I am in a situation where I am running Windows 2003 on a virtual machine (VMWare). The VMs are small and their only purpose in life is to house one of our customer’s VPN clients and a 5250 emulator if necessary. I have a new requirement from 2 of our customers to map a drive on a server in their network. I am able to connect to the customer’s network and can access their AS/400 with the emulator so I know I am in the network. I can ping the server where the shared drive is and I can run a tracert with no problem. Here is the testing and errors I am getting.

· I am able to load the VPN client on a standalone laptop (Vista), connect to the client and map the drive. The profile I sign on to the laptop with is different from the profile the customer assigned to me, as a result when I map I have to provide my credentials at the time I map but I connect with no problems.
The steps I follow to run this on a laptop with Vista, I sign on to the laptop as ProfileA/Password, start the VPN connection, map the drive, click “Connect using a different user name”, enter Domain/ProfileB/Password, click ok, click on Finish and the drive connects. This tells me I have the proper credentials and authority to map the drive.
When I follow the same steps on the VM with Windows 2003 Server SP2, I sign on to the VM as ProfileA/Password, start the VPN connection, map the drive, click “Connect using a different user name”, enter Domain/ProfileB/Password, click ok, click on Finish and the drive does not connect.

· When I started I would try to map the drive the original error was, “The mapped network drive could not be created because the following error has occurred: The network location cannot be reached…”

· I read several comments found a solution where installing File and printer sharing for MS Networks. I installed it and got the same error, ”The network location cannot be reached…”.

· I found a Client on the network component, Client services for Netware. The description for this is “A client provides access to computers and files on the network you are connecting to.” I installed it and the error changed to “The drive could not be mapped because no network was found.”
· We are not running AD on the VM.

I know Windows Server 2003, SP 2, should be able to map drives. I am able to install the VPN on my Vista laptop and map to the drives with no problem, so the issue is not on my customers side or the VPN client. Also the credentials I use to sign on to my laptop are different from the ones I sign on to the VPN and map the drive to. When I map the drive I assign the letter, enter the server and provide the needed credentials under “Connect using a different user name.”

Any suggestions would be fantastic and thank you ahead of time.

KS