I Cannot Turn on Network Discovery in Vista

Network discovery is a vital part of a home network system.

A home networking system allows you to take all the computers in a household and link them together. In other words, you go from having individual PCs to having a network of connected systems. It is almost as if you have one large computer with separate access stations. For a network to work, you need the Windows network discovery system active on your Vista operating system.

Networking

Networking allows you to take every computer in your household and link them in one virtual space. This reduces the number of Internet service connections, printers and external devices you need. For this to work, each computer must be able to see the other components of the network. This is done via the operating system on each individual computer. In Vista, the application that makes this happen is network discovery.

Network Discovery

It is the job of network discovery to gather information about the other elements in the system for your computer. This application also determines whether your computer is seen as part of the network for other members. You could be linked and still remain invisible to some. Network discovery is not a standalone application. It works within the Windows Vista environment and requires that other services remain active in order for it to function. If it will not turn on, some essential services may be disabled.

Services.msc

Discovery needs "DNS Client," "Function Discovery Resource Publication," "SSDP Discovery" and "UPnP Device Host" to be active to run. You toggle these services using the "Services.msc" program. Type "services.msc" into the "Search" text box in the Start menu. Once the service dialog box opens, you need to locate each of these essential items on the list. If the status does not say "Automatic" next to the service, double-click on the line and change it on the drop-down menu in the "Properties" dialog box.

Firewall

The on-board firewall for Windows Vista must have the proper setting for network discovery to function. To check this option, you need to open the Vista firewall from the "Control Panel." Once the firewall dialog window is open, move to the menu on the left and select "Allow a program." This will open a list of services and programs with check boxes next to them. Find the line for network discovery and make sure there is a check in the box. If not, clicking on the box will enable the application and allow network discovery to function.

References

• Windows: What is Network Discovery?