Can't access PC by wifi recently

[porina]

I have one Win10 PC (2020H2) which has built in wifi. It is nowhere near a cable nor can I easily get a cable there. It also runs headless, so I normally control it using TightVNC. It was working fine until yesterday.

 

I've now moved it to a test bench where I can try to diagnose it.

• It is connecting to the wifi as expected.
• I can access the internet.
• I can see other PCs on LAN from it.
• From my usual desktop PC, I can't access it by name, but I can ping the IP address. I can also repeat this with a 2nd desktop.
• On the affected PC, network discovery and sharing is enabled.
• I tried temporarily disabling Windows Firewall on it. Made no difference.
• Checked TightVNC is allowed in firewall rules.
• I can access it by VNC using IP address instead of name. This will suffice as a workaround for now.

 

So it seems like for some reason it isn't broadcasting it's name? At this point I'm lost. Any ideas? There have been two changes that happened since I could last access the PC. One is the monthly Windows Update patch has now been installed. The other is I updated the wifi AP firmware. Everything else seems to be working as normal. All PCs have been rebooted at least once since due to Windows Update.

[MarcusKW]

Try using a powerline adapter as an alternative

you just plug your ethernet into it from your PC, link it to another downstairs which is connected to your router

I had internet issues and this helped me sorry if it's not what you're looking for, just an idea. Hope you find solutions.

[porina]

5 minutes ago, MarcusKW said:

Try using a powerline adapter as an alternative

I tried that in the past. It was far more unreliable than wifi ever is. Maybe I got a bad one but I'm not looking to get another. Wifi is working, just Windows name for some reason isn't working.

[porina]

I think it happened again, but at least it now points more towards Windows Update being the culprit than my wifi firmware update. I have another PC, like the first one with the problem, that is only connected by wifi. I powered it on. Could access it remotely. It downloaded and installed latest Windows Update. Rebooted, now can't connect. Other PCs updated and connected to wired network seem to be working normally.

[Kilrah]

Got 2 machines that updated here and they both still see each other by name just fine, one is on wifi and also got the intel driver wifi update yesterday, the 2nd is wired.

 

Strange.

[porina]

1 hour ago, Kilrah said:

Got 2 machines that updated here and they both still see each other by name just fine, one is on wifi and also got the intel driver wifi update yesterday, the 2nd is wired.

I might try a complete network reboot at some point to see if that helps. It doesn't help I'm in two online games at the moment, so will have to be later