Windows 7 workgroup not accessable from the local machine.

This has me completely baffled, I've never had a problem like this before and I've been at this game for a while. If anyone has any ideas no matter how irrelevant they may seem please tell me.

I have 2 PC's, both running Windows 7 Enterprise x86.

The main PC has an internal drive and an external USB drive, both of which have shares a plenty. Until yesterday they worked fine.

If I type \\main-pc (from the main-pc) I can see all the shares but when i try and access them I get the message 'check the spelling of the name. Otherwise, there might be a problem with your network'. The network diagnostic wizard doesn't find a problem.

If I type \\192.168.72 , which is the main-pc ip, into the run line, it cannot access the workgroup browse list and comes back with the same message about checking the spelling.

The second PC can access the main PC shares without any problem at all, including via Ip address.

When I ping the netbios name I am returned a valid IP.

Here's what I have done so far:

Reinstalled the network card, tried another network card.
Reinstalled client for ms networks and file and printer sharing.
Completely disabled IPV6 using the DisabledComponents reg fix.
Ran NETSH resets on winsock and ip stack.
Reerun the network wizard, renamed the workgroup, changed the PC name, fiddled with homegroup (enabling/disabling), removed security software, disabled the firewall, disabled firewall through policy, uninstalled all windows updates in the last week.

I've used the net view command and can confirm all workgroup services are running...If I type net view I can see my PC..but the problem isn't just accessing my PC, I get exactly the same problem now when I try and access the second PC, which works fine if your on it locally.

It could be the server service which the browser service requires, I've paused it and my results don't change but not sure how to troubleshoot that.

I've had a go at some reg fixes and modified some security policys but have since put it all back the way it was.

Might be worth mentioning I have had a network bridge active between 2 network cards but has never been an issue. I've removed the bridge and tried in both cards seperatelly as well.

Thanks

Here's a bit more info if someone wouldn't mind having a look.

I can see the shares via netbios name but not IP, and I can't map it for some reason.

Bear in mind this is not a networked pc any more, I took it off.

Ethernet adapter Local Area Connection:

Connection-specific DNS Suffix . : home
IPv4 Address. . . . . . . . . . . : 192.168.1.67
Subnet Mask . . . . . . . . . . . : 255.255.25
Default Gateway . . . . . . . . . : 192.168.1.254

C:\Users\Rusty>ping rusty

Pinging Rusty [192.168.1.67] with 32 bytes of dat
Reply from 192.168.1.67: bytes=32 time<1ms TTL=12
Reply from 192.168.1.67: bytes=32 time<1ms TTL=12

Ping statistics for 192.168.1.67:
Packets: Sent = 2, Received = 2, Lost = 0 (0%
Approximate round trip times in milli-seconds:
Minimum = 0ms, Maximum = 0ms, Average = 0ms
Control-C
^C
C:\Users\Rusty>net view \\rusty
Shared resources at \\rusty



Share name Type Used as Comment

-------------------------------------------------
D Disk
External Disk
Games Disk
HP Deskjet D2400 series Print HP Deskj
Movies Disk
NVIDIA Disk
Pictures Disk
Tunez Disk
TV Shows Disk
Users Disk
The command completed successfully.


C:\Users\Rusty>net use z:rusty\D
System error 67 has occurred.

The network name cannot be found.


C:\Users\Rusty>net view \\192.168.1.67
System error 53 has occurred.

The network path was not found.