No more connection allowed error on Local network

I am trying to connect to my brothers desktop share through my local network. We are going through a netgear 10/100 router and have highspeed broadband access. This is the error that I am encountering:
"No more connections can be made to this remote computer at this time because there are already as many connnections as the computer can accept."

Thing is....there is no other connection to the computer. There is just him and me on the network. We did some research and modified the max connections to be 9999 now and its still the same problem. Another interest bit is that immediately after a reboot from his machine I can connect to him....but about 15 minutes later I will lose it again. Additionally, this was not an issue for months. Everything worked fine and then up until not too long ago. The only thing that was added was a hamachi server program which has since been uninstalled and the registry cleaned of its entries. We run spyware and registry cleaners all the time. We are both behind McAffee personal firewall software as well.

We are both using Windows Vista Ultimate 64bit on pretty decently powerful computers.

 

As far as I can determine, regardless of what you change, Vista limits the number of connections to the same as did XP Pro -- 10. As a matter of fact, there's supposedly some wording embedded in the EULA that states a limit of 10.

 

Okay....I can accept the default. There is however a registry edit that will allow you to change the amount of connections. Besides, there is just him and me on the network.

 

The Vista Ultimate EULA specifically states the following:



DEVICE CONNECTIONS. You may allow up to 10 other devices to access the software installed on the licensed device to use File Services, Print Services, Internet Information Services and Internet Connection Sharing and Telephony Services.



So, I doubt the registry change will do anything.



Note that is says "devices", not "users". So, if you're connected in to do file sharing, printer sharing, and internet sharing, that's three connections, even though you have only one user connected.



The fact that you can connect upon initial boot and then get shut out later indicates that you're spawning connections and eventually hit the limit of 10.



Have you tried rebooting the machine and seeing if you can then connect? I mean completely restarting from a cold boot, not logoff/login. Can you then connect or are you still getting the same problems?

 

A reboot on the computer does allow me to connect to him. However, this is a new problem. I was able to connect to him for months with no interference. I am going to try and disable all possible other connection. Is there a sure fire way to see what is spawning those connections

 

Still going on....anything else you can think of to check or fix.