Network Related or Workstation Issue? 2

[ddewilfond]

I have a network user who has 2 spearate PCs that are having the same issue. He is logged into both machines with the same network login credentials. He cannot see any newly created files on their network share or when he saves a file to that share, it does not update the "Modified Date" which is how they noticed it as first. I created an Excel file on that same share using my machine and then logged on to my machine, using the effected user's login creadentials, and could see my test Excel sheet just fine. The only difference between his two machines and mine is that my machine is on a different subnet but pointing to the same server share of course. Soooo...I hooked up a test machine on his subnet and tried it that way but could not duplicate his issue. Seems as though whenever I logon as the effected user on any other machine other than his 2 machines I can see the network ok. There were no application or OS updates recently that went only to this user and there are 17 other users in his group all accessing this same network share without incident.
The drive mapping that he accesses is part of his login script. The same login script ran on mine when I logged on as him. I "disconnected" the drive mapping on one of his machines and mapped the drive manually but this did not help. He still cannot see all the files on the share that everyone else can nor modify any files on that share and have it correctly update the "Modified Date". They are just not there.

If it was just one of his computers I would say, yes, it is a workstation issue but I am having a hard time getting my head around it being a workstation when it is happening on 2 separate machines granted both are logged into by the same user with the same account.

Does anyone have ideas of what is going on here? I an not the most gifted of network people as I have always been a desktop hardware person so any help would be much appreciated. Thank You

 

[cdogg]

Well, to determine if the workstation or profile is the issue, try logging in with your ID on one of the two PC's. See if you can duplicate the issue accessing your share.

If not, then the next step would be to rename his profile under Documents and Settings to username.old where username is the login ID. The next time he logs in, Windows will create a new profile. If problems persist in the new profile at that point, post back with more details on OS for both workstations and server.




-Carl
"The glass is neither half-full nor half-empty: it's twice as big as it needs to be."

[tab][navy]For this site's posting policies, click [/navy]here.

 

[ddewilfond]

I logged onto one of the affected PCs (using my own network credentials) and the issue was still present. I could not see the test files I had created earlier this morning. I then renamed his user profile and the issue was also present under his newly created profile as well.
Both of his workstatins are running Windows XP Pro (SP3) and the logon window of the server shows it Windows Server 2003 but I do not know much more about the server other than that. I have no access to it.

It was suggested by someone that I remove the machine from the Domain and then rerun the SID and rename the machine and readd it to the Domain but if that doesn't work, then I would have no choice but build him two new machines to replace them and he is going to be none too happy about that as I have run out of other options.
One point of note i should mention. I created a couple of test Excel sheets on that same network share using one of the affected machines and no one else in his group can see them in the share folder. I then created yet another test Excel sheet using my own mahcine and he cannot see it on either of his two workstations when looking in that share same as before.
This is so bizzare. It is like he is not even pointing to the same share but it is the only share they have and I have remapped his drive manually twice now.

Thanks

 

[rmgates]

View...
Shares hide contents if they are hidden.
Control Panel - Folde rOptions - View. Check Show hidden files, folders and drives.

 

[ddewilfond]

We are not talking about a hidden share though. This is one of the entire groups public shares so they all can see the files present except for the user in question.
Anything he creates cannot be seen by anyopne on any other machine and any files updated, created, etc.. by anyone else can been seen by all except him. He is saving his files to the same share according to the way I manually mapped it the last time but it's almost like they are going into oblivion. Hopefully, in the next little while I will have one of the Server Sys Admins searching for one of the files created on the effected users machine in all the shares on that server which may or may shed a little more light on this (if he can find them).

 

[rclarke250]

This is not hardware, why would you have to "build" him two new machines? If it's the OS, image a drive, add his profile and test it. Or if you have two identical machines, just grab a hard drive, put it in the suspect machine, and have him log in, if it works, you know you have to rebuild his software.

 

[cdogg]

Hmm. It almost seems as if Windows is treating the network share as if it's offline. Have you tried disabling the Offline Files feature or making sure it's not being used? In Windows Explorer, go to Tools -> Folder Options. You'll see a tab for Offline Files where you can uncheck "Enable Offline Files" and then reboot.

 

[ddewilfond]

There has been new devlepments guys. This is now happening to more than one person and after troublehshooting this for several hours now, one of the Server Admins says this may be related to the cache where network files get written to before being written back to the network location. Sorry. I am not a server guy so hard for me to explain but I guess before the files are written to the network share after a "Save" or Save As" is done, it sits in a cache before being written tot he actualy share location. Normally no one would notice this as it is almost instantainious. But for some reason he believes this may be delayed for a considerable amount of time. That has not been confoirmed yet but I think I have the right people on it now. Thank you guys for helping me out. Once er figure it out and it is resovled, I will post a follow up so evryone can read the final outcome.
Thanks again...

 

[BadBigBen]

Q: When you log into your machine and take a look at the share, do you see the files that he created?
Q: When he logs into his machines, and uses a DOS prompt to navigate to said share, and issues a DIR command, does he then see the files he created?

The problem could be SMB2 related, see:

How To Disable SMB Signing in SBS 2003

http://simultaneouspancakes.com/Lessons/2004/12/27/how-to-disable-smb-signing-in-sbs-2003/

How to Disable SMB 2.0 on Windows Vista/2008

http://www.petri.co.il/how-to-disable-smb-2-on-windows-vista-or-server-2008.htm

on the affected PC's (do this to one first as a test), open regedit and navigate to the following kex:

HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE/System/CurrentControlSet//Services/LanmanServer/Parameters

then look for a KEY called SMB2:

0 - deactivates SMB2
1 - activates SMB2

if the key does not exist then create a new DWORD entry and name it SMB2 and enter 0 to deactivate it.

Ben
"If it works don't fix it! If it doesn't use a sledgehammer..."
How to ask a question, when posting them to a professional forum.
Only ask questions with yes/no answers if you want "yes" or "no"

 

[ddewilfond]

Q1 - No... I created a test.xls file on that share using his machine and then came back to my machine and could not see the file I had just created.

Q2 - I amnot sure about that Ben. I will have to go back over there and try that and let you know. But I do know that about 2 hours of troubleshooting this then the rest of his group started to come up and say it happening to them now. So now instead of one impacted user I have about 15 so i no longer suspect a single workstation issue but rather a problem at the server level.

 

[BadBigBen]

as Q1 was negative, I am almost sure that the new files will not show up either with the DOS navigation, but might show the older files...

and yes, it is probably server related if all the others are now experiencing the same issues...
but what wonders me, is that it does not cause an error condition, but check the Event Viewer just to be sure on both the WorkStations and the Server...

Hmm, what type of applications are we talking about, e.g. just Office files, or are all files/filetypes affected (e.g. creation of a plain TXT file does not work either)...
I remember there was an issue long long ago with Office and shares on NT4 (NTFS only, FAT32 shares worked), which where due to an update to Office...

You may want to look at the NTFS Permissions Analyzer Tool from Solarwinds (it's free) and you do not need to enter your personal information when asked, just click CONTINUE (worked for me at least)...

http://www.solarwinds.com/products/freetools/permissions_analyzer_for_active_directory/

Ben
"If it works don't fix it! If it doesn't use a sledgehammer..."
How to ask a question, when posting them to a professional forum.
Only ask questions with yes/no answers if you want "yes" or "no"

 

[cdogg]

Might be worth looking into:

You experience a delay when you use your Windows XP computer to log on to a domain or to connect to a network resource

http://support.microsoft.com/kb/832161

Check the last post:
thread931-947324



-Carl
"The glass is neither half-full nor half-empty: it's twice as big as it needs to be."

[tab][navy]For this site's posting policies, click [/navy]here.

 

[ddewilfond]

So... I have the outcome gents.

The issue was initially reported by one user and not by anyone else. Later I came to find out that more than one user was having the same issue although it was random on which users were impacted. Long story short... the problem was on the server and was an issue with the DFS replication between the server and it's mirror server. I am no expert on DFS replication but files may not be viewable or updates not showing until it replaciates to both the primary and the mirror servers. Which is what we were seeing.

It took a rather long time for the users to inform me of the fact that it was more widespread than just one user which is what prompted me to submit a post to the highly inteligent folks at Tek-Tips.com although this would have been a little more exlpainable and given me better direction had I known the whole group was being affected.

 

[ddewilfond]

Thank you guys...for all your input. It was much appreciated...

 

[BadBigBen]

Glad to hear that your issue is more or less solved...

and thanks for posting back with what was the cause...

Ben
"If it works don't fix it! If it doesn't use a sledgehammer..."
How to ask a question, when posting them to a professional forum.
Only ask questions with yes/no answers if you want "yes" or "no"