Cannot Map Network Drive -- with a twist!

[bjensen44]

I manage 4 W2k servers over WTC and also map their drives to my W2k Pro workstation for easy maintenance using Windows Explorer. One of the servers replicates an SQL7 databast to the workstation. All the computers can ping one another, WTC works fine, and the SQL replication also works fine. The whole setup has worked flawlessly for a long time. All 5 computers have SP4 installed.

The problem is that suddenly the drive mapping failed just as though the TCP/IP service failed. I uploaded a file from one of the servers for processing. About 30 minutes later, I couldn't connect to any of the drives on any of the servers via Windows Explorer. There had been no power failures or any other problems during that time. I haven't been able to reconnect to them since via Windows Explorer, even though WTC works fine as does pinging.

NET USE reports that the drives are "Unavailable". When a drive is disconnected and a Map Network Drive attempt made, an error message saying "The network path \\IPaddress\Sharename could not be found." pops up. This happens from either direction: server to workstation or workstation to server.

The workstation can connect to computers on its network as can all the servers. They just don't seem to be able to connect to remote computers.

All the settings seem to be as they were when everything worked, and I've rechecked all the computers for the W32.Blaster worm as well as all the other security alerts and fixes. Nothing appears to be wrong, except I can't map or reconnect to the remote network drives.

I've rebuilt the WinSock stack, uninstalled and reinstalled "Client for Microsoft Networks" and "File and Printer Sharing..." several times with copious reboots without any luck.

This has really got me flummoxed, and I'm running out of ideas! Anybody have any...?

 

[Psingh]

Try unsharing the drives that u r trying to map and agin share them.

PSingh

 

[bjensen44]

Tried that. It has no effect.

 

[John Lewis]

What is the exact error you get when you try net use?

On one of the computers, try 'net view'

On one computer, make sure that at least one resource is shared, and try 'net view \\xxx.xxx.xxx.xxx', replacing the xxx's with the ip of that computer.

If that works, try net view using the ip of one of the other computers.

Report back.

 

[bjensen44]

mhkwood,

No error on NET USE. It just reports the status of the mapped drives. All the LAN drives have a status of OK, and all the remote drives have a status of Unavailable.

NET VIEW (with no parameters) yields the names of the LAN computers with the message "The command completed successfully."

NET VIEW \\(workstation IP)
yields the share name of the disks that are shared followed by "The command completed successfully."

NET VIEW \\(any of the 4 Remote Server IPs)
yields
System error 53 has occurred.
The network path was not found.

 

[John Lewis]

DOH! Didn't really understand 100% what you were doing until just now.

I assume that WTC is WTC Communications DSL service. I had missed that before.

I also assume that you had previously been sharing your resources accross the DSL connection directly -- no VPN or other tunnel. Not a good idea, but that's another post altogether.

If that is correct, I would assume that what you are seeing is a result of your ISP trying to protect users from the new Blaster worm (as they should). Blaster uses ports 137-139 and maybe 445, the same ones that MS file sharing uses. Many ISPs have recently blocked these ports.

If you really need to use your shares across the internet, you will need to setup a VPN -- the VPN tunnels your traffic for MS file sharing past the ISP firewall on a different port securely. Much better idea than sharing directly over the internet, anyway.

 

[bjensen44]

It's my mistake. I'm not using WTC. I'm using Windows Terminal Services Connections. I should have said WTS, but it's been a REALLY long day. Sorry.

It's not DSL either. The servers are on a T1 line and the workstation connects via a cable modem.

The ISP scenario fits the timeframe of what happened.

Wish I knew how to move files with WTS so I wouldn't have to mess with remote mapped network drives....

Thanks!

 

[John Lewis]

If the cable modem is in between the computer you are mapping the drives on and the computer(s) you are sharing the drives on, the same situation applies. I know Warner/RoadRunner made the change within the last couple of days.

 

[bjensen44]

It is, and Road Runner is the service.

Guess I either have to figure out how to change the ports used for the remote drives or how to configure a VPN for what I need. Guess it's Google time....

Thanks again.

 

[John Lewis]

VPN is the way to go. Not as hard as you might think. Start here

http://www.onecomputerguy.com/w2k/w2k_vpn/w2k_vpn.htm

There are many other resources out there (including the VPN forum here), but that one has nice screen shots.

 

[bjensen44]

Everything went fine until it appeared to need two NICs on one of the servers unless I can use the Loopback Adapter.

Thanks for all your help.