There are separate servers running on Vista Business and Windows 2000 Server. Clients are running Vista Business. There was no obvious change manually done to these client machines. Maybe the windows auto update when you shutdown, that's all. Servers do not shutdown frequently. Only clients. All clients (good and bad) are in the same subnet as the server. All on DHCP. The "bad" clients are those that cannot access the shared folders of the server. The folders are shared using a user account created at the server and clients that connect to this shared folder have to use the same userid and password. Servers are on static IP. Otherwise, we have a problem connecting to servers that have frequent change of IPs. ltkhoo

Hi experts, What I faced is similar to those in the thread "Windows 7 cannot access shared folders" (http://social.technet.microsoft.com/Forums/en/w7itpronetworking/thread/37dab690-bc74-425a-a389-1bb3478db63f) but I have Vista Business. I have created this thread because there is no solution in that thread and also to highlight that this issue also happens in Vista. There is an increasing number of machines in my office getting the same issue now. I am not able to get any solution from other forums too and currently the only way is to rebuild/reinstall windows in the machines. The trouble with reinstallation is about re-registration of licenses of some software which does not have online registration (through certificate requests). I hope microsoft has been informed about this and is doing something about it. ltkhoo

Hi Daniel, Thanks for the reply. The server machine has shared folders to be accessed by other client machines. All 4 items you mentioned are turned on in the server but clients only have 1, 2 and 4 on. Clients don't need 3 on. Some clients are able to access the shared folder while other don't. So we believe the problem is at the client machines. No third party firewalls are used. We only have McAfee Antivirus. I have tried turning antivirus off using Clean Boot but it doesn't help. I am curious why this happens all of a sudden. The day before, these clients were able to access the folders. Only some of these clients have this problem now but the number is increasing. ltkhoo

Hi Daniel, Thanks for the reply. The server machine has shared folders to be accessed by other client machines. All 4 items you mentioned are turned on in the server but clients only have 1, 2 and 4 on. Clients don't need 3 on. Some clients are able to access the shared folder while other don't. So we believe the problem is at the client machines. No third party firewalls are used. We only have McAfee Antivirus. I have tried turning antivirus off using Clean Boot but it doesn't help. I am curious why this happens all of a sudden. The day before, these clients were able to access the folders. Only some of these clients have this problem now but the number is increasing. ltkhoo I assume you're running server 2003 or 2008? Do anyone have access to the server and client pc? Could there be anyone that have set restriction to some of the client pc? As in not giving full ctrl or right? If you're purely running a standalone pc with vista or win 7, i would have no issue helping you to resolve it but if you're running windows server, as you know server could restrict the client pc sharing & stuff Could you be more specific, is the client that can't access the server or the server couldn't access the client? Btw i assume the client pcs is running in between switch & router? And may i know is on static IP or DHCP?

Hi Did you ensure the following feature is turn on for all pcs which you're trying to share or access? 1)network discovery 2)file and printer sharing 3)public folder sharing except 4)password protecting is turn off Sames go to home group, you would need to ensure the password is the same for all pc. I suggest you to leave the home group (if is created previously) and recreate the homegroup again. Make sure the rest of the pcs are power on and is connected through lan while enabling the homegroup as well as enabling network access Are you able to view the rest of the network by going to ctrl panel>network & internet>view network & computer devices? Also ensure there's no third party firewall like norton, zone alarm etc or else you would need to uninstall or configure it to detect or access the network shares. lastly is your office network pc shares on a server? As in some of the rig is running windows server?

I have had a similar issue. After a Windows Update to my Sony laptop which occurred on May 4 at 9pm, the computer (running Windows Vista Home Premium SP2) shut down. When I restarted it, I could not connect to network drives on my desktop (Sony Vaio earlier model running Windows XP SP3) that I've had mapped on this system for several years and has always worked. After $200 in service charges for trying to fix this problem and restore the mapped drives I still cannot access them. It seems to me that one of these updates now requires all computers on my network to be in the same workgroup "WORKGROUP" or networking will not be possible. Looking at the full Network Map, the desktop MEGWDTP is on a network MEGWNET while other computers are not necessarily on the same network. The map shows my laptop, my son's two computers and his XBox360 and my wife;s computer are all wirelessly connected to the NETGEAR router, which is connected to the SWITCH component and thence to the HUB component, to which is connected the network backup drive and the MEGWDTP computer, and linked through the router (NETGEAR WN834Bv2) to the Internet. However, the original mapped network drives on the MEGWDTP computer are no longer able to be mapped - I tried mapping drive Z on the laptop to \\MEGWDTP\G and it will not connect. However. I can ping the MEGWDTP computer, and it is still able to access files in the public folder on my laptop and to read and write files to it. Why this one-way connectivity? Additionally, many of the services on the laptop that normally run were disabled by the Windows update, and even after re-enabling and starting these services, I still cannot make a connection to the desktop computer. After the shutdown due to the Windows update literally only 14 services were running, normally it's in the range of 100 to 110. As I've spent $200 I'm wondering if I can SUE Microsoft for ruining my network and costing me two days of personal effort plus it still isn't fixed and I'll probably have to spend even more money and time to get back this MISSION CRITICAL networking.Martin Willcocks

Hi Martin, I believe one of the windows update may have changed some network settings that is hidden from the user. I see some threads with the same problem but no solution. Someone also mentioned about being able to trace some difference in network layer when they face this problem compared to after rebuilding the machine to resolve it. I have re-installed Vista on 1 machine and re-applied windows updates on it. So far this problem has not recur for this machine but without a proper solution from microsoft, this is a timebomb. The fact that Microsoft is silent about this is fishy. ltkhoo

Hi Daniel, For your information, when connecting to the shared folders from these "bad" clients to the servers using \\machinename\folder or even \\machine_ip\folder, the error window "The network location cannot be reached" pops up. "Bad" clients can ping the servers and even do Remote Desktop Connection to the servers. All clients have the settings: - Same workgroup Same domain - Private Network Network Discovery On File Sharing On Public Folder Sharing Off Password Protected Sharing On After close examination, I realised that the "bad" clients have Vista Service Pack 2. Other "good" clients have either SP1 or just base Vista. Servers have Vista SP1. I have since reinstalled Vista SP1 on one "bad" client and now it can connect to the server shared folders. The trouble with reinstallation is about re-registration of licenses of some software which does not have online registration (through certificate requests). Is there any resolution without re-installing Vista? ltkhoo

The thread I read mentioned about SMB service. It's at http://social.technet.microsoft.com/Forums/en/w7itpronetworking/thread/37dab690-bc74-425a-a389-1bb3478db63f. Wonder whether Vista has SMB service. Anyway, there was no solution at that Windows 7 thread too. I think this thread will rot again with no solution from microsoft. ltkhoo