"Windows cannot access share" with 0x800704cf error

I have a simple LAN with file server, called FILES, which is a Windows 8.1 Pro machine with a bunch of shared folders. I use several Windows 8.1 Pro and Windows 10 Pro client machines to connect to these shares over Ethernet or WiFi through Netgear R8000 router.

I set up all Windows machines for basic password-based authentication. I.e. all machines have exactly the same set of user accounts with identical passwords. All machines belong to default WORKGROUP. Homegroups are disabled. Windows Firewall is turned off on all machines as well. The network is designated as private.

Now, on a client machine I can open File Explorer hit 'Network' and see FILES listed as a machine on my network. (Meaning that network discovery works fine.) I can double click on FILES icon and immediately see the full list of all available shares on FILES (so this part works fine as well).

But then, when I click on a specific share (say, Storage), I get an error message

Trying to click on the same share again (or on other shares) produces the same error. But it happens only for about 20-40 seconds after the first click. After that period, the next click suddenly successfully opens the share and everything works fine after that. All other shares on FILES also begin working perfectly. Basically, since that moment on everything works as it should.

However, if I leave FILES alone for a while and then return back to it, the same behavior reappears again. First click of any of the FILES shares generates the above 0x800704cf error, but after 20-40 seconds everything starts working again.

This behavior is very consistent and easily reproducible. The behavior is the same for wired and wireless clients.

Now, when try to access the same shares by specifying the IP address of FILES explicitly (as in \\192.168.1.3\Storage), the share always opens successfully without any delay. This suggests that this is some sort of name resolution issue. However, doing ping FILES always succeeds instantly, without any errors. Even when File Explorer throws 0x800704cf for \\FILES\Storage, ping FILES still works correctly.

Just to test the name resolution theory again, I added 192.168.1.3 FILES to LMHOSTS file. But it didn't help. The problem is still there, which appears to indicate that this is not a name resolution issue.

So, what else could be the reason for this annoying error? I see it mentioned on the Net quite a few times, but no definitive answer.

P.S. Occasionally, very rarely I get a similar error earlier, when I try to open FILES itself: "Windows cannot access \\FILES" (error 0x80070035). But this is very rare. In 99 cases out of 100 I can open FILES successfully and see the list of all shares. The error only occurs when I attempt to access \\FILES\Storage (or any other share) and it is 0x800704cf.

In my case

netsh int ip reset

saved the day temporarily seemed to improve the situation. Running it on FILES (and then re-entering normal adapter settings) made all shares accessible immediately and reliably. But about a day later the original problem reappeared in its full glory.

I had the same error on a Windows Server in an full AD domain.

The fix that resolved my issue was that my Network Adapter properties did not have "Client for Microsoft Networks" installed.

I did the following:

1. From the Network and Sharing Center click Change Adapter Settings
2. Right Click on Adapter >> Select Properties
3. Check if "Client For Microsoft Networks" is installed? If not;
4. Click Install
5. Double-Click Clients
6. Choose Client for Microsoft Networks
7. Click Ok >> OK
8. Restart the computer

When it came back up I was able to access the network share.

Found this @ Since Windows 8.1 Cannot Access Network Shares on Windows Home Server 2011