Windows 7 cannot map drive to Windows XP share

network-sharesnetworkingwindows 7

When I open the Network folder inside Windows Explorer on my Windows 7 computer I see a list of computer names (most of them are Windows XP machines). If I double-click a Windows 7 machine it opens that machine and shows all of its shares. However, if I double-click on a Windows XP machine it hangs for about twenty seconds then returns the following error message:

Network Error

Windows cannot
access \\Windows XPcomputername

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.

Error code:
0x80070035 The network path was not
found.

I can ping the Windows XP computer by name, I can connect to it from another Windows XP computer on the domain, I can double-click on the server machine and it will open correctly (running Windows Server 2003 for Small Business Server). I have been troubleshooting this for about 8 hours already (disabled my firewall, no help; disabled IPv6, no help; attempted to connect to IP address of Windows XP computer, no help; verified NetBIOS is enabled).

The thing I can't understand is that I was able to do this without any problem up until a few months ago. Something changed, but I don't know what. I have found several forums where Windows 7 users have reported this problem. Anybody have any new ideas?

UPDATE: I am able to connect to Windows XP computers on a different domain. (I do consulting work and I am a domain admin for several of my customers.) This makes me think that there may be some difference in network policy settings that is causing problems in Windows 7 <–> Windows XP communication/authentication.

UPDATE: The domain where I can connect to Windows XP computers uses DHCP. The domain where I'm having problems uses static IPs. On this problem domain my assigned static IP is in a different subnet (255.255.255.128) than the computers I'm trying to connect to (255.255.255.192). Could this be the problem?

UPDATE: If I ping my machine by name on the network where I am having problems, it resolves my name to an IPv6 address rather than IPv4. As far as I can tell, all the other computers on the network resolve to IPv4 addresses. Is it possible that my computer ended up in a name server with an IPv6 address and that is causing my problems? If so, is there any way to force the name server to store my IPv4 address instead?

Best Answer

I solved this problem today on my LAN by disabling the "Use Sharing Assistant" option on Windows Explorer.

Steps (run on the Windows-7 client machine):

  1. Open Windows Explorer;
  2. Click the "alt" button to open the context menu;
  3. Click on "tools";
  4. Click on "folder options";
  5. Click on "Exibition Modes" tab;
  6. On "Advanced Configuration", the last item of the list may be "Use Sharing Assistant (recommended).

Disabling this item solved my network sharing between XP and 7. I also use static IP's on my LAN.

My setup:

  1. Server: Windows XP 32, static IP, Gigabit Ethernet;
  2. Client 1: Windows 7 64, static IP, Gigabit Ethernet;
  3. Client 2: Windows 7 32, DHCP, 100Mbps Ethernet or 811.G Wifi;
  4. Client 3: Same as client 1;
  5. Client 4: XBOX 360;

All of the clients are able to see the server with the config above.

EDIT: I also disabled IPv6 on all Windows 7 machines. Not sure if that could help at all.

Related Question