Clients discconecting from windows 2003 server..

[Almorga]

clients seem to lose connections to server... is there any setting in the tcp properties security maybe that is installed by default on 2003 server that would cause connection drops on windows xp workstations?

 

[ChicagoTechNet]

assuming this is hardware issue, it could be autodisconnection. quoted from

http://www.chicagotech.net/

Why some mapped network drives show a red x

SYMPTOMS: You find that the network drive mapping may be disconnected after 15 minutes of inactivity and Windows Explorer may display a red "X" on the icon of the mapped drive. However, if you double-click it reconnects quickly.

RESOLUTION: by default, idle connections will be dropped after 15 minutes. To modify idle time, at a command prompt using net config server /autodisconnect: minutes. For example, to set the Autodisconnect value to 30 minutes, you would run the following command line: net config server /autodisconnect:30. If you would like to turn Autodisconnect off, do net config server /autodisconnect:-1.


Robert Lin, MS-MVP, MCSE & CNE
Windows, Network, Internet, VPN, Routing and How to at

http://www.ms-mvps.com

 

[barryhercules]

If your XP stations DNS points to your ISP instead of your own DNS server this will cause XP to loose connectivity with the network.

 

[davidwilson11]

These are very interesting points, why do the XP clients disconnect when the DNS is that of the ISP and not the server.

 

[BOFH1]

XP uses DNS to find all network resources primarily so if you set it to your ISP then that is the server XP will query when it looks for one of your servers and your ISP will reply that it doesn't know its IP.

This is mainly an issue if you have a 2000 / 2003 domain.

I had this problem for a while my XP station would logon and map drives then a few mins later all the drives would be unavailable, i reconfigured DNS to my AD/DNS server and it's been fine since.

 

[Dmasch]

What would you do if you have XP in just a workgroup setting and there is no DNS Server?

 

[BOFH1]

I've never used XP in a workgroup but I think enabling NetBIOS over TCP/IP will do the trick.

 

[Almorga]

Thanks Guys aboved seemed to work ... but i have noticed that DNS queiries to internet sites are sometimes comming back with page not displayed & dns errors. Eventually it will go in but internet performance in general has seem to digrade. Any ideas ? Does the 2003 Dns Server setting need to be changed? Let me know

 

[BOFH1]

Do you have a forwarder addreses configured in your Windows server DNS, this will make the server query your ISP for any IP's that it doesn't know about.

 

[Almorga]

yes there is a forwarder address configured