Networked shared printer becoming "unshared" daily?

Here's an odd one.

I have a Windows 2003 R2 server acting as a corporate print server. We
have three networked printers feeding off it, and all three printers are
the exact same make/model and they all use the same driver. All three
printers are also on the same subnet as the print server.

At least once a day, ONE of these three printers becomes "unshared" and
I have to manually reshare it so end users can spool to it. It's always
the same printer so that's where my troubleshooting has been targeting.

Any ideas why a single device would be getting knocked off the shared
print server? If it was network connectivity, wouldn't that simply
cause the printer to be listed as "Unavailable" or "Waiting to Connect"
and not actually causing the printer to become unshared.

I am the only admin for the server, so I do not believe this is
happening manually.

"Rob Gordon" <(E-Mail Removed)> wrote in message
news:uZDu$(E-Mail Removed)...
> Here's an odd one.
>
> I have a Windows 2003 R2 server acting as a corporate print server. We
> have three networked printers feeding off it, and all three printers are
> the exact same make/model and they all use the same driver. All three
> printers are also on the same subnet as the print server.
>
> At least once a day, ONE of these three printers becomes "unshared" and I
> have to manually reshare it so end users can spool to it. It's always the
> same printer so that's where my troubleshooting has been targeting.
>
> Any ideas why a single device would be getting knocked off the shared
> print server? If it was network connectivity, wouldn't that simply cause
> the printer to be listed as "Unavailable" or "Waiting to Connect" and not
> actually causing the printer to become unshared.
>
> I am the only admin for the server, so I do not believe this is happening
> manually.


Anything in the event logs? Is it the same time very day? The event logs may
help in determining the answer to the second question.

--
Kerry Brown
Microsoft MVP - Shell/User
http://www.vistahelp.ca/phpBB2/

Unfortunately no there aren't entries in the Event Logs, which is why
this is so puzzling to me. It appears to happen randomly.

Kerry Brown wrote:
> "Rob Gordon" <(E-Mail Removed)> wrote in message
> news:uZDu$(E-Mail Removed)...
>> Here's an odd one.
>>
>> I have a Windows 2003 R2 server acting as a corporate print server.
>> We have three networked printers feeding off it, and all three
>> printers are the exact same make/model and they all use the same
>> driver. All three printers are also on the same subnet as the print
>> server.
>>
>> At least once a day, ONE of these three printers becomes "unshared"
>> and I have to manually reshare it so end users can spool to it. It's
>> always the same printer so that's where my troubleshooting has been
>> targeting.
>>
>> Any ideas why a single device would be getting knocked off the shared
>> print server? If it was network connectivity, wouldn't that simply
>> cause the printer to be listed as "Unavailable" or "Waiting to
>> Connect" and not actually causing the printer to become unshared.
>>
>> I am the only admin for the server, so I do not believe this is
>> happening manually.
>
>
> Anything in the event logs? Is it the same time very day? The event logs
> may help in determining the answer to the second question.
>

"Rob Gordon" <(E-Mail Removed)> wrote in message
news:el8%(E-Mail Removed)...
> Unfortunately no there aren't entries in the Event Logs, which is why this
> is so puzzling to me. It appears to happen randomly.

I think the key is nailing down when it happens and then figuring out what
else is happening at the same time. Scheduled event? AD replication? Virus
scan? etc. etc.

--
Kerry Brown
Microsoft MVP - Shell/User
http://www.vistahelp.ca/phpBB2/