Mapped drives lost on reboot

[Sidrp]

Hi..
I looked around here and many places..I havenot been able to solve this problem.
We have a couple of 98/2000 clients mapped to same drive on a server running an accounting sw. Both have same mapping. They both map F: and G: to same drive (I dont know why..i think due to requirement of the sw)..one client works perfect where as the other one loses connections...on each reboot...i upgraded this one to win2000Pro with no avail.the network cables are good..so is NIC card..I am not sure where the problem lies..any detectives out there???Need soome help desperately..more becoz I want to know what is going on...the user has got used to reconnecting at logon..but this shd not be happening..

any ideas??
thanks a bunch
sid

 

[ReddLefty]

Those kind of disconnects are often related to power saving issues.

- Check your BIOS and make sure no power saving feature is enabled on the network card

- Check your network adapter properties to make sure no power saving or inactivity timer feature is enabled.



"In space, nobody can hear you click..."

 

[Kliot]

I assume you have the "Reconnect at Logon" box checked when you set the mapping...

You could also set up a logon script to do the mapping for users that use the accounting sw. This would make the mapping user dependent and not machine dependent.

Perrin

 

[Sidrp]

Hi..
Ya I have reconnect at Logon enabled. Whats weird is that both connections have a blank password..and both connect to same resource..everytime the user logs on one connection connects and other one prompts for password...weird...one more thing..i tried running net use in a batch file...same thing....one connection asks for password...is there a way i could embed a blank password in net use command...any help on this??
thanks
sid

 

[bilebalar]

does that person have the permission to access that directory?

so if that person logged onto to the domain and he has permission to that directory, when the batch file runs, all drives should be mapped without a password.

 

[Sidrp]

Thanks for the replies..
Well we dont have much internal security in the network..the user can log onto that machine with a generic user name and blank password...so there should not be any problems regarding the access rights and anyway when i enter a blank password it logs the user right in...
i am baffled...let me know what might be wrong
thaks
sid

 

[Kliot]

Sid,

How about a little more background. You say you are working on a win2k machine that was upgraded from win98, connecting to a server, what os is the server? Is it set up as a domain or peer to peer? On the workstation "Local Area Connections Properties" what do you have installed?

In the net use command you should be able to put the username and password after the share, you may want to try and include the username and leave the password blank.

net use f: \\computername\share [username] [password]

I think you will find this is a simple config problem once you figure it out. In my mind I keep going back to a windows 98 config problem that carried forward when you upgraded.

Perrin

 

[Sidrp]

Thanks Perrin..
well heres a little more background and some things I discovered..
1. The net use syntax is a little different and may be thats what is causing the problem..but before that
2. I tried manually connecting the drives..this is what i found..both as i mantioned before connect to same resource and first one always prompts for password...once i hit enter it logs the seocnd on right in with out the password prompt...

what baffles me is that the same mapping works on another users machine without any issues...so I still dont know what the deal is..

can someone throw more light on the situation..

thanks a million
sid

 

[SpotLizard]

Have you tried using the net use command with the /persistent:yes switch ?

SL

 

[Kliot]

Sid,

I'm still thinking it's a config problem, it makes sense that the second drive would map the way you are describing.

Are all the computers on the same network? I know they are physically but suppose you have your server set up as a domain and one workstation also on the domain and another workstation on a "workgroup" or the computers are on different "workgroups" all the computers will be able to access the server and share information but you will have mapping issues.

In my office I am running a win2k server with a domain, as a test I took my workstation off the domain and set it up on a workgroup. I was able to connect to the server with no problem, I mapped a drive to the server in a public area where a password is not required. When I rebooted the mapped connection was broken. When I clicked on the broken connection it asked me for a password even though one wasn't required, I hit enter and the map was re-established. This sounds like behavior very similar to what's going on with your computers.

I don't know if this is what's going on in your office but it may give you some ideas of things to try.

Keep me posted
Perrin

 

[Sidrp]

Hi Perrin,
thanks for all the help..
well after a lazy weekend I am back and same problem..I think what you said is exactly what is happening on our network. The server is on a different domain while the client is on a different domain. Does that make a big difference??If that is so..how do you go about solving this..
let me know
waiting
thanks
sid

 

[Kliot]

Sid,

Great, I think we're getting close. Being on a different domain shouldn't be a problem and it explains what's going on.

We're starting to get beyond my expeertise here but what I think is going on is when your user logs in they are logging into domain A and when you try and map to the server with the accounting sw that is on a different domain that domain then wants you to also log into to that domain.

This should be easy to do with the net use command, you may need to use the domain with the username to indicate what domain the username is on.

something like
net use F: \\accountingserver\data /user:guest@accountingdomain.com

This morning I took my computer of the domain and mapped this way and it worked fine without asking for a password and it stayed persistant after rebooting.