Network discovery turns off after reboot (sometimes).

  • Thread starter Thread starter Abdul69
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A

Abdul69

I have a home network with a Belkin wirless router / ADSL modem which three
client machines connect to wirelessly (kid's, wife's and my work PC). In
addition to my main work PC I have a secondary PC I also use for work that I
have set up so that it is connected to the wireless network via my main PC.

So the setup is:

Router --> Air waves --> Kid's XP machine, Wif'e's Vista machine.
Router ---> Air waves ---> Main Vista (32-bit) desktop --> Wired connection
(10/100 switch) --> Secondary Vista (64-bit) desktop.

The way I have the connection configured on my 32-bit Vista desktop setup
is:

Wireless Network Connection - static IP (10.21.119.101 / 255.255.255.0)
Local Area Connection - static IP (10.21.119.102 / 255.255.255.0)

Then I have the above two connections bridged using a Network bridge with IP
10.21.119.2. All machines on the wireless network see the main 32-it Vista
machine as 10.21.119.2, as I want.

Everything works great under this set up. I can ping each and every machine
from every location on the network, internet access works, file sharing
works (and I get the wired speeds between my two local machines) and life is
generally grand.

One problem, however, and it's just an annoyance, but maybe one for which
there is an easy solution, and that is that the 64-bit Vista machine seems
to perodically turn off network discovery. I use a keyboard/mouse sharing
program and usually log in to the 64-bit machine with my common
keyboard/mouse, but every now and then I can't do that because the
connection fails. When that happens I have to log into the 64-bit machine
(plug in a keyboard and mouse) and RE-enable network discovery. After that
everything is great again, until a couple of weeks later and about 5 or 6
restarts it happens again.

Does anyone know why the 64-bit machine keeps turning off network discovery
periodically? The only additional piece of information I have, seeing this
just happened is that under the Network and Sharing Center on the 64-bit
machine, the local network is shown as "Unidentified network" and when I
select "Merge or delete network locations" it shows the previous network
location(s) as "Not in use". So it seems to be that it forgets that it
already knows about the network... Frustrating but since it's not that often
that it happens and not that often that I reboot, I've just been living with
it, but a solution would be nice!

Any suggestions?

Wayne.
 
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