How to Troubleshoot File and Printer Sharing from the Client

Follow these steps to troubleshoot problems connecting to shared files and printers:

1. If you can connect to the shared folder but receive an Access Is Denied message when attempting to open the folder, your user account has permission to access the share but lacks NTFS File System (NTFS) permissions for the folder. Contact the server administrator to grant the necessary NTFS file permissions. If the server is a computer running Windows 7, see the section titled "How to Troubleshoot File and Printer Sharing from the Server" later in this tutorial.
2. Verify that you can resolve the server's name correctly. At a command prompt, type ping hostname. If Ping displays an IP address, as shown here, you can resolve the server's name correctly. It does not matter whether the server replies to the pings. If this step fails, it indicates a name resolution problem. Contact your AD DS or DNS administrator.

   ping server
   	Pinging server [10.1.42.22] with 32 bytes of data:
   

3. Attempt to connect using the server's IP address, as identified in the previous step, rather than the server's host name. For example, instead of connecting to \\server\ printer, you might connect to \\10.1.42.22\printer.
4. From a command prompt, attempt to establish a connection to a server using the net use \\ip_address command. If it succeeds, you have sufficient network connectivity, but your user account lacks privileges to connect to the folder or printer share. Have the server administrator grant your account the necessary share permissions. Share permissions are separate from NTFS file permissions.
5. Use Telnet or PortQry to test whether your computer can connect to TCP port 445 of the remote computer. If you cannot connect using TCP port 445, test TCP port 139. For instructions on how to test for connectivity using a specific port, see the section titled "How to Troubleshoot Application Connectivity Problems" earlier in this tutorial. If you cannot connect using either TCP port 139 or TCP port 445, verify that File And Printer Sharing is enabled on the server. Then, verify that the server has a firewall exception for TCP ports 139 and 445 or that an exception in Windows Firewall is enabled for File And Printer Sharing.
6. Attempt to connect to the server using an account with administrative credentials on the server. If you can connect with a different account, your normal account lacks sufficient credentials. Have the server administrator grant your account the necessary privileges. Depending on the server configuration, you might be able to identify authentication problems by viewing the Security Event Log. However, logon failure auditing must be enabled on the server for the events to be available.

If you are still unable to connect, continue troubleshooting from the server. If you do not have access to the server, contact the server administrator for assistance.