Loss of Network Connection - No Domain Server Found

[linhawaii]

I am currently having an intermitent problem with our NT Server 4.0 (SP6), where all users after 4 p.m lose the network entirely.
Our office works from 7am to 4pm (Approximately 50 users). There are approximately 4 people who work until 5 pm. Not everyday and not at the same time, all the users here after 4 pm lose their network connections.

They will be working fine and then their workstations (Win98) freeze a second and then all of the network resources are not available. Server Manager also shows no one connected at that time. After about half and hour the workstations automatically reconnect and work just fine.

Basically, if they try to login again they get the error message "No Domain Server was available to validate your password..." and if you try to use net use while you think they still may be logged in you get an Error 53: The computer name specified in the network path cannot be located.

I have tested all of the cabling and I am moving everyone from NetBeui to static IP addresses with a local host file. I am also in the process of eliminating some old 10 base T cards to 10/100 Fast Ethernet cards.

We have an old Foxpro for DOS application that I believe is causing some of our other problems during the day (Foxpro locks up and users have to exit and re-enter the application, but they never lose the network).

Any suggestions???

Thanks.

 

[peterve]

go to TCP/IP and implement WINS instead of static hosts files... Peter Van Eeckhoutte
peter.ve@pandora.be

 

[3229]

Have you tried looking in user manager on the server. Within the properties of the users or in the template click on the 'hours' button - it may be possible that the users are only allowed to access the network til 4pm etc.