no network provider accepted the given path

I received the following error today when trying to open a samba share on a FreeBSD system from a clean Windows Server 2003 install:

“no network provider accepted the given path.”

“PC LOAD LETTER, what the fsck does that mean?!” I thought to myself. After some digging, I found that the default LAN Manager authentication level is set to NTLM response only and not LM & NTLM response.

Fix for the issue:

Administrative tools -> Local Security Policy -> Local Policy -> Security Options

Change: Network security: LAN Manager authentication level

From: Send NTLM response only

To: Send LM & NTLM responses