All users have a drive W: that is mapped at logon, this gives them access to a shared location to access and save files.

When they r going to open from MS Office.. they are getting the error 'W: is not accessible, the drive may be password protected...'

No network shares are showing up under my computer.

the full error when trying to access the mapped w: drive :

The folder 'w:' isn't accessible. The folder may be located in an unavailable location, protected with a password, or the filename contains a / or \.

and when trying to access something like \\server from run we just get permission denied errors.

MrxSmb - the redirector was unable to initialize security context attributes.

I was brought to this: Determining the Cause of an "MRxSmb 3034" Warning
Quote -
If your computer cannot connect to a resource on the network, you may see one or more warnings in the System event log with event ID 3034 and a source of MRxSmb (MRxSmb is the Server Message Block, or SMB, mini-redirector in Windows 2000, with secure SMB capabilities).


thats exactly what my problem is and there are hundreds of MRxSmb errors

I have clicked on Microsoft Windows Network from a work station, and it replies with the error:

Unable to browse the network

The network is not present or not started

... and there is no error showing in the server System Event Log.

When users are trying to access shares it's from the mapped drive letter or by going to \\server which gives access to all the network resources

The problem we're having now is that drives are not mapping and when we go to \\server or any directory within it, we're getting permission denied errors, even if they are trying direct access to their own location eg \\server\staff\staff.name ... no one can access their files or save onto the network..

Also internet and network printing still seems to be operating fine