My computer isn't visible to the local network until I ping something
I have a samba shared folder that I use to share files between my pc and another windows pc on my local network. That folder will be unreachable from the windows PC until I ping it's IP address, then it'll be reachable.
The same happens for KDE Connect. My phone will be unreachable until I ping it's IP address, then KDE Connect is usable.
I'm on Ubuntu 22.04.3 LTS. I'm using KDE Plasma 5.24.7. I'm using UFW for my firewall. I've run "sudo ufw allow samba" to allow for samba to work on the local network. I have a TP-Link Router, the AX1800.
How do I solve this issue? I can think of a workaround using cron to ping the devices I need to ping, but I feel like there has to be a better solution.
Sounds like an IP address conflict. Did you configure a static IP?
What happens is that ARP tables jump back and forth to the last known MAC (Media Access Control address, what WiFi/Ethernet use as a device identifier) that a packet from the IP address originated from. (*in some OSes, under typical/default conditions)
Check that your samba box doesn’t have the same IP address as something else on the network; sounds like they’re fighting over it.