Solved Error 0x80070035 - The network path was not found.

[hdmi]

I have been trying to solve this for hours on end, without success. I can share a folder via HomeGroup on my Windows 8 Professional x64 laptop and I am able to access the folder on my Windows 7 x86 Starter netbook, but not the other way round, meaning I get the same errorcode 0x80070035 each time I try to access the Windows 7 machine on the Windows 8 machine. I have enabled NetBIOS via TCP/IP on both machines, verified that the name of the workgroup is the same on both machines, tried to enable / disable password protected sharing, verified that services are running, rebooted both machines on several occasions, went out the door for a gasp of fresh air and still haven't been able to find the culprit.
There's no antivirus / firewall suite running on either machine (apart from Windows firewall). There is no router in between, just a normal switch. I am running Mouse without Borders (from Microsoft Garage) since Windows 8 has rendered Input Director useless, and I am able to move my mouse pointer across the screen of the Windows 8 machine using the touchpad of the Windows 7 machine (and I can even copy bits of text from the Windows 7 machine to the Windows 8 machine via the shared Windows clipboard) so it's not like everything gets blocked by the Windows 8 machine.
Help please.

 

[chev65]

This Homegroup trouble shooting guide might help you to spot the problem.
Ultimate Troubleshooting Guide for Windows 7 HomeGroup Connection Issues

When in doubt leave the Homegroup on all machine and create a new one then rejoin.

 

[hdmi]

Thank you. The guide says the first 3 parts of the IP Address should be the same, i.e. 192.168.0.x or 10.0.1.x. However, they are NOT the same. This is because my ISP assigns them automatically via DHCP. Is there anything I can do to work my way around this?
How can it be explained the fact the Windows 7 netbook can still access the Windows 8 laptop perfectly fine, but not the other way round (pinging the laptop from the netbook works, but pinging the netbook from the laptop it says the host cannot be found)?

 

[chev65]

Thank you. The guide says the first 3 parts of the IP Address should be the same, i.e. 192.168.0.x or 10.0.1.x. However, they are NOT the same. This is because my ISP assigns them automatically via DHCP. Is there anything I can do to work my way around this?
How can it be explained the fact the Windows 7 netbook can still access the Windows 8 laptop perfectly fine, but not the other way round (pinging the laptop from the netbook works, but pinging the netbook from the laptop it says the host cannot be found)?

The assignments are normally done by your router through it's DHCP settings, those settings should be using the same default gateway and they should also put you in the same subnet as the other machine.

I'd have to see a screen shot of the ipconfig/all from both machines in order to understand the problem.

 

[hdmi]

The assignments are normally done by your router through it's DHCP settings, those settings should be using the same default gateway and they should also put you in the same subnet as the other machine.

I do not have a router, just a normal switch. Also, my cable modem does not have a built-in router, either.

I'd have to see a screen shot of the ipconfig/all from both machines in order to understand the problem.

I cannot publicly post screenshots of my IP addresses, for obvious reasons.
Only the first part of both IPs is the same. The same applies to the default gateway, by the way. The subnet masks are 255.255.xxx.xxx and 255.255.yyy.yyy. The (not so) funny thing is the freeware program 'Mouse without Borders' from Microsoft Garage (Download Mouse without Borders from Official Microsoft Download Center) doesn't have a single problem with my IPs whatsoever.

 

[hdmi]

Strangely, unplugging the the UTP cable of the modem from the switch and then plugging it back in finally did the trick for me.

 

[chev65]

The assignments are normally done by your router through it's DHCP settings, those settings should be using the same default gateway and they should also put you in the same subnet as the other machine.

I do not have a router, just a normal switch. Also, my cable modem does not have a built-in router, either.

I'd have to see a screen shot of the ipconfig/all from both machines in order to understand the problem.

I cannot publicly post screenshots of my IP addresses, for obvious reasons.
Only the first part of both IPs is the same. The same applies to the default gateway, by the way. The subnet masks are 255.255.xxx.xxx and 255.255.yyy.yyy. The (not so) funny thing is the freeware program 'Mouse without Borders' from Microsoft Garage (Download Mouse without Borders from Official Microsoft Download Center) doesn't have a single problem with my IPs whatsoever.

You can't connect more than one machine in your LAN unless you have a router, unless you are using ICS or a virtual router, in any event the numbers you have posted are very strange and I would expect more problems down the road.

The IP information I requested does not compromise your security at all, otherwise I would not have requested it.

These are LAN IP's, the same IP's that everyone else is using on a private network, they can't be used to track you down.

 

[hdmi]

The assignments are normally done by your router through it's DHCP settings, those settings should be using the same default gateway and they should also put you in the same subnet as the other machine.

I do not have a router, just a normal switch. Also, my cable modem does not have a built-in router, either.

I'd have to see a screen shot of the ipconfig/all from both machines in order to understand the problem.

I cannot publicly post screenshots of my IP addresses, for obvious reasons.
Only the first part of both IPs is the same. The same applies to the default gateway, by the way. The subnet masks are 255.255.xxx.xxx and 255.255.yyy.yyy. The (not so) funny thing is the freeware program 'Mouse without Borders' from Microsoft Garage (Download Mouse without Borders from Official Microsoft Download Center) doesn't have a single problem with my IPs whatsoever.

You can't connect more than one machine in your LAN unless you have a router, unless you are using ICS or a virtual router, in any event the numbers you have posted are very strange and I would expect more problems down the road.

The IP information I requested does not compromise your security at all, otherwise I would not have requested it.

These are LAN IP's, the same IP's that everyone else is using on a private network, they can't be used to track you down.

Sorry for the confusion. On each one of my PCs, my public WAN IP is exactly the same as my LAN IP because the DHCP server of my ISP assigns a unique IP to each NIC (and none of my PCs have dual NIC). I know most people would simply suggest to buy a router, however that is not an option to me AFAIK because, for a variety of reasons, I require more than just one public WAN IP on my home network.

P.S. - After I unplug the UTP cable of my modem from my switch, it takes several minutes until my laptop can access the contents of my netbook's shared folder. Next, if I plug the cable back in, I am able to continue to access these contents (I left both PCs running overnight and verified that I was still able to copy my shared files in the morning) but as soon as I dare close the Explorer window and then try to reopen the shared folder, the problem returns and it's still exactly the same as how I first described it.

 

[hdmi]

I have pulled the ethernet cable of my modem from my switch again but this time I waited a very long time before plugging it back in so that the DHCP server of my ISP released the fixed IPs. As a result, both PCs are now on the same subnet. And guess what? The problem still persists.

 

[hdmi]

Removed both PCs from the HomeGroup. Created a new HomeGroup, added the other PC to it. Still no dice. Something about the permissions. Went into the advanced sharing properties panel of the shared folder, saw some 'unknown' user objects there, unchecked the 'Shared' checkbox and deleted all user objects from the list below it, as well as from the Security tab, and repeated these actions for both the parent folder (my personal folder in C:\Users) and its parent folder (C:\Users). Shared the folder again using the 'Share with specific...' method and voilà, it works.