Vista SP1

I have an issue with Vista dropping shared drive connections, often
while working on files on those drives. Today I was working in Word on
a file on a shared drive... the connection just dropped. Word hung,
checking in Explorer (clicking on drive letter) gave me a "drive not
available" message on several drives mapped to that machine. 

The drives are shared off a win2003 server and I use simple
username/password authentication to access the drives, no domains, no
A/D.

It's not a physical or general networking issue. I can still browse
the Internet. In fact, the last time it happened I was logged into the
server with an RDC connection and it continued to act normally. 

I found that I could not see the server by browsing the network.
Browsing from the win2003 server side I could still see the client on
the network. 

Ideas?

"+Bob+"  wrote in message 
news:vfp0a49cenqa3o8j96i7g0clk45hroa9cg@4ax.com...
> Vista SP1
>
> I have an issue with Vista dropping shared drive connections, often
> while working on files on those drives. Today I was working in Word on
> a file on a shared drive... the connection just dropped. Word hung,
> checking in Explorer (clicking on drive letter) gave me a "drive not
> available" message on several drives mapped to that machine.
>
> The drives are shared off a win2003 server and I use simple
> username/password authentication to access the drives, no domains, no
> A/D.
>
> It's not a physical or general networking issue. I can still browse
> the Internet. In fact, the last time it happened I was logged into the
> server with an RDC connection and it continued to act normally.
>
> I found that I could not see the server by browsing the network.
> Browsing from the win2003 server side I could still see the client on
> the network.
>
> Ideas?


I have exactly the same issue and as yet have found no fix although the 
issue seems to be due to the workstation service becoming unstable on the 
Vista machine.  Once this issue has ocured any attempts to stop/restart the 
service fail.  The issue started shortly after the SP1 install!

I would set a ping to the win2003 server from the Vista client while
your working in Word. If the connection drops look at the ping and see
if you can or cannot ping the server anymore. Sounds like Windows
Firewall service on the Win2003 sever either needs to be tweaked or
turned off?
Raj


-- 
rajinisback

RAJ :P
*Please give Karma if I helped you fix the issue. Thanks :)*

If I'm understanding your situation, it sounds as though you've proved that 
name resolution is your problem. All systems member of same workgroup? Are 
the IP addresses of all of these systems fixed, provided by DHCP from some 
source like a router or a server (if server, the one with the shares?), or a 
mix? You are connecting to the server via RDP as an admin or as a TS user? 
You have what kinds of accounts on the server / local workstation?

Worst-case scenario, as in you you have no admin rights to fix general 
issues / make sure that NetBIOS over TCP/IP is working everywhere, you could 
just creat your mapped drives using the IP address instead of the server 
name. If that's not satisfactory, maybe you could post back with an outline 
with more information about the general network environment infrastructure 
and your working relationship to it. That might provide enough information 
for someone here to give more concrete suggestions.

"+Bob+" wrote:

> Vista SP1
> 
> I have an issue with Vista dropping shared drive connections, often
> while working on files on those drives. Today I was working in Word on
> a file on a shared drive... the connection just dropped. Word hung,
> checking in Explorer (clicking on drive letter) gave me a "drive not
> available" message on several drives mapped to that machine. 
> 
> The drives are shared off a win2003 server and I use simple
> username/password authentication to access the drives, no domains, no
> A/D.
> 
> It's not a physical or general networking issue. I can still browse
> the Internet. In fact, the last time it happened I was logged into the
> server with an RDC connection and it continued to act normally. 
> 
> I found that I could not see the server by browsing the network.
> Browsing from the win2003 server side I could still see the client on
> the network. 
> 
> Ideas? 
>

On Tue, 12 Aug 2008 08:04:09 -0700, LeftFoot
 wrote:

>If I'm understanding your situation, it sounds as though you've proved that 
>name resolution is your problem.

I don't know if that's it... I'm no MS networking guru, but when I use
RDC I am using the server's MS network name, not a FQDM or IP...so it
looks like the MS names are still working(?)

>All systems member of same workgroup? 

Yes

>Are the IP addresses of all of these systems fixed, provided by DHCP from some 
>source like a router or a server (if server, the one with the shares?), or a 
>mix? 

DHCP from a router, although the leases are long and they don't change
(certainly not while working). The server has a fixed IP assigned by
DHCP based on MAC.

>You are connecting to the server via RDP as an admin or as a TS user? 
>You have what kinds of accounts on the server / local workstation?

I'm not sure I understand the difference in RDP - you might have to
help me. The account I am connecting to on the server is an admin
there and I am an admin on the Vista client. The accounts match on
username and password. Are you asking a different question? 

>Worst-case scenario, as in you you have no admin rights to fix general 
>issues / make sure that NetBIOS over TCP/IP is working everywhere, 

How to I get through the Vista friendly layer to see the actual
network software configuration? How do I test NetBIOS? 

>you could 
>just creat your mapped drives using the IP address instead of the server 
>name. 

I can try that and see if it helps. 

>If that's not satisfactory, maybe you could post back with an outline 
>with more information about the general network environment infrastructure 
>and your working relationship to it. That might provide enough information 
>for someone here to give more concrete suggestions.

Network is very simple as described above. Let me know what specific
info you need. 

FYI - none of this is a problem with and of the XP or win2000 network
clients. The only oddity I have is that both XP and Vista have had an
issue re-establishing drive connections when returning from a long
term "lock workstation" state. The connections most always drop and
are difficult to re-establish without a reboot.

"+Bob+" wrote:

> On Tue, 12 Aug 2008 08:04:09 -0700, LeftFoot
>  wrote:
> 
> >If I'm understanding your situation, it sounds as though you've proved that 
> >name resolution is your problem.
> 
> I don't know if that's it... I'm no MS networking guru, but when I use
> RDC I am using the server's MS network name, not a FQDM or IP...so it
> looks like the MS names are still working(?)


Oh, okay. Sorry. I was guilty of making an ASSumtion that you were using the 
server's IP address when connecting by RDC. I normally do that to multiple
domains via VPN so only use IP addresses with RDC most of the time.

Oh, and I'm not networking guru of any kind, either. I just plod along
trying to herd the thing along, you know? I sometimes get the feeling that
there are a lot of us on this particular prairie.

> >All systems member of same workgroup? 
> 
> Yes
> 
> >Are the IP addresses of all of these systems fixed, provided by DHCP from some 
> >source like a router or a server (if server, the one with the shares?), or a 
> >mix? 
> 
> DHCP from a router, although the leases are long and they don't change
> (certainly not while working). The server has a fixed IP assigned by
> DHCP based on MAC.

So, it also sounds as though they're all on the same subnet. No complications
from that angle.

> >You are connecting to the server via RDP as an admin or as a TS user? 
> >You have what kinds of accounts on the server / local workstation?
> 
> I'm not sure I understand the difference in RDP - you might have to
> help me. The account I am connecting to on the server is an admin
> there and I am an admin on the Vista client. The accounts match on
> username and password. Are you asking a different question? 

Yes, I should have stated my real question plainly. I wondered if the TS
connection was being made in admin mode (max. of 2 connections permitted) or 
if
the server was running in terminal services mode. I was also wondering if you
had admin privs everywhere. Sounds like you do.

 
> >Worst-case scenario, as in you you have no admin rights to fix general 
> >issues / make sure that NetBIOS over TCP/IP is working everywhere, 
> 
> How to I get through the Vista friendly layer to see the actual
> network software configuration? How do I test NetBIOS? 

As a first step you can just go into the Advanced properties dialog for IPv4 
to
see what NetBIOS setting it is using. From Network and Sharing Center click on
"Manage network connections" in the left pane. Right-click on your network
connection, and choose Properties. Double-click on the IPv4 protocol in the
list. Click on the Advanced button. On the WINS tab, look at the NetBIOS
setting.


> >you could 
> >just creat your mapped drives using the IP address instead of the server 
> >name. 
> 
> I can try that and see if it helps. 

Please let me know how that works out. But, now that I (think/hope) I am
clearer on your situation, I don't really think name resolution was the 
problem after all. 

> >If that's not satisfactory, maybe you could post back with an outline 
> >with more information about the general network environment infrastructure 
> >and your working relationship to it. That might provide enough information 
> >for someone here to give more concrete suggestions.
> 
> Network is very simple as described above. Let me know what specific
> info you need. 

I think I may have almost everything I need to grasp the situation. See
below.

 
> FYI - none of this is a problem with and of the XP or win2000 network
> clients. The only oddity I have is that both XP and Vista have had an
> issue re-establishing drive connections when returning from a long
> term "lock workstation" state. The connections most always drop and
> are difficult to re-establish without a reboot. 

I'm not quite clear on what you're saying here with respect to whether or not
XP systems are affected. But it appears that a new element of information has
been added. From your first post I had assumed that the failure of the mapped
drive was happening while you were actively using the system, but this info
here has me wondering if this is only happening after the workstation has
been locked or has been sitting idle for a while. If that's the case, you may
need to check the power saving settings of the network interface on the 
systems
which have the problem. Later versions of Windows clients have very aggressive
power saving functionality, and the interaction of this zealous green behavior
with some NIC drivers has unfortunate consequences. You might want to go into
the NIC's driver dialog and tell the driver to NEVER, EVER let Windows do
ANYTHING to save power with respect to that NIC. (Unfortunately, there's very
little standardization of the language used by vendors on this matter, so you
may have to do a little research with the manufacturer of the NIC to learn
your best bet for these settings.

Forgive me if I'm going off on a tangent here and this isn't the problem.

On Wed, 13 Aug 2008 03:53:02 -0700, LeftFoot
 wrote:


>
>I'm not quite clear on what you're saying here with respect to whether or not
>XP systems are affected. But it appears that a new element of information has
>been added. From your first post I had assumed that the failure of the mapped
>drive was happening while you were actively using the system, but this info
>here has me wondering if this is only happening after the workstation has
>been locked or has been sitting idle for a while. If that's the case, you may
>need to check the power saving settings of the network interface on the 
>systems
>which have the problem. Later versions of Windows clients have very aggressive
>power saving functionality, and the interaction of this zealous green behavior
>with some NIC drivers has unfortunate consequences. You might want to go into
>the NIC's driver dialog and tell the driver to NEVER, EVER let Windows do
>ANYTHING to save power with respect to that NIC. (Unfortunately, there's very
>little standardization of the language used by vendors on this matter, so you
>may have to do a little research with the manufacturer of the NIC to learn
>your best bet for these settings.
>
>Forgive me if I'm going off on a tangent here and this isn't the problem.

Thanks, NETBIOS was a the "default" setting which might have left it
inoperative in some conditions. I have forced it to Enable mode to see
if that helps. 

As for the "lock workstation" issue, I did already do a little digging
with respect to the network card issue. I set the "user level" setting
in power management to never power down the network card but I will
also look for the sort of setting you mentioned in the driver area to
prevent power down. The bad news is that in XP it just dropped the
drives... in Vista it effectively hangs the OS. 

Thanks,

> Thanks, NETBIOS was a the "default" setting which might have left it
> inoperative in some conditions. I have forced it to Enable mode to see
> if that helps. 
> 
> As for the "lock workstation" issue, I did already do a little digging
> with respect to the network card issue. I set the "user level" setting
> in power management to never power down the network card but I will
> also look for the sort of setting you mentioned in the driver area to
> prevent power down. The bad news is that in XP it just dropped the
> drives... in Vista it effectively hangs the OS. 

Oh, that's just nasty. I hate that helpless feeling, which I've had in all 
Windows versions, of having Explorer just bring everything to a standstill 
while it tries to decide whether or not it can (or will) read a folder.

Please post back with what you learn. I can tell you for certain that the 
user level power settings in XP and Vista are definitely not enough to keep 
the NIC alive if it was primed to power down when "not being used". And the 
OS will wait and wait and wait for response from hardware (or its driver).

Here's hoping!

On Wed, 13 Aug 2008 08:49:01 -0700, LeftFoot
 wrote:

>
>Please post back with what you learn. I can tell you for certain that the 
>user level power settings in XP and Vista are definitely not enough to keep 
>the NIC alive if it was primed to power down when "not being used". And the 
>OS will wait and wait and wait for response from hardware (or its driver).
>
>Here's hoping!

Solved it! I want to post my thanks for your pointer to the net card
power settings. I had already set the Power Settings for windows to
Maximize performance of the net card. This was based on a KB I found
at MS regarding using Vista connected to a router which might not
understand the "latest" power protocols (something to do with packets
being queued and/or sent while the net card has gone idle). 

Despite the fact that the KB indicated that changing this setting
would cure the problem (the inference being that the card would stay
alive), it doesn't do the trick. However, going into device manager
and manually telling the card it isn't allowed to power down does
apparently cure it. 

I don't know if it's a hardware issue (card ignoring the Vista
setting) or a software issue (Vista setting not working), but direct
access to the driver settings does fix it! I still get a slight delay
after sign-on when the icons go blank, but now it recovers. 

It's worth noting that I did make the same change in XP and it never
cured the problem but at least XP didn't do a system hang. 

Thanks again,

"+Bob+" wrote:

> On Wed, 13 Aug 2008 08:49:01 -0700, LeftFoot
>  wrote:
> 
> >
> >Please post back with what you learn. I can tell you for certain that the 
> >user level power settings in XP and Vista are definitely not enough to keep 
> >the NIC alive if it was primed to power down when "not being used". And the 
> >OS will wait and wait and wait for response from hardware (or its driver).
> >
> >Here's hoping!
> 
> Solved it! I want to post my thanks for your pointer to the net card
> power settings. I had already set the Power Settings for windows to
> Maximize performance of the net card. This was based on a KB I found
> at MS regarding using Vista connected to a router which might not
> understand the "latest" power protocols (something to do with packets
> being queued and/or sent while the net card has gone idle). 
> 
> Despite the fact that the KB indicated that changing this setting
> would cure the problem (the inference being that the card would stay
> alive), it doesn't do the trick. However, going into device manager
> and manually telling the card it isn't allowed to power down does
> apparently cure it. 
> 
> I don't know if it's a hardware issue (card ignoring the Vista
> setting) or a software issue (Vista setting not working), but direct
> access to the driver settings does fix it! I still get a slight delay
> after sign-on when the icons go blank, but now it recovers. 
> 
> It's worth noting that I did make the same change in XP and it never
> cured the problem but at least XP didn't do a system hang. 
> 
> Thanks again, 
> 

I'm very glad to read this.

I think that Microsoft with Vista, and even XP, have done a pretty good job 
of trying to deal with issues like this. I suspect that it's the drivers from 
some vendors that fall short. I never see this sort of issue with recent 
drivers / hardware from Intel, for instance. With other vendors it seems to 
be a model by model thing. Some work, and some don't.

I'm glad you got some satisfaction on the issue.

On Thu, 14 Aug 2008 16:29:01 -0700, LeftFoot
 wrote:

>
>I'm very glad to read this.
>
>I think that Microsoft with Vista, and even XP, have done a pretty good job 
>of trying to deal with issues like this. I suspect that it's the drivers from 
>some vendors that fall short. I never see this sort of issue with recent 
>drivers / hardware from Intel, for instance. With other vendors it seems to 
>be a model by model thing. Some work, and some don't.
>
>I'm glad you got some satisfaction on the issue.

I agree that it might be the drivers - but Vista, even worse than
earlier versions of Windows, hangs too often. For example, if you do
something like disable your wireless and enable your hardwire
ethernet, most any Vista system it will hang and you will end up doing
a hard boot. Or, try hooking up to a network, going to standby (close
cover) and then travel with your laptop to a new physical locations
(e.g. Starbucks). When you restart, it's again hard-boot time. You can
get into the same dilemma when a share you are connected to goes down.

It's not unreasonable that Vista has issues with physical network
changes, but it is unreasonable that it hangs in these situations.
There should be timeouts built in that prevent these system hangs.
While this has always been a problem in Windows, Vista seems to be
much worse than earlier OS's.

"+Bob+"  wrote in message 
news:jbdca49sqn80jstgpf467ckvdv8jh1houa@4ax.com...
> On Thu, 14 Aug 2008 16:29:01 -0700, LeftFoot
>  wrote:
>
>>
>>I'm very glad to read this.
>>
>>I think that Microsoft with Vista, and even XP, have done a pretty good 
>>job
>>of trying to deal with issues like this. I suspect that it's the drivers 
>>from
>>some vendors that fall short. I never see this sort of issue with recent
>>drivers / hardware from Intel, for instance. With other vendors it seems 
>>to
>>be a model by model thing. Some work, and some don't.
>>
>>I'm glad you got some satisfaction on the issue.
>
> I agree that it might be the drivers - but Vista, even worse than
> earlier versions of Windows, hangs too often. For example, if you do
> something like disable your wireless and enable your hardwire
> ethernet, most any Vista system it will hang and you will end up doing
> a hard boot. Or, try hooking up to a network, going to standby (close
> cover) and then travel with your laptop to a new physical locations
> (e.g. Starbucks). When you restart, it's again hard-boot time. You can
> get into the same dilemma when a share you are connected to goes down.
>
> It's not unreasonable that Vista has issues with physical network
> changes, but it is unreasonable that it hangs in these situations.
> There should be timeouts built in that prevent these system hangs.
> While this has always been a problem in Windows, Vista seems to be
> much worse than earlier OS's.

Thanks for starting this thread, as your mention of the nic power settings 
might indeed be the cause. I don't have a server setup, just a; 1 vista, 3 
xp & 1 linux p to p configuration.  I am only having the problem from the 
vista machine. I periodically lose connection to the xp machine which has my 
printers connected.

David

-- 
"To live so that you would not be ashamed to sell the family parrot
to the town gossip, is to have lived well"--Will Rogers