Share folder not accessible.

Hello,
I am working on workgroup windows environment and I have a windows server 2012 machine that I used for sharing folders across the network. The issue came as my server started making issues and I had to share some data urgently with users on the network. I shared a folder on my windows 7 machine and assigned everyone full rights. Also I turned discovery on and turned the password off. But even then the shares are not accessible. I turned the firewall off and checked services.msc for any service that might be disabled and causing this issue. I only found NETLOGON that was turned off and it would not start at all.
Is this because I was using a server machine for sharing folders with PCs on the network?
Also I do want to add that despite using the server 2012 my systems are not on domain. PC's are on workgroup and has windows 7 OS.