File Server hangs all computers in network

We're running a Windows 2003 domain and just started having issues with our
Windows 2003 R2 file server (is also a DC). All of a sudden no one on our
network can do anything on their machines. Once we reboot our file server,
everything comes back???

This issue has happened 3 times and they've all been about a week apart. The
only thing that we've recently done was to install antivirus software on the
file server. We ran a scan and it picked up no problems.

anyone have any thoughts?

Is it also a DNS Server ?

You might have scavenging messed up and it deletes your DNS records. It could
be that when you reboot your DNS records get updated.

Try disbaling scavenging and manually creating host records.

smith777 wrote:
>We're running a Windows 2003 domain and just started having issues with our
>Windows 2003 R2 file server (is also a DC). All of a sudden no one on our
>network can do anything on their machines. Once we reboot our file server,
>everything comes back???
>
>This issue has happened 3 times and they've all been about a week apart. The
>only thing that we've recently done was to install antivirus software on the
>file server. We ran a scan and it picked up no problems.
>
>anyone have any thoughts?

--
Message posted via http://www.winserverkb.com

thanks for the reply. Yes, this server is also a DNS server. i checked the
scavenging settings and they are not set. any other thoughts?

"cisconoobie via WinServerKB.com" wrote:

> Is it also a DNS Server ?
>
> You might have scavenging messed up and it deletes your DNS records. It could
> be that when you reboot your DNS records get updated.
>
> Try disbaling scavenging and manually creating host records.
>
> smith777 wrote:
> >We're running a Windows 2003 domain and just started having issues with our
> >Windows 2003 R2 file server (is also a DC). All of a sudden no one on our
> >network can do anything on their machines. Once we reboot our file server,
> >everything comes back???
> >
> >This issue has happened 3 times and they've all been about a week apart. The
> >only thing that we've recently done was to install antivirus software on the
> >file server. We ran a scan and it picked up no problems.
> >
> >anyone have any thoughts?
>
> --
> Message posted via http://www.winserverkb.com
>
>

Are your Host A records set to expire at a given time ? Are your dhcp leases
set for 7 days?

smith777 wrote:
>thanks for the reply. Yes, this server is also a DNS server. i checked the
>scavenging settings and they are not set. any other thoughts?
>
>> Is it also a DNS Server ?
>>
>[quoted text clipped - 13 lines]
>> >
>> >anyone have any thoughts?

--
Message posted via WinServerKB.com
http://www.winserverkb.com/Uwe/Forum...rking/200702/1

I bet you have "mapped drives" on the Clients...

Get rid of the mapped drives. Use "Shortcuts" based on UNC paths.

Since a mapped drive is treated as a "drive" and if something causes a problem
with that interaction, it can have the effect of the client machine having a
"bad hard drive" that is it trying to access.

Mapped drives are a "thing of the past" and need to be eliminated as much as
they can be.

--
Phillip Windell [MCP, MVP, CCNA]
www.wandtv.com

The views expressed (as annoying as they are, and as stupid as they sound), are
my own and not those of my employer, or Microsoft, or anyone else associated
with me, including my cats.
-----------------------------------------------------

"cisconoobie via WinServerKB.com" <u26219@uwe> wrote in message
news:6dc241cb96d99@uwe...
> Are your Host A records set to expire at a given time ? Are your dhcp leases
> set for 7 days?
>
> smith777 wrote:
>>thanks for the reply. Yes, this server is also a DNS server. i checked the
>>scavenging settings and they are not set. any other thoughts?
>>
>>> Is it also a DNS Server ?
>>>
>>[quoted text clipped - 13 lines]
>>> >
>>> >anyone have any thoughts?
>
> --
> Message posted via WinServerKB.com
> http://www.winserverkb.com/Uwe/Forum...rking/200702/1
>
>

my host records don't expire (from what i can see) and our dhcp leases are
set for 3 days. We still have 20% of our ip's available.

"cisconoobie via WinServerKB.com" wrote:

> Are your Host A records set to expire at a given time ? Are your dhcp leases
> set for 7 days?
>
> smith777 wrote:
> >thanks for the reply. Yes, this server is also a DNS server. i checked the
> >scavenging settings and they are not set. any other thoughts?
> >
> >> Is it also a DNS Server ?
> >>
> >[quoted text clipped - 13 lines]
> >> >
> >> >anyone have any thoughts?
>
> --
> Message posted via WinServerKB.com
> http://www.winserverkb.com/Uwe/Forum...rking/200702/1
>
>
>

Interesting comment about mapped drives being a thing of the past.
I set mapped drives in the logon script because I do not want users
navigating via networked shares.
Is there a better way?

"Phillip Windell" <@.> wrote in message
news:%(E-Mail Removed)...
>I bet you have "mapped drives" on the Clients...
>
> Get rid of the mapped drives. Use "Shortcuts" based on UNC paths.
>
> Since a mapped drive is treated as a "drive" and if something causes a
> problem with that interaction, it can have the effect of the client
> machine having a "bad hard drive" that is it trying to access.
>
> Mapped drives are a "thing of the past" and need to be eliminated as much
> as they can be.
>
> --
> Phillip Windell [MCP, MVP, CCNA]
> www.wandtv.com
>
> The views expressed (as annoying as they are, and as stupid as they
> sound), are my own and not those of my employer, or Microsoft, or anyone
> else associated with me, including my cats.
> -----------------------------------------------------
>
> "cisconoobie via WinServerKB.com" <u26219@uwe> wrote in message
> news:6dc241cb96d99@uwe...
>> Are your Host A records set to expire at a given time ? Are your dhcp
>> leases
>> set for 7 days?
>>
>> smith777 wrote:
>>>thanks for the reply. Yes, this server is also a DNS server. i checked
>>>the
>>>scavenging settings and they are not set. any other thoughts?
>>>
>>>> Is it also a DNS Server ?
>>>>
>>>[quoted text clipped - 13 lines]
>>>> >
>>>> >anyone have any thoughts?
>>
>> --
>> Message posted via WinServerKB.com
>> http://www.winserverkb.com/Uwe/Forum...rking/200702/1
>>
>>
>
>

In a perfect world ... in my world I never seize to be amazed by the amount
of apps that can't deal with UNC paths decently and nope the clients can't
just dump them or use another ...


"Phillip Windell" <@.> wrote in message
news:%(E-Mail Removed)...
>I bet you have "mapped drives" on the Clients...
>
> Get rid of the mapped drives. Use "Shortcuts" based on UNC paths.
>
> Since a mapped drive is treated as a "drive" and if something causes a
> problem with that interaction, it can have the effect of the client
> machine having a "bad hard drive" that is it trying to access.
>
> Mapped drives are a "thing of the past" and need to be eliminated as much
> as they can be.
>
> --
> Phillip Windell [MCP, MVP, CCNA]
> www.wandtv.com
>
> The views expressed (as annoying as they are, and as stupid as they
> sound), are my own and not those of my employer, or Microsoft, or anyone
> else associated with me, including my cats.
> -----------------------------------------------------
>
> "cisconoobie via WinServerKB.com" <u26219@uwe> wrote in message
> news:6dc241cb96d99@uwe...
>> Are your Host A records set to expire at a given time ? Are your dhcp
>> leases
>> set for 7 days?
>>
>> smith777 wrote:
>>>thanks for the reply. Yes, this server is also a DNS server. i checked
>>>the
>>>scavenging settings and they are not set. any other thoughts?
>>>
>>>> Is it also a DNS Server ?
>>>>
>>>[quoted text clipped - 13 lines]
>>>> >
>>>> >anyone have any thoughts?
>>
>> --
>> Message posted via WinServerKB.com
>> http://www.winserverkb.com/Uwe/Forum...rking/200702/1
>>
>>
>
>

More info is needed,

What clients doe you have running? Are they all freezing?
What anti virus did you install?
What switches are you using, what network protocol, etc ...?

Help the people to help you.

thx

all clients are running windows xp sp2 and all clients freeze.
anti-virus version 10 is installed on all machine. no client is allowed to
scan a network drive as all clients are managed and this is restricted.
file server is also running version 10 and scheduled to run a scan every day
at 1am.
we're using dell gigabit switches.
we're running in windows 2003 functional mode
using TCP/IP

the latest thing we've done is disabled anti-virus on the file server as
this was the latest thing that was done before this started happening (10
days after anti-virus was installed this problem came up). our virus scans up
until we disabled found no viruses.

"(E-Mail Removed)" wrote:

> More info is needed,
>
> What clients doe you have running? Are they all freezing?
> What anti virus did you install?
> What switches are you using, what network protocol, etc ...?
>
> Help the people to help you.
>
> thx
>
>
>
>