Networking – How to Access Network Shares on Windows Home Server 2011 from Windows 8.1

I recently rebuilt my PC and installed Windows 8 Pro 64 bit – I was using it with few issues, and it was able access the shares on my Windows Home Server 2011 – although I had to enter user name manually as I was using Windows Live account for Windows 8.

Since updating to Windows 8.1 I can no longer access my shares on my WHS 2011.

I have tried various things to fix this, which I will list below, but one of the interesting things is I cannot even access the local machine via share.

My main PC is called Office and my server is called WHServer, so in explorer on my office PC under Network I see both WHServer and Office listed – click on either results in the message:

\\OFFICE is not accessible. You might not have permission to use this network resource. Contact the administrator of this server to find out if you have access permissions.`

The specified network provider name is invalid.

If I try to navigate using IP, eg \\172.16.0.101\Public or \\127.0.0.1\Public I get:

 Windows cannot access \\127.0.0.1\Public

Check the spelling of the name. Otherwise, there might be a problem with your network. To try to identify and resolve network problems, click Diagnose.

[Expanded Information] Error code: 0x80004005 Unspecified error

Clicking the Diagnose button finds no issues.

If trying to use net use m: \\[IP OR server name] I get:

System error 67 has occurred.

Pinging the hostname or IPs give responses as expected, as do visiting via http.

I have tried the following:

• Tested via other Windows 8 (not 8.1) Laptop and everything still works there
• Disabling firewalls on both local machine and server
• Disabling AV on both local and server
• Set HKLM\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Services\LanmanWorkstation\Parameters\RequireSecuritySignature to 0.
• Allowing 40-56 bit encryption
• Clearing credentials in Credential Manager – although when I delete one related user, it keeps comping back automatically
• uninstalling and re-installing network

What should I try next?