Mac identifies itself incorrectly on network

Question

I have a Windows 10 computer and a Mac OSX (newest OS) computer which I am trying to connect over network at home. Currently they can not communicate at all.

In Windows 10, the Mac identifies itself as "MACBOOKPRO-553B". However, in OSX sharing, I have selected computer name "MAC-LAPTOP-SHARE" (MAC-LAPTOP-SHARE.local) and chosen a folder. I have enabled both SMB and AFP and also tried with SMB alone.

If I try connect from OSX to one of my Windows shared folders... Well, I can't even see the Windows 10 computer (althouth other Windows computers on my network can)

What I am personally most confused about is the fact that the OSX name identification is wrong. That is just plain weird, and I am thinking that solving this could potentially solve the rest as well?

Solution 1

this could be related to your Mac's name setup. I was recently seeing odd values when in Terminal so manually setting my hostname worked for me. You might need to set your HostName or ComputerName or LocalHostName

Find out your current hostname...

• Open the Terminal application on your Mac
• Type hostname and press enter to get the current hostname for your Mac

Set a new one...

• Still in terminal run these commands one at a time and test to see if they work
  • sudo scutil --set ComputerName "MAC-LAPTOP-SHARE"
  • sudo scutil --set LocalHostName "MAC-LAPTOP-SHARE.local"
  • sudo scutil --set HostName "MAC-LAPTOP-SHARE"
• Flush the DNS cache after each one by running: dscacheutil -flushcache
• Restart your Mac.

Let me know how you get on :)

Solution 2

The name MACBOOKPRO-553B likely originates from the NetBIOS field under System Preferences > Network > Advanced... > WINS, given that the default value is frequently the device type plus characters appended to it (up to a total length of 15 characters).

It is separate from the Computer Name you set in System Preferences > Sharing.

Changing it there will change the string that you are seeing in Windows 10.

Comments

[greycat90]

Actually it appears my OS X keeps values the same between thw two configuraion places. -- If I first edit "System Preferences > Sharing" and then open "System Preferences > Network > Advanced... > WINS" it shows the name i just selected (and to the right of it says "xxx is currently being used" where xxx is the name seleted in sharing and also shown in WINS) -- It should be set I have also filled "WORKGROUP" in WINS setup tp match what I use in Windows

[greycat90]

Well, it kinda helped! Nit completely though. Windows now shows the new name as well as the old selected one as well as "MACBOOKPRO-553B" where it before only show "MACBOOKPRO-553B". I guess it is because they are somehow remembered in cache and I will try restart Windows to see. Howeber, if I doubleclick the new name in Windows Network I get error "Windows can not access" --- even though I in OS X Sharing have setup a shared folder everyone has read access to.