Networked External drive not sharing like the old ones.

Mac os 13.7 iMac has an OWC nvme external drive connected via USB C. This replaces a failing networked drive. I use this Mac as my server to share the external drive which will share via the network but when clicking OK to mount I get the dreaded "There was a problem connecting to the server""" etc. It sees the drive but won't mount. But the same drive WILL mount and share on my Mac laptop running 12.7. Permissions are almost identical for this test. Online i saw a problem saying "if your password has a @ in it, it won't mount" hmmm. Suggestion would be greatly appreciated.