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I am replacing an old server 2008r2 system with a new windows 2016 server but am having problems with computer visibility on the local network.

My file server has a DNS alias which doesn't appear as a computer in windows explorer - except on the DC.

I finally got the other network computers visible after setting a GPO to start the necessary services to make them discoverable on client machines (Function Discovery Resource Publication, SSDP Discovery, UPnP Device Host), but this doesn't seem to cover the alias. Windows firewall has also been configured to allow network discovery.

All clients do have access to the server via the alias (files can be reached by typing in the path using the alias name) but it just doesn't appear as a Computer in the Network section of explorer.

Any ideas?

Timothy J
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  • Server 2016 from 2018-12 and Windows 10 from 1809 start ignoring NetBT discoveries, rendering the good old "computer neighberhood" useless. I would recommend migratin to more up to date methods. – bjoster Jan 02 '19 at 13:29

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Computer discovery used to depend on NetBIOS, rather than DNS. This means you need to add a NetBIOS alias to the target computer. You can do that via two means:

That said, I had a similar problem some months ago and I was out of luck with Windows 2016. While I did not investigate thoroughly, it seems that Windows 2016 kind of ignore NetBIOS aliases.

shodanshok
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  • Thanks. I might have got my terminology wrong - the alias _was_ created using 'netdom computername /add alias.domain'. However, I might not have done the registerdns - I will try that and see what happens. – Timothy J Jan 03 '19 at 14:31