecting to the server using a UNC path.

What am I missing here?

Best Answer

I think I found the solution. From the "What is network discovery?" Windows help topic:

"Network discovery requires that the DNS Client, Function Discovery Resource Publication, SSDP Discovery, and UPnP Device Host"

I opened the Services MMC snap-in and saw that the following services were disabled:

  • Function Discovery Resource Publication
  • SSDP Discovery
  • UPnP Device Host

Enabling and starting these services did the trick and now Network Discovery is enabled and I can see the server. It doesn't explain why toggling this in the UI didn't enable these services.

Should have checked the Windows help first :-)

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