Losing Network Drive Mappings lost after a certain period of time

[johnacb]

I have just installed Xp Pro Again, since this has happened I will lose my network Drive Mappings after a random amount of time. The only way to get it back is to restart. I cannot even remap a network drive as it cannot find the network using explorer but I can ping the server IP address through dos.
Any help as it is very annoying having to restart to use the network drives.


Thanks
johnny

 

[bcastner]

What is the server OS?

If the server is Win2k, your DNS settings are incorrect. They must point to your LAN side DNS server and not the WAN side DNS servers.

 

[johnacb]

Server is Win2k. The only DNS settings are pointing to the DNS for our Internat Access..

 

[bcastner]

Have you set your AutoDisconnect parameters on the share server?

http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=kb;en-us;Q138365

 

[bcastner]

Also, when you restored XP, did you also redo SP1?

 

[johnacb]

Yes I did reinstall Service PAck one.

Have checked all auto disconnect parameters they seem to be OK. Not sure what to try next.

I will investigat microsoft a bit more.

Thanks v. much for your time

regards
john

 

[clayton74]

Are your dns settings on your machine looking at the internet settings or your win2000 server. I had exactly the same problem had to install a proxy server and then set the dns settings to point to win2000 server. Another problem that ran alongside it was couldnt change logon password

 

[johnacb]

Hi there

DNS settings are pointing to Internet settings,

 

[bcastner]

Slow logon and browsing from XP to a win2000 domain usually indicate a DNS misconfiguration issue. While the following is not a fix-all for all AD-domain problems, it is an absolute requirement that DNS is set up correctly before it will work properly. If your DNS is not set up like this, then you will experience problems like you describe. XP differs from previous versions of windows in that it uses DNS as it's primary name resolution method for finding domain controllers: How Domain Controllers Are Located in Windows XP

http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=kb;en-us;314861

If DNS is misconfigured, XP will spend a lot of time waiting for it to timeout before it tries using legacy NT4 sytle NetBIOS. (Which may or may not work.)

1. Ensure that the XP clients are all configured to point to the local DNS server which hosts the AD domain. That will probably be the win2k server itself. They should NOT be pointing an an ISP's DNS server. An 'ipconfig /all' on the XP box should reveal ONLY the domain's DNS server. You should use the DHCP server to push out the local DNS server address.

2. Ensure DNS server on win2k is configured to permit dynamic updates. Ensure the win2k server points to itself as a DNS server.

3. For external (internet) name resolution, specify your ISP's DNS server not on the clients, but in the forwarders tab of the local win2k DNS server. On the DNS server, if you cannot access the 'Forwarders' and 'Root Hints' tabs because they are greyed out, that is because there is a root zone (".&quot present on the DNS server. You MUST delete this root zone to permit the server to forward unresolved queries to yout ISP or the root servers. Accept any nags etc, and let it delete any corresponding reverse lookuop zones if it asks.

The following articles may assist you in setting up DNS correctly: Setting Up the Domain Name System for Active Directory

http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=kb;en-us;237675

HOW TO: Configure DNS for Internet Access in Windows 2000

http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=kb;en-us;300202