Server 2003 Drive Mapping Issues

A little over a week ago, we started experiencing an issue where a share
would disappear from the server. I could replace it and all would be fine.

Friday, a new issue appeared. Several workstations (all running XP Pro, SP2
or SP3) began having troubles connecting to network shares. All were working
fine previously.

I can ping all computers by name or ip (including the server) and on the
machines having the problems, I have been able to remap the drives using the
ip in place of the unc name for the server in question.

So far, I've not found any common ground for the machines having issues.
Two machines side by side connecting through the same switch, one works, one
does not, etc. I can remote desktop to all of the machines, ping all of the
machines, run nbtstat from each machine to the server using both the IP and
the Name and get the same results.

Any ideas?

Any error in the Event Viewer?

--
Bob Lin, MS-MVP, MCSE & CNE
Networking, Internet, Routing, VPN Troubleshooting on
http://www.ChicagoTech.net
How to Setup Windows, Network, VPN & Remote Access on
http://www.HowToNetworking.com
"Herm" <(E-Mail Removed)> wrote in message
news:C42B1512-8BCB-40D4-BD41-(E-Mail Removed)...
>A little over a week ago, we started experiencing an issue where a share
> would disappear from the server. I could replace it and all would be
> fine.
>
> Friday, a new issue appeared. Several workstations (all running XP Pro,
> SP2
> or SP3) began having troubles connecting to network shares. All were
> working
> fine previously.
>
> I can ping all computers by name or ip (including the server) and on the
> machines having the problems, I have been able to remap the drives using
> the
> ip in place of the unc name for the server in question.
>
> So far, I've not found any common ground for the machines having issues.
> Two machines side by side connecting through the same switch, one works,
> one
> does not, etc. I can remote desktop to all of the machines, ping all of
> the
> machines, run nbtstat from each machine to the server using both the IP
> and
> the Name and get the same results.
>
> Any ideas?

"Robert L. (MS-MVP)" wrote:

> Any error in the Event Viewer?
>
> --
> Bob Lin, MS-MVP, MCSE & CNE
> Networking, Internet, Routing, VPN Troubleshooting on
> http://www.ChicagoTech.net
> How to Setup Windows, Network, VPN & Remote Access on
> http://www.HowToNetworking.com
> "Herm" <(E-Mail Removed)> wrote in message
> news:C42B1512-8BCB-40D4-BD41-(E-Mail Removed)...
> >A little over a week ago, we started experiencing an issue where a share
> > would disappear from the server. I could replace it and all would be
> > fine.
> >
> > Friday, a new issue appeared. Several workstations (all running XP Pro,
> > SP2
> > or SP3) began having troubles connecting to network shares. All were
> > working
> > fine previously.
> >
> > I can ping all computers by name or ip (including the server) and on the
> > machines having the problems, I have been able to remap the drives using
> > the
> > ip in place of the unc name for the server in question.
> >
> > So far, I've not found any common ground for the machines having issues.
> > Two machines side by side connecting through the same switch, one works,
> > one
> > does not, etc. I can remote desktop to all of the machines, ping all of
> > the
> > machines, run nbtstat from each machine to the server using both the IP
> > and
> > the Name and get the same results.
> >
> > Any ideas?
>
> Problem Solved. To answer Bob's question, no the event logs were error free. The problem turned out to be that the machines having problems all had "Offline Files" enabled. Not certain how or why this feature was activated. It was not set in Group Policy and I think it unlikely that it was turned on by the users. As it is not a default setting according to Microsoft Tech Support, my guess is that it was activated by some software installation.

Microsoft support was unable to tell me exactly why this was causing a
problem or why it prevented me from mapping drives other than it appears that
when I would try to map the drives, there was interference between the cached
data stored by "Offline Files" and the live connection.

Since turning this feature off and restarting the workstations, all
connectivity problems and drive mapping problems have been resolved.

Thank you for the update.

--
Bob Lin, MS-MVP, MCSE & CNE
Networking, Internet, Routing, VPN Troubleshooting on
http://www.ChicagoTech.net
How to Setup Windows, Network, VPN & Remote Access on
http://www.HowToNetworking.com
"Herm" <(E-Mail Removed)> wrote in message
news:7AC22D1A-7684-4CD2-ADD0-(E-Mail Removed)...
>
>
> "Robert L. (MS-MVP)" wrote:
>
>> Any error in the Event Viewer?
>>
>> --
>> Bob Lin, MS-MVP, MCSE & CNE
>> Networking, Internet, Routing, VPN Troubleshooting on
>> http://www.ChicagoTech.net
>> How to Setup Windows, Network, VPN & Remote Access on
>> http://www.HowToNetworking.com
>> "Herm" <(E-Mail Removed)> wrote in message
>> news:C42B1512-8BCB-40D4-BD41-(E-Mail Removed)...
>> >A little over a week ago, we started experiencing an issue where a share
>> > would disappear from the server. I could replace it and all would be
>> > fine.
>> >
>> > Friday, a new issue appeared. Several workstations (all running XP
>> > Pro,
>> > SP2
>> > or SP3) began having troubles connecting to network shares. All were
>> > working
>> > fine previously.
>> >
>> > I can ping all computers by name or ip (including the server) and on
>> > the
>> > machines having the problems, I have been able to remap the drives
>> > using
>> > the
>> > ip in place of the unc name for the server in question.
>> >
>> > So far, I've not found any common ground for the machines having
>> > issues.
>> > Two machines side by side connecting through the same switch, one
>> > works,
>> > one
>> > does not, etc. I can remote desktop to all of the machines, ping all
>> > of
>> > the
>> > machines, run nbtstat from each machine to the server using both the IP
>> > and
>> > the Name and get the same results.
>> >
>> > Any ideas?
>>
>> Problem Solved. To answer Bob's question, no the event logs were error
>> free. The problem turned out to be that the machines having problems all
>> had "Offline Files" enabled. Not certain how or why this feature was
>> activated. It was not set in Group Policy and I think it unlikely that
>> it was turned on by the users. As it is not a default setting according
>> to Microsoft Tech Support, my guess is that it was activated by some
>> software installation.
>
> Microsoft support was unable to tell me exactly why this was causing a
> problem or why it prevented me from mapping drives other than it appears
> that
> when I would try to map the drives, there was interference between the
> cached
> data stored by "Offline Files" and the live connection.
>
> Since turning this feature off and restarting the workstations, all
> connectivity problems and drive mapping problems have been resolved.