Network path not found

BrianTheElectrician · January 11, 2019

Ok, I've got an issue that has been driving me insane for the last few hours. I have a Windows 7 machine setup as a network storage server, and it has been running as such for several months with no issues. I set it up and it sits in my basement running happily and I just connect to the shares from other systems in the house. Until tonight. I go on my workshop pc to pull some driver files for a machine I'm working on and it's not showing up (named "StorageServer"). I hop on the server to find it's not logged in. I log it in (must have rebooted from an update or something) like I have in the past and hop back on the shop pc. StorageServer shows up in the network viewer but when I went to access it, it gave me error 0x80070035 The network path cannot be found. WTF. I have changed nothing on either of these machines, or anything else on the network for that matter. I go to my main pc (running windows 7, shop pc runs windows 10) and same error. upstairs pc in the kitchen, same error. If I'm on the server though, I can access every other machine fine.

What I've tried:

- Re-starting all computers and network routers/switches\

- Re-setting homegroup on all affected systems (using name "Network")

- Uninstalling the network card from device manager and re-installing (on the server)

- Turning off network discovery and printer sharing, and re-enabling it (on the server)

- Setting "Network Security: LAN Manager Authentication: LM and NTLM user NTLMv2 if negotiated" in Policy editor (server)

- Tried connecting to server with server ip using DHCP and being static

- Enabling NetBios over TCP/IP on the WINS tab of Advanced settings of the network adapter

- System restore on the server to yesterday when everything was working as it should

All shares on the server are shared to only my username, with full control with the exception of a few folders for my wife, tied to her account. The server is running Windows 7 Pro x64. I can successfully ping the server from any machine in the house, so it's definitely there. Server shows 1Gb connection like it should, and can access the internet fine. I can access shares on other pcs from the server fine. I've been pulling my hair out over this for hours. It literally worked fine yesterday, haven't changed a thing and it's giving me a giant FU today.

HELP!

Dujith · January 11, 2019

In your list i do not see that you tried disabling the Firewall on the server?

And sometimes the network is set to public. That can cause problems too.

BrianTheElectrician · January 11, 2019

16 minutes ago, Dujith said:

In your list i do not see that you tried disabling the Firewall on the server?

And sometimes the network is set to public. That can cause problems too.

Firewall is just the windows default, though I haven't disabled it. Network profile is set to Home. Thank you for the suggestions though!

Actually I literally just solved it and jumped on to post what the solution was. It actually turned out to be a Windows update that broke it... "2019-01 Security Monthly Quality Rollup for Windows 7 x64 based systems. KB4480970". I figured what the hell, the updates were the only things that could have changed anything, so I uninstalled this update, rebooted and boom, I can access my shares again!

There goes 3 hours of my life I'll never get back. Thanks Microsoft!