We're running a Windows Server 2008 R2 machine, which has a share on it called Guest. We're just running on a Workgroup, not a domain, and aren't using Active Directory. The server has the DNS Server, File Services and Network Policy and Access Services running, as well as a WINS server, and is set up for VPN users to access the network via the internet. The clients are all Windows 7 (various editions - Ultimate, Professional, Home), and are configured via DHCP from the router (which sets up the DNS server on the clients to point at the ISP's DNS - not sure if this could be causing the issues, but we don't have access to the router's configuration). The problem comes when the clients try to access the Guest share. On a fresh boot, running 'net use' lists no connections. The client can then browse the network and see the server and its shares, but trying to access the Guest share gives: You do not have permission to access \\SERVER\Guest. Contact your network administrator to request access. Running 'net use' after this shows \\SERVER\Guest listed. To get around this, we have to then run the following commands: net use \\server\guest /delete net use \\server\guest /user:<Username> After that, the client can successfully access the Guest share, until they reboot. The username is a user account on the server, the clients have different user names, so I'm guessing that the clients are trying to authenticate with their local accounts and failing (which is expected), but they are not prompting for login details for some reason.Andrew Porritt GoGo-Robot Ltd www.gogo-robot.com

Hi, Have you set the correct permission for the shared folder on Windows Server? Can you ping the shared folder before accessing it? I suggest you enable guest account and password protection sharing on Server, please also temporarily disable the security software program on both sides to check the result. If the issue persists, try to use the following command. net use \\server\guest /user:<Username> /persistent:yes Best Regards, NikiPlease 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.