Unable to access Windows 2003 shares

We recently installed Windows Server 2003 R2 (Version 5.2 R2) on one of our
servers and everything works fine although we already experienced some
serious hick-ups.

The server is used as a file server and therefore contains a number of
shares. These shares are frequently used by users to upload their
experimental data.
However, from time to time the shares are no longer accessible.

Please find my findings below:
1) All of a sudden the shares cannot be accessed from Windows Explorer.
Windows returns the following error message: The specified network name is
no longer available.
2) Even when I try to access the share on the server itself I get the
message: The specified network name is no longer available.
3) The server can be pinged
4) The Remote Desktop Connection is still working
5) No warning, information or error messages in the event log
6) We run Symantec Antivirus Corporate Edition on the server and when we try
to stop the service its status remains "stopping" and is never actually
stopped
7) When we try to stop the Server service its status remains "stopping" and
is never actually stopped
8) When we reboot the server all shares are available and accessible
again... until the next hick-up

Any ideas on what goes wrong or on how to debug this problem?
Thanks,
Alain

i have the same problem!!! did you find a fix? please let me know!!

"Alain Sienaert" wrote:

> We recently installed Windows Server 2003 R2 (Version 5.2 R2) on one of our
> servers and everything works fine although we already experienced some
> serious hick-ups.
>
> The server is used as a file server and therefore contains a number of
> shares. These shares are frequently used by users to upload their
> experimental data.
> However, from time to time the shares are no longer accessible.
>
> Please find my findings below:
> 1) All of a sudden the shares cannot be accessed from Windows Explorer.
> Windows returns the following error message: The specified network name is
> no longer available.
> 2) Even when I try to access the share on the server itself I get the
> message: The specified network name is no longer available.
> 3) The server can be pinged
> 4) The Remote Desktop Connection is still working
> 5) No warning, information or error messages in the event log
> 6) We run Symantec Antivirus Corporate Edition on the server and when we try
> to stop the service its status remains "stopping" and is never actually
> stopped
> 7) When we try to stop the Server service its status remains "stopping" and
> is never actually stopped
> 8) When we reboot the server all shares are available and accessible
> again... until the next hick-up
>
> Any ideas on what goes wrong or on how to debug this problem?
> Thanks,
> Alain
>
>
>
>
>

We are also experiencing a similar problem. We replaced the network card and
this did not solve the problem. The physical network and routing does not
seem to be the problem either. We have set up a new test server with the
latest Windows updates and Windows 2003 R2 and it is having the same problem
as well. We suspect either the Windows updates or R2 itself. We have other
servers running Windows 2003 (without R2) and we do not have this problem. We
are going to re-install the test server step by step and see at what point in
time the problem starts to occur.

The strange thing is I can log onto the server with remote desktop and copy
files to other machine fine, but I cannot log onto the other machines and
copy from the server.

"sdmusicmaker" wrote:

> i have the same problem!!! did you find a fix? please let me know!!
>
> "Alain Sienaert" wrote:
>
> > We recently installed Windows Server 2003 R2 (Version 5.2 R2) on one of our
> > servers and everything works fine although we already experienced some
> > serious hick-ups.
> >
> > The server is used as a file server and therefore contains a number of
> > shares. These shares are frequently used by users to upload their
> > experimental data.
> > However, from time to time the shares are no longer accessible.
> >
> > Please find my findings below:
> > 1) All of a sudden the shares cannot be accessed from Windows Explorer.
> > Windows returns the following error message: The specified network name is
> > no longer available.
> > 2) Even when I try to access the share on the server itself I get the
> > message: The specified network name is no longer available.
> > 3) The server can be pinged
> > 4) The Remote Desktop Connection is still working
> > 5) No warning, information or error messages in the event log
> > 6) We run Symantec Antivirus Corporate Edition on the server and when we try
> > to stop the service its status remains "stopping" and is never actually
> > stopped
> > 7) When we try to stop the Server service its status remains "stopping" and
> > is never actually stopped
> > 8) When we reboot the server all shares are available and accessible
> > again... until the next hick-up
> >
> > Any ideas on what goes wrong or on how to debug this problem?
> > Thanks,
> > Alain
> >
> >
> >
> >
> >

Please post the result of net share command here..

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
"Netzerab" <(E-Mail Removed)> wrote in message news:50158311-AC46-4B9B-BC8F-(E-Mail Removed)...

I have just installen SBS2003 premium edition and have the same problem with
shares.

If a workstation is logged in during the night, then no shares are working
in the morning. Win XP is saying something like "the network name is already
in use"

Loging out and in again solves the problem, but I rather have the problem
solved.

Any ideas?

Thanks for a fast response, but I have just managed to solve the problem.
I did this simple ting as to put the server adress in every local win xp
hosts file. The problem with inaccessable shares disapperared in the same
second as I saved the new hosts file. Logging out and in again revealed that
another annoying problem had disappeared. Sometimes it tooks forever to log
into the domain. Like 90 seconds or more. Now it taks about 1-2 seconds.

I am happy and the boss is even happier.
It would have been nice to find out why shares did work for a while, then
just went inaccessable for no apperent reason at all. Why did the hosts file
entry work?


"Robert L [MVP - Networking]" wrote:

> Please post the result of net share command here..
>
> 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

Sounds like name resolution issue. 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
"Netzerab" <(E-Mail Removed)> wrote in message news:0928300E-0861-4D24-B750-(E-Mail Removed)...
Thanks for a fast response, but I have just managed to solve the problem.
I did this simple ting as to put the server adress in every local win xp
hosts file. The problem with inaccessable shares disapperared in the same
second as I saved the new hosts file. Logging out and in again revealed that
another annoying problem had disappeared. Sometimes it tooks forever to log
into the domain. Like 90 seconds or more. Now it taks about 1-2 seconds.

I am happy and the boss is even happier.
It would have been nice to find out why shares did work for a while, then
just went inaccessable for no apperent reason at all. Why did the hosts file
entry work?


"Robert L [MVP - Networking]" wrote:

> Please post the result of net share command here..
>
> 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