Using AFP from Lion to Lion

It doesn't even get to the point of asking me for a password. It just says "The server may not exist or it is unavailable at this time. Check the server name or IP address, check your network connection, and then try again." The name / IP address is correct and my network connection is fine. Still nothing. The "Connect As" button shows up on finder for about 3 seconds before it disappears. So, I never get prompted for a username or password.

I tried creating a new user and that didn't help. I still am not prompted for a username or password. It just says it failed to connect to the server.

I have no firewall or anti virus running.

Also when I restart the computer, "File Sharing" is turned back off again.

Thank you for your suggestions, Jeffrey. I did as you suggested and deleted the files and rebooted. I turned Windows File Sharing off before I rebooted and when I logged back in, I tried enabling AFP. It started saying "0 connections", but when I tried to connect from the remote machine, AFP turned itself off, meaning the toggle button was off again and I got the error on the client computer saying it could not reach the server.

My network setup consists of a router and multiple computers and other IP devices. The Mac mini is actually usually only accessed remotely via Screen Sharing (which by the way always works). I know I can get to the mini because of screen sharing working so I know the computer is on the network. Both computers are wired into the router so no wireless involved. There are no firewalls on and no anti-virus software on either computer. The server computer is logged is using a standard account, but even being logged in as an administrator doesn't help. The client computer is always logged in as an administrator. The user accounts are different, the client having an account with my name and the server having a more generic administrator account name and a "Media Center" standard account that is automatically logged in. The standard account does not have a password, but the admin account does. I want to use the admin account to mount the volume, but it doesn't even prompt me for a password because AFP turns off before I get a chance to.

Thanks for trying. I've tried creating a new administrator account and repaired permissions. It just seems like for some reason AFP is crashing on the server and I don't know why. *sigh* I guess I'm stuck with SMB.

Thanks for the suggestion. I had already tried that and nothing comes out to the console when it happens.

I didn't want to have to do it, but I did restore from the recovery partition and viola! AFP works again! I'm glad this computer wasn't that complicated to restore because had I needed to do that on the iMac, it would have been painful. I guess there is something squirrelly about updating from Snow Leopard to Lion. Maybe an incompatible library or something. All I know is that I had to erase the hard drive and start over. Thanks to all for the assistance!