Hello, I have a netbook and a laptop, one running windows 7 standard and the other windows 7 professional. I used to be able to open shared folders between the two flawlessly but as of late I do not have access to the shared folders on the two anymore. Both computers do appear in eachothers network map but when I try to navigate to one of the shares I get the message that "Windows cannot access\\%computer name%. A system restore did not work and after trying several solutions (from here and other fora) I now am at my wits end. Just to be sure I already tried: - removing the host file and flushing DNS - rebooting my router - changing both to homegroup - deleting the homegroup and creating a new one (could not even join a homegroup from windows 7 starter. Said there was none, even though I just created one) - disabling and re-enabling shares - checking for IPv6, present and running - checking services, also all running What now? Greetings, DJ

Are you able to view or access other network by going to ctrl panel>network and internet>view network computer and devices? If no go, try mapping the IP through universal naming convention (UNC) path such as \\192.168.x.xxx if there's any third party firewall other than windows firewall, either configure it or have it uninstall

Like I said, I am able to see the computers on the network map (ie via network computer and devices). LIke I said as well, I disabled the firewall but that did not help either.

What happens if you open IE's browser, then goto the address bar type \\<computer name here> and hit enter, does the same error occur and/or do the shares at least show?John Wiley

Same error

Do you happen to be using a security software suite on these computers?(Norton, Mcafee, F-Secure etc) I know I had installed F-Secure awhile back and had the same issues, it so happen to be I had to go to the security software and manually add the IP addresses and Subnet Mask of each computer to one another in the firewall portion of it.John Wiley

Currently I am on holiday so not able to test this for a while. Nonetheless it is highly unlikely that this is the solution, since, as I already stated in the original post, I already tried accessing with the firewall disabled. Another reason for me to suspect that this is not the solution is that I have not switched firewall software and was able to access from both computers previously. What makes it even more strange is that both are running the same version of Mcafee and from netbook to notebook works, but the other way around does not

Just to rule this out, are you running Mcafee and Windows Firewall at the same time?John Wiley

of course not. But I will follow up around september 7th when I am back home again. Thanks so far all.

of course not. But I will follow up around september 7th when I am back home again. Thanks so far all. Like Daniel said, can you access the shared folder via \\IPAddress\Share_Folder? Please enable NetBIOS over TCP/IP to see if it works: 1) Go to “Control Panel\Network and Internet\Network Connections”. 2) Right-Click on the connection and choose Properties. 3) Click “Internet Protocol (TCP/IP) Version 4” in the list. 4) Click Properties, and then click Advanced. 5) On the Advanced TCP/IP settings windows, go to “WINS” tab. 6) Under NetBIOS setting, click “Enable NetBIOS over TCP/IP”, and then click OK. Best Regards Dale Qiao Please remember to click Mark as Answer on the post that helps you, and to click Unmark as Answer if a marked post does not actually answer your question. This can be beneficial to other community members reading the thread.

And like I replied to Daniel: no that gave the same error. Anyway it turned out to be none of the above. What turned out to be the culprit was homegroup. Somehow the netbook did not share properly through the homegroup. So by disabling the homegroup and sharing the folders anew, things are now back to normal.