you are no longer connected to "servername"

[stech1]

Windows 2000 Server
4 Windows 2000 Workstations
1 98 workstation

Recently had one windows 2000 workstation (now referred to as booffice) get an error stating "Offline files, Now working offline. You are no longer connected to "servername". You can continue working normally. Click this Icon to view status."

Offline files is not the big issue but whenever we receive this error message, we can no longer browse the network (neither shared folders or mapped drives. Logging in as the same user from a different machine works fine.

Next we dropped the workstation out of the domain and into a workgroup. Then we changed the computer name and reentered the domain. Now boofice starts connected to the network but in random intervals of time, it will still get the "working offline" message and lose access to the network folders.

We did have a license problem so I deleted old computers from the Active directory users and computers folder. Now we are no longer getting license events in event viewer.

We are only having problems on this one workstation. Any Idea what could be causeing the problems? I have researched the issue on the interenet but most people can reconnect to the network shares by clicking on the folder. I have not seen any instances where people are not able to access the shared folders.

TIA

 

[justin42279]

Well, its a problem with connectivity. When the error message comes up, are you able to ping the server ip?

If you ware unable to do so, then start by troubleshooting hardware. Its possible that it is a faulty network card. Might need to reload drivers.

Just be detailed and check out each and every part.

Hope this helps

Justin

 

[dictator88]

That is most likely a bad nic, or cable.

 

[stech1]

I am going to change out the NIC Today. However, a bad NIC Card does not explain the change in behavior. At first the workstation was working offline all the time - as soon as the machine booted up. After removing the workstation from the domain and reenterng, the workstation starts out connected to the domain but will drop connectivity at random intervals.

Additionally, even though we lose access to the network shares, we have no problem connecting to the internet or receiving email.

 

[justin42279]

During one of these offline sessions, have you attempted to ping the server ip? Have you tested dns to make sure that the name resolves down to the correct IP?

How do you have your internet setup? Is it passed through a router or do you have a second nic in your server with routing and remote access setup?

 

[conan3]

We had a similar problem with some of our Windows XP workstations in another building. They were working fine and then got the message

"Offline files, now working offline. You are no longer connected to "servername". Can no longer browse the network (neither shared folders nor mapped drives.)

When we went over to research the problem we found that it was more than one workstation and exactly every ten minutes pings out of the building would fail and come back in three minutes, they still had local connection to the buildings switch, but the connection out of the building was going down.

We found that our new TACLANE (Encryption Device) was miss configured and was rebooting itself every ten minutes dumping the workstations connection to the servers.

They switched the TACLANE and everything works fine now. A setting was off in the old one.

Since it's sounds like one workstation for you. I would check connectivity from workstation to server.

Use a continous ping like, this will display until you cancel it with Ctrl^C

Ping servername -t

Check cable to see if user is Moving/kicking/sitting something on the wire to pull it.

Had a guy one time that carried a briefcase and all ways put it in same place, right on top of network cable under desk. The cable was to short and was hanging above floor with briefcase on it.

 

[stech1]

Did more work on it. Whenever we lose the network, we will go to network neighborhood and try to browse the domain. When we double click the domain, we get the following message "The server is not configured for transactions"



To eliminate ethernet and cabling as the cause we did the following:
Replace PCI nic with a usb NIC
Set up pc at a different Location using the ethernet cable and port that works for another workstation.
Reset the winsock drivers.

Scanned server and Workstation for virus and spyware.
Typed command "net share ipc$"

Anyone have any other ideas? It is not user permissions because when we lose the network, not even the domain admin can access the domain from booffice. It has to be a configuration setting on either the workstation or the server. Maybe something in the local security policies.

-TIA

 

[sn0rg]

I've seen this happen a lot before but never found a cure for it. I'm positive its down to a momentary loss of contact between the workstation and the server. I wouldn't worry about permissions/policies etc if the machine can stay online even for a moment.

One thing that nobody has yet mentioned is that you can right-click the "offline" icon in the task bar and select "Synchronise". That will bring the workstation back "online" again, assuming it can connect to the server.